John Marshall could tell right away that Caleb Williams was unique.

It was the summer of 2017 in Washington, D.C., and the Gonzaga College High School football team was having workouts.

The ball came out of Williams’ hand differently. It was the velocity in which he threw, the accuracy of his passes.

Not yet a high-school freshman, Williams carried himself like a self-assured upperclassman.

He was confident without being cocky, and quickly made friends with his older teammates.

Marshall knew then, before Williams even won the job as the team’s starting quarterback.

“I remember him just being able to launch the ball like I had never seen,” Marshall, a high school teammate of Williams’, recalled in a phone interview. “It was completely out of the ordinary.”

Six years and several accomplishments later, Williams is on the verge of stardom.

He was an immediate starter for Gonzaga, then entered college at Oklahoma as the eighth-ranked recruit in the country, according to 247Sports.com.

Looking back, he might have been underrated.

The junior enters this season, his second at USC after one year with Oklahoma, as the reigning Heisman Trophy winner.

He is the favorite to join Ohio State running back Archie Griffin (1974-75) as the lone repeat winner of college sports’ most prestigious honor and the projected No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL draft.

The 6-foot-1, 215-pound native of the nation’s capital has produced 78 touchdowns in 22 career college games as the primary quarterback for the Sooners and Trojans.

He is the overriding reason USC is hopeful it can reach the College Football Playoff for the first time.

“When you see him throw the ball all over the field, the arm talent obviously stands out,” said an NFL scout, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Athleticism … ability to create plays that are unscripted. He has all that stuff, so a lot of people are going to try to say he is like [Patrick] Mahomes in that regard because he’s not a freak athlete.”

Said ESPN analyst Greg McElroy: “He’s kind of a Houdini from time to time. Sometimes you think there’s a sack, and all of a sudden he makes a guy miss, and next thing you know, he’s out of the gate for 60 yards.”

Mark Dominik, the former Buccaneers general manager who now hosts a show for Sirius XM NFL Radio, said he would take Williams No. 1 overall.

He compared Williams to Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow. Dominick ticked off all the qualities teams like in him, from his arm strength, to his ability to read defenses, to his improvisation skills.

Dominik’s favorite of Williams’ attributes, though, is his anticipation, something most college quarterbacks lack.

“The thing that makes him the most unique is he’s already figured out [that] you don’t throw to players, you throw to spots, and knowing where the players are going to be,” Dominik said. “He’s throwing to a location instead of forcing a ball in there. You see a lot of young quarterbacks in the National Football League struggle with that, throw a lot of interceptions, because you have to throw it to where a player is going to be, not where he is.”

Williams’ story started well before he lit up Texas in the 2021 Red River Rivalry as a backup true freshman, and before he went on to star last season for Lincoln Riley and USC.

It began before he developed into a top-flight recruit at Gonzaga, a two-time (2018-19) All-Washington Catholic Athletic Conference selection and MVP in 2019.

He already was considered an advanced quarterback before high school — molded at Athletic Republic Capitol Region in the Washington suburb of District Heights, Md., the sports performance training facility his father, Carl, co-owns.

Williams had access to Athletic Republic at all hours of the day, and worked with numerous quarterbacks coaches and a strength and conditioning coach.

He frequently engaged in 5:30 a.m. workouts that instilled discipline and work ethic.

“This was kind of the plan mapped out for him since middle school, to be a quarterback and to ultimately be the first pick of the NFL draft,” said Steve Wiltfong, 247Sports.com’s director of recruiting. “He invested a lot of time in learning the position mentally and physically.”

At Gonzaga, Williams was given the nickname “Superman,” and for good reason.

Gonzaga coach Randy Trivers remembers his prowess as a swimmer, moving as fast in the water while doing the backstroke as others did swimming freestyle.

Nothing seemed out of reach with Williams under center.

The 2019 Washington Catholic Athletic Conference championship game is a prime example.

Gonzaga trailed powerhouse DeMatha Catholic 20-0 at one point, then staged a furious rally and went ahead on a Williams touchdown pass with 29 seconds left.

But DeMatha returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown.

Gonzaga’s players were crushed — everyone except for Williams.

“He was very vocal on the sidelines, trying to pick me up and starting talking to us and the offensive line, saying that we could be in the spot to do this and he was going to make sure [we had a chance],” Marshall recalled.

Williams responded by hitting Marshall on a Hail Mary for a 54-yard touchdown that sealed the school’s first title since 2002.

Williams perfectly lofted the bomb into the back of the end zone on a line, apropos of his brilliant career to this point.

In his first significant action in college, he led Oklahoma back from a 28-7 deficit to beat Texas after he replaced Spencer Rattler, then the Sooners’ starter. Last season, he set USC records for total offense (4,919 yards), touchdowns scored rushing and passing (52), passing completions (333), passing yards gained (4,537), and passing efficiency rating (168.5).

The Trojans went from four wins in 2021 to 11 with Williams under center.

“That dude, he really, genuinely, sincerely, from the top of his head to the top of his toes, wants that moment, and is supremely confident that he’ll perform and be successful in that moment,” Trivers said.

His leadership in the final seconds is what Marshall recalls most fondly about that championship game. Dennis Simmons, USC’s assistant head coach and offensive passing game coordinator, who was at Oklahoma previously with Riley, had a similar story about Williams bringing people together, although it came off the field.

Williams had visited Oklahoma before the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, but several prospects in his class had not.

He felt it was important for them to see the school before getting on campus.

Colleges weren’t allowed to host visits at the time. So Williams and his father organized a weekend for future Oklahoma players to get to know each other and visit.

He used Name, Image & Likeness (NIL) profits to fly his offensive line out for the Heisman Trophy ceremony last December, and they were by his side when he threw out the first pitch at a Dodgers game.

Prior to last season, he gave each one of his teammates Beats by Dre headphones (he had an NIL deal with the company).

“For a guy that’s gotten all the personal attention he has, every time it comes his way, he’s very quick to share,” Simmons said.

This summer, Williams has frequently organized training sessions with USC teammates, finding time despite a whirlwind offseason that included attending the Monaco Grand Prix, being an honorary starter for a NASCAR race and walking the runway in a fashion show.

Several new Trojans said they opted for Riley’s program because of the opportunity to play with Williams.

All eyes are on Williams.

He can make history by winning another Heisman Trophy and could follow previous Trojans legends Carson Palmer, Keyshawn Johnson and O.J. Simpson by going No. 1-overall in the NFL draft. But he’s more interested in recreating that moment from his sophomore year of high school.

“Immortality comes from championships,” Williams said recently. “I haven’t reached one here in college yet.”