LOS ANGELES — As the third quarter of USC’s season-opening, 66-14 win over Rice wound down, quarterback Caleb Williams sought out head coach Lincoln Riley on the sideline.

Williams had just completed another touchdown drive, and with the Trojans already holding a 45-point lead, he knew Riley might want to pull him from the game.

“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,” Williams recounted in the post-game press conference, holding back a laugh while Riley chuckled to his right. “He actually, before I even said that, he said, ‘I know you’re trying to stay in the game and talk me into it.’ “

“This isn’t Year 1 together anymore,” Riley said, shaking his head in amusement.

Even in three quarters of a game, Williams had already shown enough to justify the off-season hype that came when he followed Riley from Oklahoma to Los Angeles.

Williams completed 19 of 22 passes for 249 yards, averaging 11.3 yards per attempt, to go with two touchdown passes to Jordan Addison. And he led USC in rushing, gaining 68 yards on six carries, including a sack for negative-three yards.

And, most important, USC scored on every drive that Williams led: five touchdowns, one field goal.

“I thought he saw the field well,” Riley said. “I thought he played very much in control and very much at ease, which I think when quarterbacks are playing at a high level, it oftentimes looks like that.”

It was the specter of Williams — not even his commitment — that let Riley to feel comfortable with the idea of another sophomore quarterback, Jaxson Dart, transferring away from USC. And while Dart had some growing pains in his first start at Ole Miss, Williams showed why his presence was necessary in Riley’s first season at USC.

With Williams’ experienced hand at the helm, the Trojans moved forward relentlessly. It wasn’t until the 10:38 mark of the third quarter that USC had a negative-yardage play, and Williams then immediately completed two passes to Addison for 25 yards and a score.

He completed passes to nine different Trojans, getting the receivers, running backs and tight ends involved.

“Just the leader that he is, he’s been doing it all week in practice,” Addison said of Williams. “So once game time comes, it’s just second nature.”

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While Williams was known as a dual-threat quarterback out of high school, he did not have tremendous success with his feet as a freshman. Excepting a 74-yard carry, he averaged 4.7 yards each time he ran.

But he had greater success against Rice, averaging 11.3 per carry. He was smart with his runs, getting out of bounds when necessary to avoid a hit and keep himself upright. Though he wasn’t above lowering his shoulder pads into a would-be tackler when the opportunity arose.

“More reps has helped tremendously,” Williams said of his improved running. “And more reps in the sense of not just this year but overall in this offense.”

That’s what USC was banking on when it put aside its other quarterback options and waited for Williams to make a decision last winter. Against Rice, fans finally got to see what all the hype was about.