The Victory Bell. The Jeweled Shillelagh. Eleven wins. A No. 4 national ranking. A Heisman Trophy favorite. A Pac-12 championship game awaiting Friday. A potential College Football Playoff berth. And, finally, a long-overdue packed Coliseum once again.

There is not enough that can be said about Lincoln Riley and these Trojans.

But we give you plenty once again in the weekly First-and-10 -- breaking down the 10 most significant takeaways from the Trojans' 38-27 win over Notre Dame on Saturday.

On a night where almost everything seemed to go right for him, Caleb Williams all but cemented his place as the Heisman Trophy winner.

A playoff berth was squarely in view and Williams was suddenly the clear Heisman favorite, as the Trojans matched up with their hated rivals for the last game of the regular season. No. 3 Michigan had blown out No.4 Ohio State and fellow top Heisman candidate C.J. Stroud earlier in the day. LSU, No. 5 in the CFP rankings a spot ahead of USC, would also lose as the Trojans were handling their own business. All the pieces were falling into place -- if USC and its star quarterback could get the job done Saturday.

Against a Notre Dame defense that was likely the best the Trojans have seen all year, the team needed yet another starring performance from Williams. And at no point did anyone think that spotlight and pressure would be too much for him -- we’ve seen enough to know that if anything, he thrives on such moments. After his jaw-dropping performance in the win against UCLA last week, Williams remained locked in as he delivered another dazzling display. He was nothing short of sensational against Notre Dame; every bit the potential first overall NFL draft pick and Heisman winner that he’s been whispered to be since his first games at Oklahoma. He appeared untouchable on Saturday, a man playing against boys with a level of comfort and control unmatched by any other player on the field. From the first snap, Williams was in command of this game as he smoothly led the Trojans offense to an easy opening touchdown drive.

Faced with a fearsome Notre Dame pass rush and secondary, Williams adjusted with ease, relying on his masterful escape abilities and arm talent to extend plays and allow his receivers time to create room. Despite the best efforts of the Irish defense, Williams was unshakeable -- spinning, juking and sprinting away from pressure without an ounce of discomfort to be found in his eyes or his play. He made a handful of the best escapes of the college football season in this game alone, impossibly evading entirely collapsed pockets and running literal circles around defenders with his eyes remaining downfield. Williams retained his high-end accuracy despite the movement and pressure, completing 18 of his 22 pass attempts even though many of them came without so much as a set pair of feet. His ball placement skills made it near impossible for Notre Dame’s defenders to react on time, most notably on a gorgeous fade ball to the diminutive Tahj Washington, which he sandwiched between two closing defenders only where Washington could leap for it.

Williams operated like a machine, doing whatever it took to keep the play going, making all the right reads and consistently putting the football just where he wanted it to be. There wasn’t much more the Irish defense could have done -- Williams was simply on another level. He continued to menace the defense as a rusher as well, adding 35 yards and 3 touchdowns through his efforts on the ground to bring him to a season total of 10 rushing scores. All told, Williams finished with 232 passing yards and a touchdown along with the aforementioned 35 yards and 3 scores on the ground. He was as close to perfect as anyone should come in a top-15 rivalry showdown -- again -- picking up right where he left off against the Bruins and leading his team to what might have been their most complete and comfortable victory of the year.

Now, Williams is undisputedly the frontrunner for the Heisman trophy; he'll likely just need one more solid performance on Friday to become USC’s eighth winner of college football’s most prestigious award. He’s already cemented his place as one of the best Trojans quarterbacks of all time -- what he does through the postseason might make him something even greater.

USC has been one of the best teams in the country on third down and that was once again the case on Saturday as it went 8 of 12 converting such situations against Notre Dame. The Trojans' persistent ability to convert on that key down can be boiled down to two factors; the work the offense does on the first two downs to create manageable situations, and the unique X-factor ability Williams brings to the table. The structure of Lincoln Riley’s offense does well to generally get USC into third-and-manageable situations, with either runs or safe passes reliably getting a secure chunk of yardage on at least one of the first two downs. That makes third down a much less ominous proposition, giving the Trojans the leverage to open up their playbook and either run or pass according to the situation. However, when that’s not the case and USC is faced with third-and-long, the remarkable playmaking ability of Williams has been conducive to an unusually efficient rate of conversion.

Williams' talent for extending the play for eons works wonders on third downs, as he’s usually able to buy time for somebody to come open or for himself to scamper for the sticks. Though he’s not perfect in that regard, his dynamism gives the offense multiple lifelines on third down, presenting more options to secure the conversion than other teams are afforded. Altogether, that ability to consistently buy a new set of downs allows USC to maintain the long scoring drives that are at the heart of this team’s philosophy.

Against Notre Dame, the only third downs the Trojans didn't convert Saturday were a third-and-goal from the 26, a third-and-20, a third-and-27, a third-and-17. The routine conversions on third downs otherwise allowed the Trojans to stretch out their time of possession advantage and keep piling points on the board. Overall, USC ranks second nationally behind only Washington in third-down conversation rate at 55.3 percent for the season. The Trojans' success is greatly reliant on maintaining this strength week after week.

All season, the persistent productivity of USC’s ground attack has begged the question of why the Trojans weren’t running the football more. That’s not to say they weren’t running it often; the team has been averaging a healthy 25-30 carries per game with excellent efficiency. However, the passing game has always been the focal point of this offense with the running game serving as a key complement to keep the chains moving. That approach has clearly gotten the job done for the Trojans, but the circumstantial considerations of a pass-heavy offense have made life tough for USC in some ways, making it hard to win the time-of-possession battle and thus often leaving the defense on the field for far too long. Given just how productive the run game has consistently been, I was curious to know what this offense would look like if it chose to lean more on the rushing attack. On Saturday we got to find out as the Trojans finally embraced such a gameplan, rushing 39 times as opposed to just 22 passes.

Given the run-dominant, grind-it-out style of football played by Notre Dame and the strength of its pass defense, this was the right kind of game to give this approach a chance. To the surprise of many, it was a dominant success. With Austin Jones shouldering the load (26 carries for 154 yards), USC absolutely brutalized Notre Dame on the ground, gashing the Irish to the tune of 204 yards and 4 touchdowns on an average of 5.2 yards per carry. The offensive line came out strong against a physical and talented Notre Dame front seven, only getting better as the carries mounted. Behind that impressive unit, Jones ran the football masterfully down the throat of the Irish defense while Williams did considerable damage of his own in rushing for 3 touchdowns.

The Trojans’ unexpected style of play worked to their advantage -- slowing down the game, allowing them to win the time of possession battle and keeping the defense better rested on the sideline. By the end of it, USC controlled the football for nearly 11 minutes longer than Notre Dame and benefitted from the kind of stability it hasn’t really maintained all year, firmly holding onto the lead for the entirety of four quarters. Though the Trojans can and should revert to a pass-first offense for the most part, the fact that they’re capable of shifting their identity in this manner when it suits and pulling it off with such a high degree of success is a huge development. The versatility of the offense moving forward should allow it to pursue disparate strategies to attack the tough defenses that might await in the postseason. At this point, not many teams -- if any -- can be as dangerous through both the air and ground as USC.

Let’s not beat around the bush, Austin Jones has been a flat-out star for USC since he took over for an injured Travis Dye. and thus he deserves an entire section to himself here.

Jones hasn’t just been a solid fill in -- his production has been exceptional as the lead back. Over the past three weeks, he’s carried the ball 57 times for 348 yards and 2 scores, averaging over 6 yards per carry, while adding 112 receiving yards and a TD in that span. Overall, he’s racked up 609 yards and 5 touchdowns at 6.2 yards per carry (with 207 receiving yards). Jones’ physicality and vision set him apart as a runner, leading him to attack rushing lanes in a notably different manner than Dye. He’s remarkably patient and nimble in the hole, waiting carefully for lanes to develop before dancing into the appropriate one. Once he’s locked onto a pathway, Jones shows excellent acceleration to burst into the crease, allowing his momentum and power to generate yardage for him after the fact. That was the case last week against UCLA and once again against Notre Dame, as Jones consistently made the right read before trucking and dragging defenders for extra yardage.

He utterly bullied the Fighting Irish defense, taking that heavy workload of 25 carries for 154 yards. His reliability over the course of the night wore down Notre Dame’s defense while keeping the Trojans ahead of schedule, reshaping the flow of the offense. Jones was simply dominant -- there's no other way to put it. The Irish could do little to slow him down even when they realized the ball was going to him. Dye may have deservedly been the top back for most of the season, but make no mistake -- Jones is a star in his own right and more than capable of carrying the load. Though he can’t replicate all of Dye’s versatile skill set, the physicality Jones brings to the field for USC gives this offense a very different edge. Come postseason time, that edge might be invaluable.