After week off, USC is back ... and back ... and another back ...

LINCOLN, Neb. -- The slow one averaged 26 yards per carry.

Just so you know what caliber weapon USC is this season, 225-pound fullback Stanley Havili was there to show you on the Trojans' first offensive snap of the game. The slowest of USC's six runners who carried the ball Saturday burst through for 50 yards.

USC sophomore Stafon Johnson looks like a rising star. (Getty Images)

Forget the caliber, just call the Trojans cocked and loaded -- again. Before Saturday at Nebraska, you weren't sure because it's been a while since No. 1 played. Memories fade in this what-Heisman-have-you-won-for-me-lately world. It's been two weeks since the Trojans kicked off the season with what amounted to a scrimmage against Idaho. Since then LSU has beaten a top 10 team and Oklahoma is handing out butt-kickings like they are free samples at the supermarket. And Florida? Some day this Tebow kid seems like he's going to be fairly decent.

Yes, the Trojans came out on the short end of our short attention span during an intentional bye week inserted to get ready for the Huskers.

Nebraska? You know it as the program that was poised at the corner of Tradition and BCS, ready to run a Big Red light if had to, to get that Bill Callahan-defining win. On Saturday something resembling the vintage Trojans of 2003-05 returned riding a new horse. Make that horses. If you can count that high.

A star may have been born in sophomore tailback Stafon Johnson, but he's going to have to fight for it -- with his teammates. Johnson was the most surprising USC story to come out of Saturday's 49-31 victory. Just not the only one.

"Pull a name out of a hat," USC offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian said of his stable of running backs. "Thirteen (Johnson) is up? Let's go."

It doesn't really matter who started at tailback Saturday (it was sophomore C.J. Gable, for the record) because at last check there were nine scholarship running backs on the roster. The number was 10 before Emmanuel Moody decided he couldn't stand crowds and transferred to Florida the day his picture (as a Trojan) appeared on the cover of the Sports Illustrated preseason issue.

Scrubs don't usually make magazine covers but, hey, Moody wanted the ball and he wanted it now. So, ironically, he'll have to wait a year sitting out at Florida.

Those who have stayed might someday be Johnson. Even if only for a day. He emerged out of USC's Child Bunch to gain 144 of USC's 313 rushing yards. That's the thing about the numerous running backs. Five of the seven backs who have carried the ball so far this season are either freshmen or sophomores.

That means on any given Saturday you could be a star or grabbing pine.

Johnson was doing the latter last season, a year after arriving from L.A.'s Dorsey High as a Parade All-American.

"Standing on the sideline being cold," Johnson said describing his role last season.