LOS ANGELES — Max Williams did not know right away how bad the injury was. Well, maybe he did. The USC defensive back had torn his ACL before, after all, while playing at Gardena Serra High. But, he told himself, he wasn’t sure.

“I didn’t want to believe it happened,” Williams said.

The old, haunting feeling was there, though. The looseness in the left knee. Still, Williams tried to continue practicing. But he soon realized that lightning had indeed struck twice.

For the second time in his life, Williams was staring down the prospect of a long, grueling recovery from an ACL tear. And ahead of his redshirt sophomore season, one that should have been a breakout year for him.

A year later, back on the practice field in full pads for the Trojans, Williams admits that physically the rehab was easier the second time. Emotionally, that was a different story.

“Just because of how long the process takes, how gruesome it is like at the beginning stages, knowing I’m going to have to sit out the whole year,” Williams said after Thursday’s spring practice. “I know that when they told me I would be out for the whole season, it was still going to be long, it would be the whole year, but I just wanted to work hard and prove to myself that I could get back in.”

True to his promise to himself, Williams attacked his recovery with an uncommon zeal. Throughout fall practices, while his teammates competed against each other, Williams could be seen doing sprints up and down the sidelines.

USC tracks how much its players run at practice, how much distance they cover. On most days last fall, the injured Williams logged more steps and miles than his healthy teammates. Some staffers had to tell him to pace himself, to not put too much pressure on the injured knee.

“I knew I had to work extra hard, I wanted to work hard to get back, so in order to do those things you gotta go hard and be able to take of care of your body,” Williams said. “I would do like a lot of running and then I would do a lot of training room stuff, massages, hot tub, treatment.”

Still, Williams felt that part of the process was easier than having to sit on the sidelines during games and watch the Trojans compete without him.

But Williams is back at spring practices now, and a full participant. Saturday was his first time in pads since last April, an exciting milestone.

“It’s no other feeling than being on the football field, just being healthy and able to have fun,” Williams said.

He’s having little trouble impressing the new coaching staff with his effort during practice, just as he impressed the previous regime with his approach to rehab.

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New head coach Lincoln Riley is instilling a new tradition at USC, presenting gold Trojan decals to players who have earned that sticker through their hard work. On Tuesday, Riley presented the first wave to the team, with Williams receiving his.

“It’s definitely an honor,” Williams said. “Coach Riley’s bringing in a new tradition and being one of the first guys to earn a gold plate when they handed them out, it just felt amazing.”

Added defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, “If you wouldn’t have told me he had any injuries, I wouldn’t have guessed it at all. Credit goes to him, credit goes to the medical staff. … I’ve not seen that, any deficiencies from an athletic standpoint. He’s smart, he’s tough, he can run, he’s been a pleasure to coach thus far. We need more Max Williamses.”