Their explosive college showdown delivered an offensive thriller. Now, these Heisman hopefuls clash again in the NFL.
Caleb Williams and Shedeur Sanders are now both in the NFL, with Sunday's game being the first time they will have faced off against each other since college.
Neither player started at the college where they ended up. Williams began his college career at Oklahoma in 2021, playing for head coach Lincoln Riley.
Williams started the year sitting behind current New Orleans Saints quarterback Spencer Rattler but won the starting job later that season. After the 2021 season, Riley left for USC, and Williams followed him there via the transfer portal.
The rest was history, as Williams won the Heisman in 2022 after throwing for 4,537 passing yards, 42 touchdowns and five interceptions.
Sanders started at the HBCU program Jackson State, where his father, Deion Sanders, was the head coach. He played there from 2021-22, before transferring to Colorado when his father got the head coaching job.
The two quarterbacks faced each other in 2023, and there was little to no defense from either team. Williams finished with 403 passing yards, six touchdowns and one interception. Sanders had 371 passing yards, four touchdowns and one interception.
USC went on to win 48-41 in what was an offensive masterpiece.
After the 2023 season, Williams went to the NFL and was selected No. 1 overall by the Chicago Bears. Sanders stayed in college for another season and led Colorado to its first bowl appearance since 2020.
Sanders didn't have the same draft experience as Williams did. Sanders was projected to be a very high pick but fell to the fifth round before being selected by the Cleveland Browns.
Sanders has started the last three games for the Browns, and is 1-2, throwing for 769 passing yards, five touchdowns and three interceptions. In last Sunday's 31-29 loss to the Tennessee Titans, he threw for 364 passing yards, three touchdowns and one interception.
Williams has 2,908 passing yards, 19 touchdowns and six interceptions this season.
For the sake of Bears' fans everywhere, hopefully Sunday's game will not be like the one the two quarterbacks played in 2023. Fans already had a similar experience when Chicago beat the Cincinnati Bengals 47-42 earlier in the year and needed a go-ahead touchdown with under a minute to go.
Sanders is going to be the second rookie quarterback from this year's draft class that the Bears will face. They took on Jaxson Dart and the New York Giants earlier this year, winning 24-20.
Dart was selected 25th overall by the Giants in April.
Sunday's game should be an exciting one, as it kicks off at noon CT on Fox from Soldier Field.