SC offensive coordinator Graham Harrell seemed amused by the question, as it was pointed out that while USC has broken some long runs the last two games it averaged 2.6 and 2.2 yards per attempt, respectively, on the rest of its running back carries against Arizona and Utah.
"I think if you look at any team and you take the big runs out the average isn't going to be great," he said with a chuckle. "We've just got to keep running the football. You've got to be committed to the run, and like I said, understand you're going to hit some for 2, hit some for 3 and hit some for 4 and all of a sudden you hit one for 50. That's how teams average a lot of yards carrying the football, by making big plays. That's not just running the football -- that's throwing the football too. If you take out negative-yardage runs, if you just say, 'Well, if you eliminate the negative yardage runs and look at the average, the average would be pretty good.' Well if you take out the explosive runs, the average is not great.
"So I think again committing to the run and staying with it and believing in it and understanding that's going to help us all the time is something we've got to do."
The last point has merit, for sure. The Trojans do have to stay committed to it, and doing so is the only way they will break a few now and then -- that's not the question. With opposing defenses increasingly following the blueprint of playing soft zone coverage to negate the Trojans' downfield passing game, they have to do something to open up the offense and get the defense to adjust, otherwise it could be a long (short) season of the quick pass game as the best option for this unit.
That would be unfortunate with the talents of Amon-Ra St. Brown, Tyler Vaughns, Bru McCoy and Drake London. So yes, the Trojans need to stay committed to the run -- but that doesn't mean that what they've done so far is a successful model.
Harrell's point about removing negative yards would be a fair counter, if their negative or minimal-yardage plays didn't so greatly outweigh the notable gains. Let's dive into the numbers again ...
Against Arizona, USC amassed 173 rushing yards on 32 attempts. As for the running backs, it was actually 174 yards on 30 attempts. Within that, the Trojans had big gains of 49, 37 and 19 yards. So take those three plays out, and they averaged 2.6 yards on the other 27 carries, which is a substantial sample size (90 percent of all carries). That included 14 carries of 2 or fewer yards, including 5 for negative yards, so the reverse argument of taking those plays out of the average would involve removing almost half the sample size for the game.
Moving to the Utah game, USC had a net 93 rushing yards on 31 attempts. In terms of the running backs it was 114 yards on 26 carries (excluding Kedon Slovis' lost sack yardage). Two of those -- the 47-yard scamper by Kenan Christon and a 14-yard run by Vavae Malepeai -- accounted for more than half of those yards, meaning the other 24 carries averaged 2.2 yards. That's 92 percent of the carries, so it's not insignificant.
We'll throw out the final three runs, which went for -2, 0 and -1 as the Trojans were killing clock in the final 1:30 before tacking on a field goal. Removing those three runs, 11 of the 23 running back carries went for 2 or fewer yards and 4 for negative yards -- very similar to the percentage from the previous week.
"Again, you're hitting them for 2, you're hitting them for 3, then all of a sudden you hit them for 50, that's how you get explosive runs is you've got to stay committed to it," Harrell said.
The latter point makes plenty of sense -- it's just a matter of differing opinion whether the running game has been effective overall to this point or that it's necessarily sustainable to average 2.2 to 2.6 yards on the bulk of the carries and count on breaking 40-plus yard runs to offset it.
More run for Kenan Christon?
To be fair, USC's running back rotation is simply too crowded. So much so that sophomore Kenan Christon -- the fastest player on the team, who scored 5 TDs last season and contributed some of the Trojans' longest gains in 2019 -- had just 2 touches through the first two games.
He received a slightly larger workload Saturday night, with 5 carries for 55 yards as Markese Stepp missed the game due to injury and Stephen Carr played just one snap due to injury. But that 47-yard scamper on a draw play was a reminder of what Christon is capable of when he gets a chance. So did it nudge the coaches to reconsider getting him more involved even when the running back group is at full power?
"I think that he has a special skill set, especially with his speed, and that was good to see. With the running backs, when you've got as many as we have, when they're all healthy I think that sometimes on the sideline people just get into the flow of the game and roll with whoever they're rolling with, you know," Harrell said. "So I don't think there's ever a plan not to get Kenan in the game, because like I said Kenan has a really special skill set and when he gets in open space can do some special things with the football. And so, it was obviously good to see him bust one. Vae's a very consistent guy that does everything right and we thought he was playing good ball last week, so he carried the majority of the load, but it's nice to have, no matter who's in there we can always put Kenan in and when he gets in the open field he's pretty special."
To summarize, it's unclear if Christon will get any consistent touches once Stepp and Carr are back.
High praise for AVT
Harrell was also asked for his assessment of the offensive line through three games.
He had special praise for left tackle Alijah Vera-Tucker, and it is indeed fair to put him in the conversation for offensive MVP so far -- just think where the Trojans would be if he hadn't chosen to opt back into the season.
Vera-Tucker did allow a sack and draw a penalty Saturday at Utah, but he had put up a clean sheet through the first two games with zero pressures allowed and has overall played at an elite level as a redshirt junior.
"Alijah is playing as well as I’ve ever seen an offensive lineman play. That kid, there’s not enough good things you can say about him," Harrell said. "He’s been the definition of consistent. If you want to see what a really good offensive lineman looks like, watch the last three games. He’s very competitive. He’s obviously very talented, but he also does things exactly how he’s asked to do them. He puts himself in position to be successful. Obviously it helps to be as big and athletic as he is, but at the same time, he’s doing things exactly right. He’s fun to watch.
"I can remember last game, we ran one of our explosive runs, Vae ran one-back power to the left, and he blocked three guys on one play. It looks really simple, but I’ve never seen anyone do it but him. Having him back again was obviously huge for us. The team voted him one of the captains of the team, so that’s how much respect he has from his teammates. But I think a lot of that is because the way he works, the way he plays. He’s big, physical, and he’s as quick-twitch as any guy I’ve seen that size. And he does exactly what he’s supposed to be doing. When you put that together, you have a real good offensive lineman."
As for the offensive line overall, Harrell noted there have been some execution breakdowns at times, but he largely praised center Brett Neilon for his work getting the unit set pre-snap and making adjustments based on what the defense is showing.
"I think that they've played pretty well as a whole. Again, we've leaned on them a decent amount just from the standpoint of we've been committed to running the football, and a lot of that has to do with them. I think that especially, [Justin Dedich] had to play one week for Brett, but those guys are doing a great job of recognizing pressures and communicating them for the most part. Brett's really intelligent and Utah showed us a couple blitzes that we hadn't seen in the past, and Brett got us into some really good calls to try to pick it up," Harrell said.
"I think the key for all of us across the board on offense, but particularly if you're asking about the O-line, is now, I don't think they've ever gotten beat because they didn't know what was coming -- they just didn't do what they were coached to do at times. They've just got to be consistent, be disciplined to use the proper technique."
For instance, on the sack fumble that Utah returned for a touchdown, Harrell said the Utes showed a new blitz look and Neilon made the right call to adjust, but there was a breakdown on the right side.
"Jalen [McKenzie] just didn't take the steps that he's been coached to take and ends up getting beat around the corner," Harrell said. "So I've been really proud, especially those centers and guys doing a great job of recognizing things and being smart and understanding what we're trying to do and getting us into good calls, I think that the key, and it can be for any position, but for O-line, be disciplined enough to do your job the way you're coached to do it over and over and over. That's going to be, for anyone, but for those guys I don't think we're getting beat, I don't think they're ever getting outschemed, just every now and then either they're not communicating ... one of the short-yardage situations against Arizona we didn't get the communication right -- we should have fanned out, we didn't, guy came free off the front edge when we're just not taking the proper technique to put ourselves in a position to be successful. ...
"If you're disciplined enough to do your job, do the techniques you're taught to do, I could say those centers in particular are doing a good job getting us into situations that allow us to pick everything up that we need to pick up."
"I think if you look at any team and you take the big runs out the average isn't going to be great," he said with a chuckle. "We've just got to keep running the football. You've got to be committed to the run, and like I said, understand you're going to hit some for 2, hit some for 3 and hit some for 4 and all of a sudden you hit one for 50. That's how teams average a lot of yards carrying the football, by making big plays. That's not just running the football -- that's throwing the football too. If you take out negative-yardage runs, if you just say, 'Well, if you eliminate the negative yardage runs and look at the average, the average would be pretty good.' Well if you take out the explosive runs, the average is not great.
"So I think again committing to the run and staying with it and believing in it and understanding that's going to help us all the time is something we've got to do."
The last point has merit, for sure. The Trojans do have to stay committed to it, and doing so is the only way they will break a few now and then -- that's not the question. With opposing defenses increasingly following the blueprint of playing soft zone coverage to negate the Trojans' downfield passing game, they have to do something to open up the offense and get the defense to adjust, otherwise it could be a long (short) season of the quick pass game as the best option for this unit.
That would be unfortunate with the talents of Amon-Ra St. Brown, Tyler Vaughns, Bru McCoy and Drake London. So yes, the Trojans need to stay committed to the run -- but that doesn't mean that what they've done so far is a successful model.
Harrell's point about removing negative yards would be a fair counter, if their negative or minimal-yardage plays didn't so greatly outweigh the notable gains. Let's dive into the numbers again ...
Against Arizona, USC amassed 173 rushing yards on 32 attempts. As for the running backs, it was actually 174 yards on 30 attempts. Within that, the Trojans had big gains of 49, 37 and 19 yards. So take those three plays out, and they averaged 2.6 yards on the other 27 carries, which is a substantial sample size (90 percent of all carries). That included 14 carries of 2 or fewer yards, including 5 for negative yards, so the reverse argument of taking those plays out of the average would involve removing almost half the sample size for the game.
Moving to the Utah game, USC had a net 93 rushing yards on 31 attempts. In terms of the running backs it was 114 yards on 26 carries (excluding Kedon Slovis' lost sack yardage). Two of those -- the 47-yard scamper by Kenan Christon and a 14-yard run by Vavae Malepeai -- accounted for more than half of those yards, meaning the other 24 carries averaged 2.2 yards. That's 92 percent of the carries, so it's not insignificant.
We'll throw out the final three runs, which went for -2, 0 and -1 as the Trojans were killing clock in the final 1:30 before tacking on a field goal. Removing those three runs, 11 of the 23 running back carries went for 2 or fewer yards and 4 for negative yards -- very similar to the percentage from the previous week.
"Again, you're hitting them for 2, you're hitting them for 3, then all of a sudden you hit them for 50, that's how you get explosive runs is you've got to stay committed to it," Harrell said.
The latter point makes plenty of sense -- it's just a matter of differing opinion whether the running game has been effective overall to this point or that it's necessarily sustainable to average 2.2 to 2.6 yards on the bulk of the carries and count on breaking 40-plus yard runs to offset it.
More run for Kenan Christon?
To be fair, USC's running back rotation is simply too crowded. So much so that sophomore Kenan Christon -- the fastest player on the team, who scored 5 TDs last season and contributed some of the Trojans' longest gains in 2019 -- had just 2 touches through the first two games.
He received a slightly larger workload Saturday night, with 5 carries for 55 yards as Markese Stepp missed the game due to injury and Stephen Carr played just one snap due to injury. But that 47-yard scamper on a draw play was a reminder of what Christon is capable of when he gets a chance. So did it nudge the coaches to reconsider getting him more involved even when the running back group is at full power?
"I think that he has a special skill set, especially with his speed, and that was good to see. With the running backs, when you've got as many as we have, when they're all healthy I think that sometimes on the sideline people just get into the flow of the game and roll with whoever they're rolling with, you know," Harrell said. "So I don't think there's ever a plan not to get Kenan in the game, because like I said Kenan has a really special skill set and when he gets in open space can do some special things with the football. And so, it was obviously good to see him bust one. Vae's a very consistent guy that does everything right and we thought he was playing good ball last week, so he carried the majority of the load, but it's nice to have, no matter who's in there we can always put Kenan in and when he gets in the open field he's pretty special."
To summarize, it's unclear if Christon will get any consistent touches once Stepp and Carr are back.
High praise for AVT
Harrell was also asked for his assessment of the offensive line through three games.
He had special praise for left tackle Alijah Vera-Tucker, and it is indeed fair to put him in the conversation for offensive MVP so far -- just think where the Trojans would be if he hadn't chosen to opt back into the season.
Vera-Tucker did allow a sack and draw a penalty Saturday at Utah, but he had put up a clean sheet through the first two games with zero pressures allowed and has overall played at an elite level as a redshirt junior.
"Alijah is playing as well as I’ve ever seen an offensive lineman play. That kid, there’s not enough good things you can say about him," Harrell said. "He’s been the definition of consistent. If you want to see what a really good offensive lineman looks like, watch the last three games. He’s very competitive. He’s obviously very talented, but he also does things exactly how he’s asked to do them. He puts himself in position to be successful. Obviously it helps to be as big and athletic as he is, but at the same time, he’s doing things exactly right. He’s fun to watch.
"I can remember last game, we ran one of our explosive runs, Vae ran one-back power to the left, and he blocked three guys on one play. It looks really simple, but I’ve never seen anyone do it but him. Having him back again was obviously huge for us. The team voted him one of the captains of the team, so that’s how much respect he has from his teammates. But I think a lot of that is because the way he works, the way he plays. He’s big, physical, and he’s as quick-twitch as any guy I’ve seen that size. And he does exactly what he’s supposed to be doing. When you put that together, you have a real good offensive lineman."
As for the offensive line overall, Harrell noted there have been some execution breakdowns at times, but he largely praised center Brett Neilon for his work getting the unit set pre-snap and making adjustments based on what the defense is showing.
"I think that they've played pretty well as a whole. Again, we've leaned on them a decent amount just from the standpoint of we've been committed to running the football, and a lot of that has to do with them. I think that especially, [Justin Dedich] had to play one week for Brett, but those guys are doing a great job of recognizing pressures and communicating them for the most part. Brett's really intelligent and Utah showed us a couple blitzes that we hadn't seen in the past, and Brett got us into some really good calls to try to pick it up," Harrell said.
"I think the key for all of us across the board on offense, but particularly if you're asking about the O-line, is now, I don't think they've ever gotten beat because they didn't know what was coming -- they just didn't do what they were coached to do at times. They've just got to be consistent, be disciplined to use the proper technique."
For instance, on the sack fumble that Utah returned for a touchdown, Harrell said the Utes showed a new blitz look and Neilon made the right call to adjust, but there was a breakdown on the right side.
"Jalen [McKenzie] just didn't take the steps that he's been coached to take and ends up getting beat around the corner," Harrell said. "So I've been really proud, especially those centers and guys doing a great job of recognizing things and being smart and understanding what we're trying to do and getting us into good calls, I think that the key, and it can be for any position, but for O-line, be disciplined enough to do your job the way you're coached to do it over and over and over. That's going to be, for anyone, but for those guys I don't think we're getting beat, I don't think they're ever getting outschemed, just every now and then either they're not communicating ... one of the short-yardage situations against Arizona we didn't get the communication right -- we should have fanned out, we didn't, guy came free off the front edge when we're just not taking the proper technique to put ourselves in a position to be successful. ...
"If you're disciplined enough to do your job, do the techniques you're taught to do, I could say those centers in particular are doing a good job getting us into situations that allow us to pick everything up that we need to pick up."
