Talk to his USC teammates and they'll say they knew early on that five-star freshman Raleek Brown was ready to make an immediate impact for the Trojans this fall.

But coach Lincoln Riley has been eagerly anticipating this opportunity to install the lightning-quick 5-foot-8 playmaker into his offense for much longer.

"He came up as a freshman and worked out for us at a summer camp [at Oklahoma]," Riley said, sharing the story after practice Tuesday. "We'd heard about him and seen his tape. He came up and worked out for us with Jalen Hurts at the time. And Jalen was out there watching and Jalen was hoping we could sign him then. Jalen was disappointed when I told him he was a freshman in high school. And to this day, Jalen still asks me about him.

"So yeah, we got a pretty early introduction and he just put on a show and you could tell athletically he was a little bit different."

Brown put on a show in his USC debut as well, flashing the Heisman pose in the end zone after a 14-yard touchdown run Saturday and also turning a catch-and-run into a 40-yard gain in the 66-14 win over Rice.

Brown's status for the Trojans' Pac-12 opener this Saturday at Stanford remains in question, as was taken on a cart to the locker room at the end of the game last weekend and showed up to practice Tuesday with his right ankle/foot tightly wrapped in tape over his cleat. But he went through all the warmups with his teammates before breaking off to the side to work with strength coach Bennie Wylie, during the limited portion of practice open to reporters.

Asked if he had any concern about Brown's status for the game this week, Riley simply answered "No." When ask to clarify if that meant he expected Brown to play, his answer was a little more ambiguous.

"We'll see. We'll see. I mean, it's Tuesday, man. I mean, it's Tuesday. I gotta see how these guys evolve. He was able to do quite a bit with us today. If he keeps progressing, I'd expect him to play. But we'll see," Riley said.

Riley wasn't keen to get into injury matters Tuesday, but he and just about anybody else who has been asked the last few days have been more than happy to feed the accelerating hype train for Brown.

Like this ...

RB Austin Jones: "That dude, man. When you talk about somebody who's like a video game [character] -- somebody who just, he gets in the game and he'll just do something crazy, that's what I picture him doing all the time. Like it amazes me just sitting back at practice through fall camp -- that dude is real. You got to see a little bit of it today, but he's a baller, straight up."

WR Jordan Addison: "He showed us that all fall camp. He just showed ya'll that today. Y'all got a chance to see it, but we've been seeing it. He's going to be an explosive threat for us."

RB Travis Dye: "He’s young. But he’s so talented though. He’s got it. He’s got it. He’s such a funny character. I love that kid. He did really good on Saturday."

WR Mario Williams: "Awesome, man. He gonna be a great young cat. He going to get what he need to get. ... I'm proud of him."

OL Justin Dedich: "Man that kid's talented -- he's going to be a special player."

WR Tahj Washington: "He's my locker mate, pod mate, we're right next to each other, we talk all the time. It's just something I seen early, Day 1, doing sprints out here. His burst, his speed, I was like, 'Oh yeah ...'"

On Brown's first career touchdown, Rice outside linebacker Josh Pearcy got a great jump on the play and had his hands on the running back almost as soon as he took the handoff, but Brown used his elite rapid acceleration to just escape the defender around the left edge and streak into the end zone, where he promptly struck the Heisman pose for the cameras.

"His Heisman pose? It was hard, for sure," Jones said approvingly after the game.

"He knew I was gonna give him crap, too. I give him crap for the littlest stuff. We all gave him crap for it," Dye said playfully Tuesday. "He knows we’re all just joking around. We loved it."

Said Washington, with a laugh: "Oh, we was lit. He already said he was going to do it. But it was great to see what he said come to fruition. I love that. ... He's confident, which he should be. If you want to play well you've got to be confident."

Overall, Brown had 76 total offensive yards on just 8 touches vs. Rice.

Riley kept his evaluation more modest, but really, what more is there to say about the freshman at this point?

"He was pretty solid, made some plays, did a good job operating the rest of the offense. He continues to get more and more comfortable with the rest of our stuff and you see some of [that] explosion, natural abilities that he has in the open field," Riley said. "Took care of the ball, didn't make any mistakes, so thought it was a pretty good first session for him."

Whether Brown plays this week against Stanford or not may be in question, but there seems to be no doubt that the star freshman from Mater Dei High School is going to have quite the highlight reel when this season is over.