No. 14 Utes visit No. 18 Trojans in rematch of 2022 Pac-12 title game

LOS ANGELES (AP) — One week after the self-described worst game of Caleb Williams' college career, he has to face a Utah defense that beat Southern California twice last season.

It's hardly the script for a get-right Saturday night at the Coliseum, but the ever-confident Williams isn't one to be intimidated by even a daunting challenge.

“You’ll have failure," Williams said. "You’ll have success. But doubt? Why have something like that ruin something that you’re working toward?”

Coach Lincoln Riley is still betting on his Heisman Trophy winner, even with the No. 18 Trojans (6-1, 4-0 Pac-12) facing the extraordinary challenge presented by the 14th-ranked Utes (5-1, 2-1) in the schools' final meeting as conference rivals.

“He may have a tough one here and there, but I wouldn’t expect him to have too many, and I doubt he has two in a row,” Riley said.

Williams is still unhappy about the first three-interception performance of his college career in USC's 48-20 thrashing at Notre Dame last weekend. After a steady first half of the season, Williams endangered his chances of a Heisman repeat by going 23 of 37 for a season-low 199 yards and getting sacked six times by the Irish.

Williams is ready to shake it off and to plow into the challenge of facing a conference opponent he's never beaten. He's also aware of the stakes: A loss to Utah would put the Trojans' Pac-12 title dreams in dire straits even before their November gauntlet of consecutive games against Washington, Oregon and UCLA.

“It was my first bad game in college, I’d say,” Williams said. “So you endure, you conquer and you keep going. You don’t hang your head. When your team goes out there and loses a big rival game (and) you threw dumb picks you obviously have something that you’re taking from it. You’ll just use that as motivation. That’s one game in the past three years that I’ve had a bad game, so you don’t let that one game bring you down."

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Williams hasn't exactly played poorly against the Utes' perennially sturdy defense, which has allowed just 73 points this season.

In fact, his Heisman campaign last season got a boost in defeat when he passed for 381 yards and five TDs in a 43-42 loss in Salt Lake City. Williams was hobbled by injury in the Pac-12 championship game, but still passed for 363 yards and three more TDs in the Utes' blowout victory to clinch a second straight Rose Bowl berth.

Although Kyle Whittingham has quarterback problems of his own with the less-than-scintillating competition between Nate Johnson and Bryson Barnes, the Utah coach is looking forward to pitting his defense against Williams' brilliance once again.

“This game has been very competitive,” Whittingham said. “It's been a fistfight, it seems like every year. It's gone back and forth. It's just been a great series ever since we joined the conference.”