COLUMN: 'We had to show everybody that this wasn't just no hype'

USC scored more points Saturday in the first game of the Lincoln Riley Era than the Trojans had in any game since ... since ... scanning the record book ... the Pete Carroll Era, all the way back to 2008.

Meanwhile, the defense tied program and Pac-12 records with three interceptions returned for touchdowns.

Eight different Trojans accounted for points in the 66-14 win over Rice that seemed intently lopsided, as if it was indeed not just the start of a new season but the branding of a distinctly new iteration of USC football that, yeah, would like to look a lot more like those Carroll teams than anything that has come since.

"It's definitely a statement. That's what we wanted to do," wide receiver Jordan Addison said. "Week 1 we had to show everybody that this wasn't just no hype. We ready to play."

"Oh yeah, this a new era -- this 'SC," fellow wideout Mario Williams said.

But maybe nobody summed up the significance of Saturday better than fifth-year senior offensive lineman Justin Dedich, who was one of the few players made available postgame who has actually lived through the previous "era" -- if it can even be called that. It had almost become tradition in recent years for the Trojans to sleepwalk through listless season openers against teams like Rice, that USC is supposed to roll over but instead labored against. Not to mention all the other underwhelming outcomes that had become all too custom.

"Usually fans would leave the game because we got blown out so bad. [Today] they left because we won so well. That was new to me, I guess," Dedich said.

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No, the Coliseum didn't look like it did back in 2008 or those magical years preceding it. The intense heat -- 94 degrees at kickoff -- played a role certainly, but that's only part of the reason for the sparse attendance. (USC announced it had distributed more than 60,000 tickets, but the actual attendance might have been half or two-thirds of that.)

Riley understood.

"The fans that were there, we appreciate them. We understand that in this city -- and I think it's very fair -- we've got to go prove who we are as a team," Riley said. "And the more we do that, the more our fans will respond, the more that place will be filled up. I very much appreciate all those that were there, and we're going to do everything we can as a team to keep working so that people can't even stand the thought of not coming to a USC football game."

This one should open a few eyes, for sure.

Quarterback Caleb Williams, who is one of the early favorites for the Heisman Trophy, completed 19 of 22 passes for 249 yards, 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions, while also rushing for 68 yards in his Trojans debut. Late in the first half, he was 14 of 15 with the only miss coming on a drop by a receiver.

Addison, the reigning Biletnikoff Award winner and another headliner from Riley's offseason transfer portal pillaging, had 5 catches for 54 yards and reeled in both of Williams' touchdown passes.

Five-star freshman Raleek Brown sent a current through the crowd -- as he does -- with a 14-yard touchdown run in which he turned on the afterburners to peel away from a nearby defender around the left edge, and he later turned a short reception into a 40-yard gain with that elite speed. (Brown was carted to the locker room at the end of the game with his right cleat off, but no update was given as to his status.)

Transfer RB addition Austin Jones had 2 touchdowns and 48 yards on just 4 carries.

And then, of course, the defense. Safety Calen Bullock (93 yards), linebacker Shane Lee (40) and linebacker Ralen Goforth (31) delivered those three pick-6s in the span of 10 minutes, 13 seconds of game time. In fact, Lee and Goforth's interceptions came just three plays apart early in the third quarter and made it a 45-14 USC lead.

"How do you start with anything but the three pick-6s," Riley said. "I was told it was a Pac-12 record and a USC record. They've been playing ball around here for a long time -- you don't break records very often, so that was really a cool thing for us defensively."

The Trojans intercepted Rice quarterback TJ McMahon on the next series too -- safety Xamarion Gordon this time, with the first of his career -- but that one mercifully didn't go any further.

On the ensuing Trojans possession, Caleb Williams hit Addison on a short pass to the left as the star receiver stretched and willed his way into the end zone for a 3-yard touchdown and a 52-14 lead.

After Jones tacked on a 28-yard touchdown run the next Trojans series, to make it 59-14, Riley pulled most of his veteran mainstays out of the game -- including his begrudging quarterback.

"I didn't want to come out, so I was trying to play as smart as possible by going down before anybody could hit me or anything like that. He actually, before I even said that, he said, 'I know that you're trying to stay in the game,'" Williams said smiling, with Riley next to him in the postgame press conference.

"This isn't Year 1 together anymore," Riley added.

That's one of many, many reasons for excitement and optimism with this team. As good as Williams was in his debut season at Oklahoma last year -- 1,912 passing yards, 21 touchdowns and 4 interceptions, 442 rushing yards and 6 TDs while not taking over the offense until about midway through the sixth game -- he and Riley have commented all preseason about how the sophomore is operating on a different level now and how the coach has full trust in his QB on the field in a way he simply couldn't last year with a true freshman.

"Being in this offense, being able to command, Coach Riley giving me more trust with some checks or anything like that, it allows me to see the field. He can talk to me with more detail when we're in the film room," Williams said.

Said Riley: "I thought he played well. I thought he was in control, in command, I thought he saw the field well. Our guys up front did a really good job protecting him. He didn't have to move around just a ton. But I thought he played just very much in control and very much at ease," Riley said.

Yeah, ease is a good word for it. The Trojans didn't punt until the fourth quarter.

Maybe the most telling comments to come out of the postgame interviews, though, were that none of the players seemed surprised by what transpired Saturday -- at least offensively.

Addison commented that the offense can average 50 points a game.

"When game time come, it's just like second nature. We do it every day. We don't just turn it on once game time come -- we practice it every day," he said. "... I want to shout out to my team and the scout team that gave us great looks. Every look that I got out there today, that's what they showed in practice. So I just want thank them for that. ... Everything we did in practice it showed up in the game."

Caleb Williams echoed that notion -- that what happened Saturday in the Coliseum was the product of what has happened in the nine months since Riley took over a forlorn 4-8 program and started to rebuild it in every way.

"I think we have a lot of confidence, and we didn't just build that confidence coming out here just being excited for it being the first game. We built that through workouts, we built that through PRPs, we built that through even here kind of recently with [fall camp], just kind of coming together all one, one heartbeat," Williams said. "... It takes a lot of reps, it takes a lot of maximum effort, second efforts to make it look like that for our first game."

USC was supposed to beat Rice, convincingly. That's why the game was scheduled. That's what would be expected from the significant differential in recruited talented on both sides.

But Trojans fans who watched their team make it too tense for too long against UNLV and Fresno State and San Jose State in these season openers know that Saturday was different.

It doesn't necessarily mean anything about the rest of the season, but it was different.

This program has already been rejuvenated so much from the abject frustration and disillusionment of watching the Cardinal and Gold take the field in the Coliseum last year -- five lopsided losses in seven home games, fans leaving early or not coming at all, like Dedich referenced.

The Trojans did indeed make a statement Saturday, even if to say nothing more than things are changing -- quickly.

"I'm proud of the guys. Obviously, it's one of those moments you don't want to minimize it. I think it's meaningful to us all. But those of us who have been on these journeys before, we understand this is just the beginning and there's so, so much left obviously for us," Riley said. "So much better to play, so much better to coach. It's a great start. It's not anything more than that, anything less than that."