Joel Klatt got an up-close-and-personal look at the USC Trojans Saturday night at the Rose Bowl. He and Gus Johnson were in the booth for FOX to call the annual crosstown showdown, and Klatt was a firsthand witness to the best passing display of Caleb Williams’ young career and a win that clinched USC’s spot in the Pac-12 title game one year after falling to 4-8.

Klatt’s main takeaway? USC should be in the College Football Playoff and Williams should win the Heisman Trophy.

A 48-45 win over No. 16 UCLA on the road sure made for a palette cleanser after the kind of day the rest of the Top 10 had. While Alabama was playing Austin Peay and LSU was playing UAB — something Klatt took a shot at during the broadcast — USC was testing itself in a rivalry game against a team that has spent a chunk of this year inside the AP Top 10.

Williams completed 32 of his 43 passes for 470 yards and two touchdowns. He ran for another 33 yards and a touchdown to help a Trojan offense that put up 649 yards of total offense and scored on eight of its final 11 drives.

USC went into the weekend seventh in the CFP rankings. Notre Dame won its eighth game in the last nine, blasting Boston College 44-0. The Irish should be a top-15 team when they travel to the L.A. Coliseum next weekend. Barring an upset in Corvallis, the Trojans will meet a top-10 Oregon team in the Pac-12 title game.

That would give the Trojans plenty of potential ammo to use in their CFP case. They also got a ton of help this weekend from others vying for one of the four spots.

South Carolina — led by a former Lincoln Riley quarterback in Spencer Rattler — ripped No. 5 Tennessee apart 63-38. With two losses and no ability to play for a conference title for Tennessee now, you have to think the SEC’s chances of getting multiple teams into the field went on life support with the Vols falling.

Alabama has two losses and won’t go to the SEC title game either. Unless LSU beats Georgia in the conference championship game, it’ll likely just be the Bulldogs from the conference where it means more.

In the Big Ten, No. 3 Michigan needed a game-winning field goal to survive Illinois while No. 2 Ohio State struggled with a Maryland team that has a losing record in conference play. Those two will play this upcoming week to establish who represents the Big Ten East in that conference title game.

No. 4 TCU remained unbeaten, but an exercise in late-game clock mismanagement nearly cost it. And even then, it beat Baylor 29-28 on a walk-off field goal. TCU has trailed in the second half in five of its last seven games.

If USC can win out, it’ll be sitting there at 12-1, conference title in hand, with one of the best offenses in college football, one of the best quarterbacks in college football, and back-to-back-to-back ranked wins. That will be awfully hard to ignore.