USC football's scoring in opener was not only electric, but historic

USC football won their first game of the season on Saturday by a score of 66-14. Everyone seemed to be firing on all cylinders offensively. As for new QB Caleb Williams--he was just as good as advertised; completing 19 of his 22 passes for 249 yards (11.3 yards per attempt) and tossing two touchdowns.

He also averaged 11.3 yards per rush attempt too, running the ball six times for 68 yards. The running game was a beast in general. Stanford transfer Austin Jones led the team in both rushing yards and rushing touchdowns with 48 yards on his four carries. Half of those carries were touchdowns. He had a 21-yard catch too.

As for the rest of the pass-catching options, calling them plentiful would be an understatement. 12 different players caught a pass against Rice on Saturday. Jordan Addison led the team with five catches, and caught a couple of those for touchdowns. He had 54 yards on the day.

Tahj Washington's speed was put to the test, and passed the exam with flying colors; leading the Trojans with 65 receiving yards. The defense even chipped in with three(!) pick-six's on the day; one from SS Calen Bullock, another from Will LB Shane Lee, and one more from Will LB Ralen Goforth. This kind of scoring output was not just fun to watch, though. It was historical on multiple levels:

USC football hadn't scored this much at home since Reggie Bush throttled UCLA in 2005.

Bush toted the rock for USC football 24 times, and racked up 260 yards with two touchdowns in that game. That's a 10.8 yard per carry average...It makes perfect sense as to why he won the Heisman that season.

He also put on a show in that 2005 home opener against Arkansas--averaging 15.6(!) yards per carry. He only needed eight tries to get all the way up to 125 rushing yards and a score. Adding on three catches for 70(!) yards and a touchdown catch, he was about as efficient as it gets. That was the famous game where USC whooped Arkansas so hard that no SEC teams ever dared scheduling USC.

The Razorbacks played their opener the next year against USC in Arkansas, but that was it. After that, NINE years went by without any SEC teams daring to play USC. So, SC played that next year in 2007 against blue blood Nebraska, and played blue blood Ohio State the next two years after that. They went 3-0 in those three contests, outscoring their opponents 102-49 combined.

The Pete Carroll era was fun. That's why it was fun that USC scored like it was the Carroll era all over again on Saturday. Can this be sustained? Well, that remains to be seen. Rice is an awful team. They certainly did what they were expected to do against that poor team, though, and let college football know that they are well on their way to being back with Lincoln Riley at the helm.