‘He cares about people’: OU quarterback Caleb Williams, from BoomSquad to nail salon, is charismatic leader Sooners need entering new era

As they scanned the Lloyd Noble Center during Oklahoma basketball’s Nov. 9 season opener vs. Northwestern State, a few BoomSquad members spotted Caleb Williams sitting on the stadium’s east side.

They drew the standout quarterback’s presence to the attention of Matt Bowling, a journalism student and the president of OU’s basketball student section rally group, who sprung into action. BoomSquad’s chief officer scribbled “Superman, Sit With Us” on his handheld whiteboard and directed the message toward Williams.

The player nicknamed for his repeated on-field heroics noticed, and soon began making his way around the concourse toward the courtside seats on the stadium’s north end, pausing for pictures with fans along the way. He made a brief cameo on the arena video board before descending onto the floor and into the BoomSquad’s pit, where he exchanged pleasantries with Bowling and other students before settling into his new vantage point.

Flanked by linebacker Danny Stutsman and wide receiver Jalil Farooq, the freshman phenom cheered Porter Moser’s new-look Sooners to their first victory. For the remainder of the game, he snapped photos with all who wanted, including a young boy who couldn’t quite form the “Horns Down” symbol with his fingers. Williams, his anti-Texas themed fingernails sparkling under the arena lights, adjusted the child’s hand positioning just in time for the perfect capture.

For this Superman, who has increasingly emerged as the face of OU football after he saved the day against Texas on Oct. 9, there is seemingly no Clark Kent. In DC Comics, the superhero sets aside responsibility for the guise of a regular citizen by day and periodically yearns for a normal life. However, those who’ve been awestruck time and again by the former five-star prospect from Washington, D.C., say Williams is the same charismatic and intentional leader everywhere. The character he developed at Gonzaga College High School has carried to the playing field at OU and beyond, to places like the Norman nail salon he frequents and the student section at the Lloyd Noble Center.

As the game against Northwestern State continued, Williams stayed in character, posing with the BoomSquad sign Bowling handed him, which was used in social media promotions on Twitter and Instagram. BoomSquad’s tweet was retweeted by OU’s football, basketball and athletics accounts, and by Bowling’s last count the tweet had garnered roughly 198,000 impressions.

Bowling estimates BoomSquad’s Twitter following has increased by 800 since, while its Instagram following has nearly doubled. Additionally, ensuing matchups against Florida and Butler on Dec. 1 and 7, respectively, set OU records for student attendance at home games.

QB1 IN THE TRENCHES!!! @CALEBcsw pic.twitter.com/whd8YaBuJi

— OU BoomSquad (@OUBoomSquad) November 10, 2021

“He really did us a massive favor by coming down here,” Bowling said. “He stayed there the whole game. That was big, and I honestly kind of felt bad for him, because I don't think there was more than 10 seconds that ever went by without somebody coming up to him and asking him for a picture. … He was just so cool about it. If it was at all irritating to him, he did not show it. He didn't say no to anybody. He was just super nice, super friendly.”

Considering how the 2021 OU football season subsequently ended, Williams would at times have plenty to be frustrated about. The latter portion of the schedule was engulfed by turmoil when — following losses to Baylor and Oklahoma State and a blown chance for a seventh straight Big 12 title — head coach Lincoln Riley bolted for Southern California on Nov. 28, taking with him four assistants and three prized recruits. Former OU and Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables was hired to replace Riley on Dec. 5 and has provided some stability to the program.

Due to Riley’s long standing policy preventing freshmen from speaking to reporters, Williams’ only interview since becoming a Sooner has been on a podcast with teammates Jeremiah Hall and Brayden Willis. In that conversation, he recalled telling redshirt senior safety Justin Broiles during a summer workout that once he got his chance to start for the Sooners, he’s “not letting it go.”

Through the uncertainty and transition, Williams hasn’t formally declared his intentions for next season, but he has not let go yet, remaining at Oklahoma and preparing for the Valero Alamo Bowl against Oregon on Wednesday in San Antonio. Some fear the Sooners’ offensive linchpin might transfer, perhaps even to USC, rejoining the coach who recruited him to OU.

If Williams stays, though, he’ll further polish his reputation as a Man of Steel while leading the Sooners into a new era.

“I’m never going to fault somebody for doing what they feel like is best for them,” Bowling said. “If, after looking at all his options, he feels like this place is not the best place for him... then I would totally support him going someplace else. But, it would certainly be great if he stayed because his talent is obvious, and I certainly think OU football could win a national championship with him at quarterback.”

‘He cares about all the different people in his life’

Positioned next to a trio of toy cars, a beloved tennis ball rests on a mantle inside the upstairs bedroom of 4-year-old Zayde Schaechter. The fuzzy surface is inscripted “Go Eagles,” to cheer on Gonzaga College High, dated Aug. 17, 2019, and autographed by Williams, who included his high school No. 18.

When Zayde was about 2 years old and had just begun to walk and talk, he was playing with the ball at one of Gonzaga’s practices. His father Danny Schaechter, the Eagles’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, told Williams to toss the yellow ball to Zayde and see if he could catch it.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Schaechter thought as he watched Williams float the small sphere into Zayde’s arms perfectly on the first try. They had a good laugh, then Williams, who agreed to do “anything for the little guy,” signed the memorabilia that now rests near the toddler’s bed.

“Caleb has a magnetic personality,” Schaechter said. “He's a very positive guy who's very endearing to anyone. I know he’s spoken to me several times about how important it is to him to give back, especially to kids. … He’s always wanting to give back to the community, and he’s just a loving, social and friendly person.”

Gonzaga is a private Catholic all-boys school of about 1,000 students that sits little over a mile north of the U.S. Capitol and ascribes to the mantra “Men for Others.” The church on the school’s campus provides food and winter shelter to the homeless, and Williams participated in service opportunities there, among other places.

Williams’ compassion extends to the field, where Schaechter saw him encourage teammates and instill them with conviction regularly. Williams doesn’t lack confidence. Before he received an offer from Oklahoma, he told Riley he was willing to walk-on and earn his spot even with five-star quarterback Brock Vandagriff, now at Georgia, still committed to the Sooners then.

“He's got an ego just like all great players, but he doesn’t let that get in the way to make it where he's like, ‘I'm more important than somebody else,’” Schaechter said. “He's gonna give everybody the time of day and give them respect because that's how he was brought up and that’s the kind of guy he is.”

During his sophomore season, Williams etched himself into Gonzaga lore in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference championship game. He erased a 16-point deficit with three touchdowns in the final three minutes and three seconds, the game winner a 60-yard hail mary to sink DeMatha Catholic as time expired.

Gonzaga wins on a Hail Mary. pic.twitter.com/NYMBC9f8b9

— BrianDohn247 (@BrianDohn247) November 19, 2018

But, even as the legend of “Superman” grew and offers from Maryland, Clemson, LSU, Penn State and others rolled in, the No. 1 quarterback in the 2021 recruiting cycle kept things in perspective.

Schaechter can still visualize the cold, gray day late in the 2019 season, where Aaron Turner, one of Williams’ receivers who now plays at Connecticut, sat beneath the goalpost at Gonzaga’s field before an important practice. Williams asked Schaechter if he could break from drills and jogged across the field to comfort his teammate, who was upset because his father was dealing with a health issue.

“As a coach there was part of me that's like, ‘Come on, guys, we gotta practice,’” Schaechter said. “But obviously, that was more important, so right there's just a snapshot of Caleb knowing that football matters, but the people around me, they are what really makes football special. They are what matter, so I'm going to be there for my guys first and foremost.”

Williams’ senior season was thwarted by COVID-19, but he and his father Carl maximized pandemic life by organizing the Sooner Summit. The August weekend gathering in Norman for visiting recruits maneuvered around the NCAA dead period and was the pinnacle of Williams’ constant effort to recruit others to OU. Later that winter, Williams’ family moved to Norman and he impressed further when he balanced spring practices with dual enrollment at OU and Gonzaga.

He outperformed preseason Heisman Trophy favorite Spencer Rattler in the Sooners’ spring game before supplanting him against Texas. When Rattler was benched following an interception and fumble, Williams manufactured 300 total yards and three touchdowns to scratch a 21-point deficit for a 55-48 comeback win. On Hall and Willis’ podcast, Williams recounted hyping up the Cotton Bowl crowd at halftime of the Texas game before entering the locker room, where he affirmed his teammates, saying “We’re going to win this game.”

One week later, before his first college start against TCU, he huddled his offensive linemen in Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium’s south end zone for a motivational speech. In the final week of October, he returned to a Gonzaga practice, not to be “the center of attention,” Schaechter said, but simply to encourage his former teammates.

“He cares about people,” Schaechter said. “He cares about all the different people in his life, and he's just willing to give of himself to help those around him. And that's really what a quarterback's job is. ‘I'm going to do everything I can to help everybody else be the best that they can be, and then in turn, that's going to help me and it's going to help the team.’ It just shows who he is inside of the helmet and shoulder pads. He knows that there are more important things than scoring touchdowns and there's a life beyond the game of football.”

‘He’s the bold type’

Mason Lam opened Filed in January 2019 right before the COVID-19 pandemic, and since, the nail, spa and beauty salon off 36th Avenue and Tecumseh Road in northwest Norman has served more football players than you might think, he says.

Cornerback Tre Brown, now with the Seattle Seahawks, was a regular visitor during his senior season at OU. Yet, perhaps none of Lam’s athletic clients are notable as Williams, who first started frequenting the establishment a month or two before he stepped onto the national stage against Texas.

Alongside his ever-evolving wardrobe, the Sooners’ young signal-caller is inspired by rappers like A$AP Rocky, whose eyeball nail-art he has copied previously. “I think it’s tuff,” he once wrote on an Instagram story when a follower asked why he colors his nails.

In anticipation of facing Texas, Williams had a special request: an inverted Longhorn logo on his index and pinky fingers. The message on his middle and ring fingers read “FU, UT.” The nails went largely unnoticed throughout the game until he endeared himself to fans moreover after the signature win. Amid the crowd rushing the field, he donned the Golden Hat and threw Horns Down with hands and nails simultaneously while surrounded by cameras.

FU UT???👀👀 https://t.co/IgEtX3zu7O pic.twitter.com/tCOYFIKbM9

— Out of Context OU Football (@NoContextOU) October 16, 2021

At first, Mason was hesitant to promote Williams’ anti-Texas design on social media because of the message’s content, but having watched his client’s performance, he quickly posted a picture of the nails on Instagram. Williams, who follows the salon on social media, responded with a double fire emoji.

“He’s very personable, wasn't superficial at all,” Mason said. “He never made a point to give him any sort of special attention or anything like that. ... Even after the Texas game, when he came back, same thing, it wasn't anything. I think prior to the Texas game, not everybody knew who he was, but after that game, pretty much everybody knew who he was, and even after that, he came in with just his normal attire, not making a point that he's Caleb Williams at all.”

Irene Lam, Mason’s sister-in-law, is Williams’ nail tech at Filed, and has grown to appreciate her client’s humility. The star freshman engages with anyone and everyone around him at the salon, even those who might not have known his name before his emergence this season.

Williams comes to the salon already knowing what he wants on his nails, be it Superman logos or burnt orange subverted steers. Irene even painted Williams’ nails with the suicide prevention hotline phone number, 800-273-8255, to coincide with national suicide prevention week from Sept. 4-10.

“That one was my favorite,” Irene said. "He always comes with the story or the message that he wants to express. That’s what we like about him. ... He’s different. I know that people are talking about his nails like ‘why are men getting their nails done,’ but to me as an artist, I feel like it’s absolutely great, because he’s the bold type, to me. ... It makes me very excited to do his nails, and I’m always looking for the next (design) he’s gonna bring in.”

Irene’s handiwork was on full display in Williams’ bold and dazzling regular season starts. He blasted TCU and Texas Tech for 11 total touchdowns and pulled off the unthinkable against Kansas when he astutely ripped the ball from his running back’s arms and plowed forward for a crucial first down.

Williams struggled in OU’s final three games, however, throwing two interceptions in a loss to Baylor, posting a season-low 87 passing yards against Iowa State and taking six sacks against Oklahoma State. He was brought down on the final play of that loss, crushing the Sooners’ chances at another conference championship. Afterward, he sat for a few minutes on the sideline bench, his face soaked in tears.

Riley bolted for USC the next day, and now the question that looms over OU’s Alamo Bowl preparations is whether Williams will follow. Are the ties that bind him to Norman genuine, or will the crimson and cream be simply wiped away like old polish is removed to leave a clean nail?

“We all see how valuable he is to the team and what he can do,” Mason said. “So, I would be disappointed (if he left), not only because of the great player he is, but the relationship that we built with him here as well.”

‘I think he’s pretty darn happy where he is’

Three days after Riley’s departure on Dec. 1, OU basketball hosted Florida for a nonconference matchup and upset the then-No. 14 Gators 74-67. With Moser’s squad experiencing early success, some tried to assuage the wound of Riley’s departure by joking that Oklahoma — the home of 50 conference titles and seven national championships in football — is a basketball school.

During a period of extreme unrest for the OU football brand, Williams was right back in the basketball student section, providing a stabilizing presence. He made a second video board appearance, and for anyone among the grieving fanbase who read it, the message on the back of his hoodie offered comfort:

“Dear person behind me,

I hope today doesn’t suck.

Lots of love,

The person in front of you”

That sentiment tracks with the perspective of sixth-year senior linebacker Caleb Kelly, one of the Sooners’ most veteran players and a fellow former five-star recruit, who said Williams is the type of player who can “change a place.”

Kelly’s opinion is all the more reason Williams’ tweet after Riley left, congratulating his former coach and his family and ending with “that’s all I plan to say right now,” has Sooner Nation’s stomach in knots.

I appreciate all the concerns about the situation but I am also happy for Coach Riley, mama Riley, Sloan and Stella for that huge opportunity ahead. That’s all I plan to say right now! #boomer

— Caleb Williams (@CALEBcsw) November 28, 2021

In its own version of a hail mary, St. Thomas More, a Catholic parish less than half a mile south of Owen Field, posted a sign on its front lawn that reads “Caleb! We’re praying you’re staying!"

Same… same pic.twitter.com/GVjp1hTKEY

— Chris Plank (@PlankShow) December 3, 2021

Others have taken solace in Williams’ engagement following Venables’ arrival. Venables has publicly discussed specific conversations in which he has tried persuading Williams to return, and the quarterback was among the players sporting “We are OU football” shirts at the new coach’s introduction ceremony on Dec. 6.

Venables said in a Dec. 17 interview with KWTV's Dean Blevins that he’d be surprised if Williams didn’t stay, and fans spotted Williams later that evening at local restaurant Redrock Canyon Grill sharing a meal with new offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby. Williams also bantered on Twitter with redshirt senior punter Michael Turk, who announced he’s returning in 2022, about their proverbial plans for next season.

Don’t plan on it but hey it happens.

— Caleb Williams (@CALEBcsw) December 16, 2021

Chatting with Willis and Hall on their podcast, Williams said Venables’ personality excites him, but he made no concrete pledge to the former Clemson assistant with whom he developed some communion when the Tigers recruited him.

“The times that he dealt with (Venables), he just could feel the passion and energy and excitement from him, and then obviously the success he had at Clemson,” Schaechter said. “Caleb thrives on energy, so I think that’s got a chance to be a really good marriage.”

Schaechter, who tries not to meddle in Williams’ recruitment and personal affairs, says he’s unaware of the quarterback’s leanings ahead of OU’s bowl game, which could be his last or the first of many more as a Sooner. He offered no inside information, but perhaps some hope that Oklahoma could retain the captivating character who could be the cornerstone of its future.

“Just from what it sounds like, I think he's pretty darn happy where he is in the situation that he's in,” Schaechter said. “I know that he and his dad really made a big deal about the process in recruiting... and Riley leaving definitely was not on their radar at all. ... It definitely is not what he wanted, but he'll bounce back, he'll find a way to be successful, and I'm sure there is a part of him that's hoping one day that he can play against USC and show Lincoln what he's going to be missing.

“I’m sure he’d have something painted on his fingernails just for Lincoln.”