USC scrimmaged for about 40-50 plays Saturday morning. Great crowd. Here’s a quick rundown of the news:
DT Brandon Pili missed practice because of an ankle injury. Clay Helton said he tweaked it. We saw Pili walking around the practice field afterwards and he looked fine.
WRs Michael Pittman (shoulder) and Josh Imatorbhebhe (head) practiced in non-contact jerseys.
LB Jordan Iosefa and LB Raymond Scott returned to practice.
TB Dominic Davis (head) and WR Randal Grimes (groin) remained out.
C Brett Neilon was limited by an ankle injury. Helton was effusive in his praise for freshman center Justin Dedich, who's fared considerably better in team periods than 1-on-1s thus far.
Incoming QB J.T. Daniels has attended five consecutive practices. Helton mentioned how Daniels can watch entire practices on USC's server from home. He has a copy of the playbook, of course, so when he's present he can experience the signals and terminology and take mental reps just as he would if he were a walk-on not getting live reps. It's probably been a valuable experience for him.
Chris Swanson has posted a number of recruiting updates from this weekend already, but I'll add that
five-star DE Kayvon Thibodeaux was in attendance.
Impressions from the scrimmage:
Jack Sears had a practice he'd like to forget. He was picked off twice, both on similar deep balls toward the boundary, by Jonathan Lockett and Ykili Ross. It was interesting to hear Ronnie Bradford on Thursday discuss opponents looking to throw jump balls downfield against USC. His rationale was that teams like their odds when targeting a big receiver, that it'll be caught or draw a penalty. We're seeing Sears take a lot of chances, too, and he has the receivers to do it, but it backfired today. He threw a well-placed ball downfield to Michael Pittman that would have been six had Pittman been able to hang on. (Pittman, who is clearly not himself yet, has been sorely missed this week.) Outside of the picks, Sears completed just one pass.
Matt Fink didn't turn the ball over but the offense didn't exactly move the chains while he was in. Almost everything was underneath. He got away with a pass several feet from Tyler Vaughns that caromed off the hands of Isaiah Langley, who was frustrated that he didn't intercept it. Fink did have one play where he scooped up a mishandled snap and alertly threw to Vaughns. I thought it showed great awareness, in that he knew what he could do and where to go.
Helton sighed when asked about the QB play, saying he reserved to the right judge them until after he watched the tape. But it wasn't hard to read his displeasure. The quarterbacks simply haven't been dynamic through three weeks of spring, something that's only more pronounced by who they're trying to replace.
Aca'Cedric Ware had another strong practice. I need to catch up with him to see what he would attribute to his performance because it's more in line with what I remember when he arrived in the fall of 2015. He was briefly ahead of Ronald Jones, who was battling homesickness. While Ware had his moments in a couple games in which he got more carries, I felt like he wasn't running with the same vigor in practice as he did in that first training camp. Until now. He's a compact, upright runner who hits the hole with power and relishes physicality. We saw him move the pile today. He's a little bigger these days and apparently hasn't sacrificed the speed that he has in the process.
Vavae Malepeai ran over a defender en route to a short TD. He actually lined up as a fullback for a play or two, though Helton was quick to point out he's a tailback. There just might be a package in which he would be used in this manner, though USC has typically preferred to use a second tight end in that role. Regardless, Malepeai is also running really well now that he's back.
Moreover, between Malepeai and Ware and Stephen Carr, you have three guys who are more adept at catching balls out of the backfield than RoJo was. Consider it the trade-off for a home run threat, which has been completely absent this spring.
We're still not seeing the tight ends targeted much. Erik Krommenhoek had a nice catch in the flats, and he was taken down hard by freshman corner Chase Williams. Helton praised the pass-catching ability of his tight end group. That could be accurate, but we're certainly not seeing it put to the test much in these team periods.
The offensive line got great push in the run game today and got the best of the D-line in goal-line situations. It was one of its best days of spring as a unit in terms of run blocking. Pass protection, however, left much to be desired. Perhaps the scrimmage setting is more indicative of where its at.
With all this said, Saturday was really about the defense. Helton has been asked about freshman safety Talanoa Hufanga twice now and the first word out his mouth both times was, "Wow." Hufanga picked off walk-on Holden Thomas, nearly picked off Fink and got his hand on another pass. He seems to really scan the field well. I asked Helton if what he's doing this spring is simply him essentially playing free and making plays or does he actually have a good sense of what he's being assigned to do. It's hard to tell sometimes, especially with younger players. Helton lauded Hufanga's instincts while also pointing to the tutelage of older teammates, such as Marvell Tell and Ross. Helton told us how defensive assistant Joe DeForest recently remarked that he's never seen a group of players that coached each other more.
The secondary was the big winner in this scrimmage and has arguably been the strongest position group this spring. It's early, but USC just appears deeper at both cornerback and safety than at any point under Sark/Helton. Lockett, who's playing nickel and outside, continues to impress. In addition to his INT, he snuffed out a screen to Velus Jones in the backfield for a TFL. He's always been someone who sees the field well and has a great handle on where to be. He sorta plays cornerback like a safety.
Ross was similarly good, recording a TFL and a deflection on top of his interception. He knows this is a really important time for him. Even if he does win a starting job, he might be platooned, given all the talent behind him. But if he's in a reserve role who knows how much he'll see the field. So it's been good to see him practice with a sense of urgency. I feel like that's been missing from some position groups this spring.
With three weeks in the books, Helton surmised the defense is ahead of schedule (by “a lot”), he's encouraged by the running backs and O-line, he's curious about his receiving corps beyond Pittman and Vaughns, and he expressed concern with the quarterbacks. I think that's all pretty fair, though I'm maybe not as high on the RBs and O-line and a bit higher on the wideouts.
I'll post my standouts from Week 3 later this weekend. Have a Happy Easter.
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