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CORVALLIS, Ore. -- After rushing for 100 yards on just 10 carries in the season opener against UNLV, Aca'Cedric Ware would later say he was not satisfied with the performance, that he was capable of much more.

Aside from a flourish at Arizona -- 21 carries for 173 yards and 2 touchdowns -- this season in general has surely left Ware longing for more.

But USC's rushing struggles indeed never seemed like a fair reflection on the ball carriers, their collective potential merely waiting for the blocking to allow it a chance. Ware's confidence didn't seem misplaced as much as undermined.

Well, the payoff for the senior running back came Saturday night at Oregon State, where he needed just 17 carries to rumble for a career-best 205 yards and 3 touchdowns -- accounting for nearly a third of his new season rushing total (627 yards) and half of his touchdowns (6) in one evening.

All the while showing that if his offensive line could help him get through the first level, he could do the rest -- breaking off touchdown runs of 57 and 62 yards.

The Trojans' line did its part in that 38-21 win, and so did Ware. And Vavae Malepeai. And Stephen Carr.

"I really thought that when it was time to run the ball in the second half to end the game, that they took it over and that's what you want from your offensive line," USC coach Clay Helton said. "I thought that they controlled the football game. I can't wait to watch the tape because ... I didn't feel like anybody was ever in the backfield. There was no penetration in the run game."

USC officially rushed for 332 yards -- its most since totaling 347 last October against Arizona State -- but take out quarterback JT Daniels' -21 rushing yards (and -2 team rushing yards) and Trojans running backs carried the ball 38 times for 355 yards. That's 9.3 yards per carry, while Ware alone went for 12.1 yards per pop.

"It feels good, man. A few of those runs I ran through untouched, so when you're running free like that it just feels good," Ware said in the postgame press conference.

Helton, sitting next to him, chimed in: "It must feel real good because you started dancing in the end zone."

Ware did draw a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after his final touchdown, the unimpeded 62-yard jaunt early in the fourth quarter that gave the Trojans a 14-point cushion and took the suspense out of the proceedings.

But, hey, it's understandable that a player who has mostly been bottled up in his final season -- again, often for reasons beyond his control -- would want to bask in such a breakthrough a little.

Outside of those two aforementioned 100-yard games, Ware has rushed for 65, 8, -5, 23 and 64 yards in the other games in which he's played.

Malepeai, meanwhile, went for a career-high 101 yards on 15 carries (with a fumble) and Carr turned his 6 carries into 49 yards and a touchdown before getting hurt.

To put that all in perspective, USC needed 90 rushing attempts over the last three games to total 273 rushing yards -- well less than the 332 it netted overall Saturday night.

And Ware wasn't the only one really set free. The Trojans' much-maligned offensive line earned some relief and respect as well.

"It felt so good honestly tonight because I felt like it was something that we couldn't really achieve consistently for the first part of the season," left guard Chris Brown said. "But it felt so good getting the double teams down and getting the running backs to the second level, getting big plays, lots of big run plays. It felt really good.

"I felt like we were just all on the same page tonight. Our double teams were good, I felt we had a really good gameplan, a really good week of preparation. It just kind of felt like a refreshing restart a little bit, and I think that helps with getting our minds right."

This week started, of course, with Helton dismissing offensive line coach Neil Callaway on Monday and installing running backs coach Tim Drevno to oversee that unit as well.

Brown said the linemen spent the week hyper-focused on technique, which he thought helped.

It was also helpful for everyone involved, he added, to simply see some success.

"I think when the offense is doing well, especially in the run game, we all feed off of it," Brown said. "If one person gets a big play then you kind of want to get in on that, you make a good play. It kind of felt like a domino effect the whole night and we kept feeding off each other."

For one of the few times all season, Ware and the other rushers indeed fed off the openings and lanes created for him by his blockers.

Ware alone had six runs of 8 yards or more, including those two long touchdowns.

This is where the caveat must be mentioned -- that USC did all of this against an Oregon State defense that came into the weekend ranked 128th out of 129 FBS team and that had been especially vulnerable against the run all year.

Whether the Trojans can sustain any of the positivity and progress they enjoyed Saturday night is yet to be determined.

But for a team and program that needed something -- anything -- to go right, the rushing resurgence achieved it.

And for Ware, it was an especially special evening.

"It's coming down to the end for me. Three more [regular-season] games now? I've just got to make the most of what I get and what they give me. I'm happy about today," he said.

Does that mean he was satisfied this time?

"It feels good. It feels really good. I'm still not satisfied," Ware said. "I feel, like always, there's a lot of runs out there I could have took home. It was a good day. The O-line did their thing. I'm proud for the team."