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USC QB Caleb Williams voted AP Player of the Year

USC QB Caleb Williams voted AP Player of the Year

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Southern California quarterback Caleb Williams is The Associated Press college football player of the year, becoming the school’s first winner of the award since 2005 with his stellar debut season for the Trojans.

Williams received 32 of the 46 first-place votes and 117 total points from AP Top 25 poll voters to win the award presented by Regions Bank. The Heisman Trophy favorite finished well ahead of TCU quarterback Max Duggan, who came in second with six first-place votes and 64 points.

Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud was third, with Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker in fourth and Georgia’s Stetson Bennett fifth.

Alabama linebacker Will Anderson Jr., the first repeat SEC Defensive Player of the Year, was the only non-quarterback in this year’s top eight vote-getters, finishing sixth after coming in fourth last season.

Stroud and Hooker got two first-place votes apiece, while one first-place vote each went to Bennett, Anderson and star running backs Bijan Robinson of Texas and Blake Corum of Michigan. Alabama quarterback Bryce Young, who won the AP award last season, finished 11th this year.

Williams, Stroud, Duggan and Bennett are the finalists for the Heisman, which will be presented in New York on Saturday. The winner of the AP award has differed from the Heisman winner just twice in the past two decades.

Later Thursday, during the ESPN College Football Awards show, Williams also won the Maxwell Award as the most outstanding player in college football, but Duggan beat out Williams for the Davey O’Brien Award as the nation’s top quarterback.

Other winners included Anderson, who claimed the Chuck Bednarik Award as the nation’s top defensive player; Olusegun Oluwatimi of Michigan, who won the Outland Trophy as the top interior lineman; and Robinson, who claimed the Doak Walker Award as the nation’s top running back.

The clear favorite for the AP honor was Williams, the elusive passer and runner with an electrifying arm and strong leadership skills. The sophomore followed Lincoln Riley from Oklahoma to the West Coast last winter, and the duo immediately returned USC (11-2) to national prominence with a seven-win improvement over last season’s record.

Williams has passed for 4,075 yards with an FBS-leading 37 touchdowns and just four interceptions this season, completing 66.1% of his passes while winning the Pac-12′s Offensive Player of the Year award. He also won the Walter Camp Player of the Year award.

His ability to avoid…

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