Caleb Williams isn’t dodging the fact that USC has a pair of losses. However, the star quarterback for the Trojans believes the team is still in the hunt for the College Football Playoff.

At his Tuesday press conference, Williams said reaching the Playoff is still “a realistic goal” while pointing out both losses have come against ranked opponents. Still, reaching the CFP would be unprecedented as no team with 2 losses as ever made the Playoff during the 4-team format.

“Yeah, it’s a realistic goal. Yes, we have 2 losses, we have 2 losses to ranked teams,” said Williams. “… We have 1 loss in the conference and you can kind of see the light at the end of the tunnel is something me and Coach Riley talked about right after the Utah game.”

Williams went on to share how Lincoln Riley reflected on the duo’s time together and a “weird/special career” for the QB. With the crazy stuff that has happened for both individuals, Williams said they are simply focused on adding another crazy item to the list.

“We called each other, we were just talking on the phone and it was just that weird feeling that you can still do something special,” Williams said. “He said to me… You’ve had a weird/special career. We’ve done some crazy stuff together, let’s go out, our time together has been absolutely crazy… We’ve had so much crazy stuff, so why not just add to the list and try and do something crazy?”

Moving forward, Williams knows it will take the Trojans being “able to perform” in a loaded schedule down the stretch. However, he remains adamant that a breakthrough for the team is coming soon.

“To be able to do that, we have to go out there and be able to perform. That’s something we’ve been preaching on since our first loss. We’ve been stacking weeks, stacking practices and our fight and everything has been showing,” Williams explained. “We’re just fixing some small things and the breakthrough’s going to be coming through here soon.”

While no 2-loss team has reached the Playoff, the Trojans have a schedule that could be conducive to climbing into the mix. USC’s 3 remaining games come against teams ranked in the top 20 of the first CFP rankings. That includes a pair of top-10 teams in No. 5 Washington and No. 6 Oregon.

It all starts this Saturday with a home game against the Huskies. Another loss would likely drop USC out of the top 25 altogether but a win could be the start of a special turnaround.