Caleb Williams threw for a season-high five touchdowns to go with 381 passing yards and 57 rushing yards last Saturday. With the second-year quarterback at the controls, USC put up 42 points. From a numbers perspective, it was the second-best game of the burgeoning star’s career.

And yet he wouldn’t categorize it as that. He felt he missed things that “could have been game-changing.” He specifically called out several reads on the Trojans’ final possession. He credited those around him for his “couple of” touchdowns. There were opportunities to make plays, and he said he made some while missing others.

When Williams met with reporters on Wednesday, he sounded exactly like he did after the Trojans’ 43-42 loss to Utah: unsatisfied.

Williams said in the postgame press conference he hates to lose. USC’s done it once this season, and Williams doesn’t want to experience it again.

Asked on Wednesday what his personal goals were for the bye week, he instinctually went team-specific before catching himself.

“Make sure that everybody understands that we lost and it hurt, but I said this after the game with all the emotions running high, the only thing that we’re wiping off the board is that we are not going to go undefeated,” Williams said. “We’re focused on right now, this bye week. We haven’t been focused on the next team that we’re going to play. We’ve been focused on making sure we nail down all the consistent things that we need to be better at.”

The Trojans sit at 6-1 on the season, halfway through the conference slate. They are still in a position where they have a ton of control over how the rest of their season plays out, with UCLA remaining as the only major test. The Utes still have to play Oregon. Oregon hosts UCLA this weekend. The Trojans will still have their say in how this thing goes down the stretch.

Williams’ voice will be important. As the quarterback of the team and the face of the program, he can bring guys along.

To that end, on Saturday, while the group gets a week off from games, Williams says he plans to get a bunch of teammates together to spend the evening as a group.

Seems like an answer to all the questions about how USC’s collection of transfer talent would mesh when adversity struck.