-The scrimmage amounted to a long stretch of full-contact team periods, which was nice. The last two periods were red zone (from the 25) and then from the 12. There was a heavy emphasis on the run game, including a full team run period early. I have to say, the ground game looked better today. A lot more 4-5 yard gains with some nice longer breaks mixed in. It was also a very physical and high-energy practice. In the final team period, freshman WR Michael Jackson III got tangled up with Junior CB Chris Steele, who ended up punching him in the face mask before they were separated. On the next play, MJ3 got under the skin of Jayden Williams, with Steele again getting involved. We could hear anything that might have been said between them, but MJ3 is a no-nonsense, all-business competitor, as is Steele, so that doesn’t surprise me. Good to see them treating a spring practice like this, honestly. A few plays before all that happened, MJ3 made a great catch on the sideline from Miller Moss, extending out of bounds while apparently getting his toe down. The defense thought it was an incompletion, but MJ3 was credited with the catch and a coach on the other sideline (I didn’t see who) yelled “I see you, Thriller.” Which seems like a perfect nickname for Michael Jackson if he keeps building on his strong spring.
-A couple new injuries to report. Liam
Douglass was wearing a boot on his left foot and spent the whole day working off to the side with the injured guys. And Brandon Pili went down with an apparent left ankle injury in practice. He had to be helped off the field by two coaches.
-The defense again won the day, with several interceptions serving as the biggest highlights. In fact, Kedon Slovis was picked off on back to back plays. The first was by safety Chase Williams on the left sideline as Slovis had tried to get the ball over Williams to K.D. Nixon. On the next play, Slovis had a pass go off the hands of John Jackson III on a quick slant and Xavion Alford picked it out of the air.
-Earlier, Mo Hasan had an interesting sequence with the 3s. (He also worked a lot with the 2s). Hasan threw what was probably the best pass of the day, hitting walk-on receiver Ty Shamblin on the money and over the DB for about 25 yards. On the next play he threw a lazy pass toward Shamblin in the flat that was easily picked by Jayden Williams and run back for a touchdown.
-The best offensive play was a 45-yard touchdown run by Vavae Malepeai through a gaping hole between the left tackle and left guard.
-The freshmen QBs had a mostly uninteresting day. I’ll post the full play by play from the team periods later and you can see the results. The highlight was Jaxson Dart hitting Gary Bryant on a quick screen, which Bryant took for 30 yards after making Chase Williams miss.
-I spent some real time focused on Courtland Ford today and I love his physicality up front. He had a true pancake block on De’jon Benton, who pounded his fist in the ground in frustration. Benton actually had some really nice moments today in run defense, making some physical stops at the line, but he struggled to get home on the pass rush. Casey Collier also swallowed him up on another play. But anyways, Ford looks really encouraging. Not perfect, but encouraging. He got beat by Drake Jackson off the edge late in practice and compensated with a blatant hold around the neck, but it wasn’t directly impactful on the play as the run had already been stuffed so it wasn’t called. I worry most about speed rushes around the edge there. That’s Collier’s biggest struggle as well at this point.
-Speaking of the OL, it was the same first-team offensive line we’ve seen all camp. The second team was again different, with Douglass out. It was LT Casey Collier, LG Justin Dedich, C Andrew Milek, RG Jason Rodriguez, RT Jonah Monheim.
-The third-team OL was LT Caadyn Stephen, LG Andres Dewerk, C Dedich, RG Gino Quinones, RT Joe Bryson.
-Defensively, Isaiah Pola-Mao did work at nickel as Clay Helton suggested. That left Chase Williams and Xavion Alford as the first-team safeties. The other notable observation was we saw Jay Toia and De’jon Benton get a lot of work with the first-team defense, joined up from by Tuli Tuipulotu and Drake Jackson.
USC had a team run period early in practice. Here were the results:
1s vs 1s
-Vavae Malepeai broke a 20-yard touchdown run. I’d need replay to see what exactly sprung him free, but any good run play is a positive at this point.
-Keaontay Ingram swallowed up by defense with nowhere to go
-Malepeai plows forward for 5 yards, physical run
2s vs 2s
-Stephen Carr finds a big hole up the middle and gets 7 yards
-Brandon Campbell runs up the gut for 2-3 yards
-Walk-on Matt Colombo stuffed
1s vs 1s
-Carr plows up middle for 6
-Campbell runs over left guard for 4
-Carr runs right for 5
-Campbell runs right for 3
2s vs 2s
-Ingram finds a hole for 4
-Ingram stuffed
-Malepeai stopped immediately by Benton
-Malepeai swallowed uo
Other notes and observations ...
-Brandon Campbell also scored on a 12-yard TD run in red zone drills running off the right side and catching a good downfield block (didn’t catch number).
-Jaxson Dart was whistled down for a sack on back to back plays by walk-on Bryce Matthews (who had a couple last week as well) and Juliano Falaniko behind the second-team OL, which was not good overall.
-Cornerback Dorian Hewett was also back for the first time (at least in terms of the practices we’ve seen — not sure on Thursday), but he wasn’t active in team periods and I assume is going through the acclimation process of having to be in helmet only for a couple practices.
-A couple new injuries to report. Liam
Douglass was wearing a boot on his left foot and spent the whole day working off to the side with the injured guys. And Brandon Pili went down with an apparent left ankle injury in practice. He had to be helped off the field by two coaches.
-The defense again won the day, with several interceptions serving as the biggest highlights. In fact, Kedon Slovis was picked off on back to back plays. The first was by safety Chase Williams on the left sideline as Slovis had tried to get the ball over Williams to K.D. Nixon. On the next play, Slovis had a pass go off the hands of John Jackson III on a quick slant and Xavion Alford picked it out of the air.
-Earlier, Mo Hasan had an interesting sequence with the 3s. (He also worked a lot with the 2s). Hasan threw what was probably the best pass of the day, hitting walk-on receiver Ty Shamblin on the money and over the DB for about 25 yards. On the next play he threw a lazy pass toward Shamblin in the flat that was easily picked by Jayden Williams and run back for a touchdown.
-The best offensive play was a 45-yard touchdown run by Vavae Malepeai through a gaping hole between the left tackle and left guard.
-The freshmen QBs had a mostly uninteresting day. I’ll post the full play by play from the team periods later and you can see the results. The highlight was Jaxson Dart hitting Gary Bryant on a quick screen, which Bryant took for 30 yards after making Chase Williams miss.
-I spent some real time focused on Courtland Ford today and I love his physicality up front. He had a true pancake block on De’jon Benton, who pounded his fist in the ground in frustration. Benton actually had some really nice moments today in run defense, making some physical stops at the line, but he struggled to get home on the pass rush. Casey Collier also swallowed him up on another play. But anyways, Ford looks really encouraging. Not perfect, but encouraging. He got beat by Drake Jackson off the edge late in practice and compensated with a blatant hold around the neck, but it wasn’t directly impactful on the play as the run had already been stuffed so it wasn’t called. I worry most about speed rushes around the edge there. That’s Collier’s biggest struggle as well at this point.
-Speaking of the OL, it was the same first-team offensive line we’ve seen all camp. The second team was again different, with Douglass out. It was LT Casey Collier, LG Justin Dedich, C Andrew Milek, RG Jason Rodriguez, RT Jonah Monheim.
-The third-team OL was LT Caadyn Stephen, LG Andres Dewerk, C Dedich, RG Gino Quinones, RT Joe Bryson.
-Defensively, Isaiah Pola-Mao did work at nickel as Clay Helton suggested. That left Chase Williams and Xavion Alford as the first-team safeties. The other notable observation was we saw Jay Toia and De’jon Benton get a lot of work with the first-team defense, joined up from by Tuli Tuipulotu and Drake Jackson.
USC had a team run period early in practice. Here were the results:
1s vs 1s
-Vavae Malepeai broke a 20-yard touchdown run. I’d need replay to see what exactly sprung him free, but any good run play is a positive at this point.
-Keaontay Ingram swallowed up by defense with nowhere to go
-Malepeai plows forward for 5 yards, physical run
2s vs 2s
-Stephen Carr finds a big hole up the middle and gets 7 yards
-Brandon Campbell runs up the gut for 2-3 yards
-Walk-on Matt Colombo stuffed
1s vs 1s
-Carr plows up middle for 6
-Campbell runs over left guard for 4
-Carr runs right for 5
-Campbell runs right for 3
2s vs 2s
-Ingram finds a hole for 4
-Ingram stuffed
-Malepeai stopped immediately by Benton
-Malepeai swallowed uo
Other notes and observations ...
-Brandon Campbell also scored on a 12-yard TD run in red zone drills running off the right side and catching a good downfield block (didn’t catch number).
-Jaxson Dart was whistled down for a sack on back to back plays by walk-on Bryce Matthews (who had a couple last week as well) and Juliano Falaniko behind the second-team OL, which was not good overall.
-Cornerback Dorian Hewett was also back for the first time (at least in terms of the practices we’ve seen — not sure on Thursday), but he wasn’t active in team periods and I assume is going through the acclimation process of having to be in helmet only for a couple practices.
