Brenden Rice enjoyed his big breakout game for USC last weekend against Arizona State.

Just in time for his return trip to Boulder.

The former Colorado wideout hauled in 39 receptions for 611 yards and four touchdowns last season for USC — his first with the program. A lot of his work came as either a utility guy or a stand-in for unavailable receivers. It was an inconsistent year in terms of production — seven games with fewer than 30 receiving yards, two games with at least 70 yards, one game with 174 yards and two scores.

Rice got off to a slow start this season, again fighting for reps in a deep room, but he has a touchdown in every game so far this year and is coming off a seven-catch, 133-yard, two-score outing against the Sun Devils.

Whereas last year’s explosion came at the end of the season, the hope from USC’s perspective is that Rice can start to build and showcase some consistency.

To his credit, head coach Lincoln Riley thinks that’s where his game has made the biggest improvement year-over-year.

“He’s a very confident route-runner right now, and his routes are more consistent,” Riley said. “We thought he was pretty raw coming in and last year he got to the point where a lot of his routes were really good but there was too much variety. … When you have guys that sometimes it’s great and sometimes it’s not, it’s hard to know which one am I relying on.”

At 6-foot-3, 210 pounds, there isn’t really another player in the receiver room with Rice’s blend of physicality, explosiveness, and size. Getting him to be a consistent part of the offense would make this already dynamic attack that much better.

Riley says the confidence in him is growing.

“I thought he started to grab some consistency at the end of the year and I think with that our confidence level has gone up in him. And then he’s just built on it,” Riley said. “He’s a great practice player. I mean, he practices really, really hard all the time and because of that he just gets better and better. I think he’s confident. I think he’s playing really consistent, fast, and he’s very reliable in terms of being where he’s supposed to be all the time.”

This weekend, the Trojans travel to Boulder to face Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes.

The team will look almost entirely different from the one Rice left two seasons ago, but it’s still a return game for a receiver who spent two years with the program.

When he was there, the tape was limited. That was particularly true on offense, where Rice had collected just 27 receptions in two seasons.

Riley said standout plays on the kickoff return team were what initially drew USC to Rice.

“It was limited offensively but there was enough to see, like, alright, this guy’s still got some time. We got really strong reviews from some of the coaches there in terms of his practice habits and competitiveness, which have certainly held true. We thought the physical skills were there enough that he was going to be able to help us,” Riley said.

“… Everything about it made sense. When we met the kid, we felt like he was pretty serious about football, wanting to get better, knowing that he had a lot of room to grow.”