The bout was over before their hands even touched, because Nevada’s Josh Castro was simply in no position to mess with a Bear.

What has excited USC coaches about Georgia transfer Bear Alexander, what has stood out so plainly from his practice reps and lining up during drills, is not just his size but the burst. At his best, he’s out of his block a half-second quicker than anyone on the line, a 300-pound canary on his feet hurtling toward opposing centers like an asteroid entering orbit.

And on one first-quarter snap Saturday, Alexander exploded from his stance, barreling a backpedaling Castro into the backfield before running back Ashton Hayes had even taken a handoff. While simultaneously fighting off Castro with his right arm, Alexander extended with his left, helping wrap up Hayes to completely and single-handedly destroy a Nevada run.

“He’s a very, very explosive young man,” USC defensive line coach Shaun Nua said.

For all that speed, though, for that raw power, for the sheer ebullience of Alexander’s presence and gleaming pearly-white smile, his actual impact on paper through USC’s first two games seemed more ... limited. Quiet. There wasn’t much to show on the stat sheet; even defensive coordinator Alex Grinch was left feeling there were some “missed opportunities” for Alexander, he said, in an at-times sloppy victory over San Jose State in which Spartans quarterback Chevan Cordeiro ran wild.

Then he turned on the film that next day and the presence jumped out.

“Bear was more impactful, probably, on that Saturday,” Grinch said Aug. 29, “than I maybe thought he had (been).”

This, plain and simple, is who USC has been waiting for, ever since head coach Lincoln Riley came back from watching Georgia’s defensive line in the CFP National Championship game and told a group of beat writers that “our guys don’t look like that.” So they snagged Alexander in the transfer portal, quite literally a guy who did look like that his freshman year at Georgia but played inconsistently.

“I’m moving different, I feel better, the visions clear,” Alexander wrote in a Twitter post on Sept. 5.

Alexander told ESPN in April that he transferred in part because he wanted to show more versatility, used as an every-down tackle, and no USC defensive lineman has played more snaps through two games. Sure, like Grinch said, the baseline stats haven’t jumped out: five tackles, half a sack.

But Alexander’s been a force from the eye test at collapsing the pocket, and the underlying numbers back it up: He leads the Trojans through two games with eight quarterback pressures and six hurries.

“We huntin’,” as Alexander put it earlier in fall camp, with that trademark blinding grin.

“Look at the NFL, the guy who’s been the most dominant player in the NFL for probably a long time, which is right down the road here with Aaron (Donald),” Riley told reporters on Thursday, when asked about Alexander’s impact on defensive play-calling. “I think offensively, it’s one of the toughest things to deal with is when there’s an elite inside guy.”

“It goes back to our conversation in the offseason — that was an area we knew we had to take some big steps,” Riley continued later.

Of course, Alexander is no Donald yet, particularly on designed runs. Against San Jose State, he attacked the wrong gap on a third-and-22, leading to a wide-open hole for Spartans quarterback Cordeiro to waltz for 28 yards. He had missed some time earlier in fall camp, shaking off a nagging injury, and was “behind from an execution standpoint,” Grinch said.

That, however, isn’t a mistake of effort — just schematic understanding, something understandable for a kid who admitted at the start of camp he hadn’t learned all his teammates’ names yet.

“I’ll rush that three-tech,” Alexander said last week, referring to pre-snap positioning on that San Jose State play, “and hit that B gap next time for sure.”

This, Riley said Thursday, is a thicker football team. A stronger football team. And that has stood out most on the defensive line. Returning 250-pound end Solomon Byrd has taken a leap. Georgia Southern transfer Jamil Muhammad has seven pressures. Freshman Braylan Shelby, with his Kawhi Leonard-esque wingspan, is “close,” Riley said Thursday, to earning increased opportunity.

And does Alexander, himself, see any difference between USC and Georgia, the program Riley so explicitly painted as the gold standard for physicality?

“It’s the same — I mean, Lincoln and Kirby (Smart) are very similar,” Alexander said in reference to Georgia’s head coach. “They both got the same goals, and same expectations.”