The victory over USC marked several developments for the Stanford Cardinal running game: Bryce Love played a meaningful role after missing the season opener, Reagan Williams made his debut and the win showed the offense was benefiting from a change in off-season preparation.

Lance Taylor, Stanford’s running back’s coach, was as happy to see Love on the field as any fan. And he was ready to celebrate what looked like an exclamation point to Love’s return story.

“I thought he did really well,” Taylor said. “I thought he looked like the old Bryce. He had that extra gear and almost broke a couple. On one I was already holding my hands up (for a touchdown).”

Instead Love was tripped up by the final defender and he frustratingly pounded his hands into the turf. It didn’t take long to remind everyone how quickly Love can change a game with the ball in his hands.

The staff approached the USC game with a rep limit for Love between “12 to 20,” Taylor said, as they try to make sure Love doesn’t suffer a setback.

“We’ll continue to slowly integrate him back in more and more each week,” he said. “We’ll be very specific in the packages we want him in and don’t overload him too quickly. He’s getting back into football-playing shape.”

Taylor also elaborated on the story head coach David Shaw told of when Taylor watched Love in a high school game for the first time. The speedster showed his future position coach that he was more than a change-of-pace back.

“He runs very strong in his lower body,” he said. “He has the ability to run through tackles. But it’s also how he fits into our system. We can see him running between the tackles and doing all the things we use Christian (McCaffrey) to do.”

And while Taylor said Stanford has shown more single-back looks since McCaffrey took over the lead spot and Love arrived, the Cardinal still want to line up with a fullback and a big back and ram the ball forward. Against USC, Stanford introduced another lead blocker they will come to rely on more and more this season.

“Reagan came in and did an excellent job and we’re going to continue to find ways to get him on the field,” Taylor said. “Coming out of spring and training camp we wanted to find ways to get him on the field. We’re going to continue to increase his role and find more plays.”

And Cameron Scarlett may be the back who fills the spot behind Williams and Daniel Marx in tough-running situations. Taylor likes what he’s seen from Scarlett in limited opportunities against Kansas State and USC.

He lamented several missed chances against the Wildcats when Scarlett was “close to breaking.”

“I thought he came in this past game and ran really hard, really well and ran downhill,” he added. “Those are things we’re going to get him in the game doing more. Put a big back in and just slam the ball in the “A” or “B” gap and have a physical-style run.”

The players creating those gaps were part of off-season meetings with the running backs and fullbacks to make sure everyone was on the same page. Offensive guard Johnny Caspers said McCaffrey suggested joint film-study sessions because of how many linemen were starting new roles this season.

“This year with the new line, we were able to get together with those guys and just talk about what their coaches are telling them and what our coaches are telling us, so we’re all on the same page,” Caspers said. “I think it really clarified a lot of the blocking schemes for us and be able to execute at a high level.”

Taylor said those two offensive units had never done that before.

Caspers said last year the running backs were comfortable with reading the blocking combinations in front of them because of the group’s experience together. They wanted to make sure they could replicate that success.

Taylor said the conversations allowed players to compare their understanding of what was happening on a given play.

“We sat in and watched practice film and cut-ups and said, ‘OK, you tell us what you guys are seeing and thinking from an offensive-line standpoint,’” he said. “And we’ll tell you what we’re seeing and thinking from a running-back standpoint. I think that’s really helped everyone to mesh and grow together. Now we know Jesse (Burkett) is a little different than Graham Shuler and here’s how.”