Williams, a sophomore, led the Trojans to a record of 11–2, amassing 4,075 yard passing and recording 47 touchdowns (37 passing and 10 rushing). The team will face off against Tulane in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 2, 2023. (Williams is questionable, having suffered a hamstring injury in USC's final regular season game, a loss to Utah in the Pac-12 championship game.)

The other finalists were quarterback as well: Stetson Bennett of Georgia, Max Duggan of Texas Christian University, and Ohio State's C.J. Stroud. William received 544 first-place votes. Duggan was second, with 188; Stroud got 37; and Bennett got 36.

Williams became the seventh USC player to win the Heisman and the first since Matt Leinart, also a quarterback, in 2004. (College football officials have invalidated the Trojan double, with running Reggie Bush's win in 2005, after uncovering evidence that Bush received money and gifts while in school. Too late for him, the NCAA in 2021 removed such restrictions; the NCAA has since said that it will not reinstate Bush as a Heisman winner.)

It was the second straight year that a sophomore won the Heisman Trophy. Alabama second-year quarterback Bryce Young won the award last year. (Young was Alabama's quarterback again this year and finished sixth in the voting.) Williams is the eighth sophomore Heisman winner all-time.

Williams began his collegiate career at Oklahoma but followed Lincoln Riley to USC when Riley became the new head coach in Pasadena. Both plan to return next year.

The Heisman Trophy is an annual award given to the college football player who is voted the top in the nation by a combination of former Heisman winners and members of the media.

Named for pioneering George Tech coach John Heisman, the award was created in 1935 at the Downtown Athletic Club in New York. (It was named the Downtown Athletic Club trophy the first year but was renamed in 1936, after Heisman's death.)

List of winners