PASADENA, Calif. -- Utah running back Joe Williams insists that if he didn’t get the call last week to return to the team after a brief retirement, he still would have been at the Rose Bowl on Saturday.

“I’d of been in the stands,” he said. “I would have flew out here.”

That would have made for a far less memorable day.

Back with the team for his second game after a four-week hiatus, Williams turned in one of the best offensive performances in school history. His 332 yards rushing on 29 carries shattered Mike Anderson's previous single-game school record (254 in 1999) and is the most in an FBS game since Oklahoma’s Samaje Perine ran for an NCAA-record 427 yards against Kansas in 2014.

“I’m pretty sure they’re tired of seeing the back of my jersey,” Williams said of UCLA's defenders.

Without him, who knows if Utah would have been able to keep pace with UCLA in what turned into a surprising 52-45 shootout.

“I can’t say enough about that young man, what he’s meant to our team the last two weeks now,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. “What a blessing it is for us to have him back and how unselfish it was for him to come back. It was legitimate. When he stepped away, he was hurting.”

Still wary about Williams’ physical condition, Utah kept him on a carries limit -- Whittingham said he wasn’t going to reach 30 -- but he showed no signs of fatigue and expressed a renewed sense of enthusiasm for football moving forward. His record-breaking performance ups his two-week total to 511 yards rushing, which, during conference games, ranks No. 2 in the Pac-12.

“I had the time to reflect on that decision I made, and at the end of the day, I’m still proud I did it, but I’m also proud that I got the call to come back,” Williams said. “I’m happy to be with my family, going out there, going to war with these guys, and we’re going to keep the ball rolling.”

Williams’ big game helped negate the impact of his former teammate, UCLA quarterback Mike Fafaul, who completed a school-record 40 passes on a record 70 attempts. Williams and Fafaul played together at Fork Union Military Academy in 2011.