Michael Jackson III made his first catch of the season last Saturday, and after waiting seven games to make an impact he seemed intent on making the absolute most of it.

Jackson caught a quick screen to the left, followed a good block from fellow wideout Tahj Washington and then just blew past another Utah defender to take it in for a 20-yard touchdown.

This wasn't garbage time, though -- that was USC's final score of the day, which gave the Trojans a 42-35 lead at the time before the Utes rallied for their 43-42 win.

So how did Jackson go from barely seeing the field through six weeks and not receiving a single target to catching a go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter of the biggest game of the season?

"Jordan [Addison] was down at that time and Mike was next man up. We had a lot of confidence based on what we've seen on the practice field the last several weeks that he was going to make the play, so really there was zero hesitation," coach Lincoln Riley said. "It was awesome. It was cool to see him step up and make that play. I think he's got a really bright future here, but yeah, we didn't think twice about calling it or doing it. It was an easy decision."

Jackson only played 4 snaps in the game, but he gave the staff plenty to think about moving forward, especially if Addison has to miss any time with his undisclosed lower body injury.

"In that moment, third-and-8 on the 20, it was a big moment. Coach Lincoln kind of like was just going through plays, trying to see what he sees out there and then my time was called. He called the play and I didn't have time to think about it -- I've just got to execute," Jackson recalled of the touchdown. "Once you get on the field you've just go to execute no matter how many minutes you've played up to that point."

For Jackson, it hasn't been many. According to PFF, he played just one snap in the slot in Week 3 and then 3 on the punt return unit in Week 6 before his breakthrough play last week.

Part of that is due to the fact that since this new staff arrived, Jackson has been dealing with persistent hamstring injuries that affected his availability in the spring and in fall camp, extending out into the start of the season.

"It's been a long road, for sure, coming back from injuries pretty much since January. I was dealing with injuries for about eight months. I think I had about like six hamstring pulls, something like that," Jackson said. "So it was a tough road trying to get back and then getting hurt again, getting back, getting hurt again, going through fall camp. So it's been a long road, but the trainers here, they've been diligent with me. We've been going at it, and progress, I would say, has proven itself so far. There's still a lot of work to do, but a step in the right direction."

The sophomore says through all of that he never got discouraged about how he fit into this team and the new direction from this coaching staff.

"Just what I did when I got on the field. Obviously, I went down a couple times with injuries, but when I was on the field I think they liked what they'd seen, they knew my potential, they knew what I could do when I got on the field," he said.

They definitely do now ...