You have a unique perspective on what makes a Heisman quarterback. What would you say is Caleb's case right now for Heisman candidacy?
"He's played at a really, really high level. He's had one turnover, a lot of touchdowns and his team's won a lot of games. He's done it with different ways. He's done here as of late without some really impactful players being able to play both on the line and at the skill positions. He's been as valuable as any player in the country, and I think it's pretty simple. I mean, this stuff always plays out, right? A lot of that stuff, just like conference races and all that, will be decided here as time goes. But up to this point, I don't think there's been a better or more valuable player in college football than him."
What would seeing all three phases of the game coming together this week do for this team's confidence?
"I don't know if it would have a ton to do with the confidence. We have a confident group. I mean, our guys, all three sides expect to play very well and believe we're very capable of doing it, so I don't know it will have as much on the confidence. But sure, it's great to go play well on all three sides. I mean, you win eight of your first nine you're going to be pretty confident, and we're pretty confident right now and know that we can play better. For us, just see that as a constant climb. That's really what this thing is. It's a true journey, and there's still so much left to go in terms of opportunities, impactful opportunities for our program. These guys are very, very excited about this one. We've put ourselves in a great position, and I've got to be honest, I think that's getting lost around here a little bit. Like, don't forget where this thing was last year, and I think a lot of people have. Like, we're 8-1, with everything in front of us. Like, let's make sure we have some perspective around here. And again, regardless if this program won the national championship the year before, all right, or this program lost a bunch of games the year before, like, we're in a phenomenal position. And every person that supports USC football -- whether they do or not -- they ought to recognize that. I just want to make sure that's not getting lost around here. We're damn sure not letting it get lost in our locker room. We're in a tremendous, tremendous spot and really excited about it. And, obviously, our expectation is to go play extremely well on all three sides, and I believe we will."
How did the team handle the short week of preparation?
"I feel like well. It's a new challenge for us. Your body clock's, you get so settled in from a schedule standpoint and then all of a sudden it changes and it does, it throws you a little bit. And especially, again like for us, this is another thing that all of us haven't done together yet. We try to be very clear about the plan from Day 1, we've really challenged these guys to handle it with a professional mindset, but the reality is you can't do things the way you do with 24 hours less. And I think it's on us as a staff to spell out, here's why, here's the plan, here's what you've got to do, and then the guys have got to go embrace it. I think we've handled it well, but we'll see a lot of it with our performance tomorrow night. Pleased with the week, pleased with the effort, but still have a lot of that to go in terms of recovery, the mental preparation. The mental side is so important, because no matter what you do, you're not going to get the same amount of reps that you get on a full week so every week becomes that much more important and the mental preparation on the side for the guys is critical. They hopefully have done a good job of that, because that will show up in the quality of play tomorrow."
Any change in the optimism surrounding Jordan and Mario for Saturday, and also we've seen Jude Wolfe practicing a little bit more, how close is he to returning?
"I feel comfortable saying right now that Jordan and Ralen, I believe, are on track to play barring a setback. We expect those two to play. Mario, Gentry will be game-time decisions still. Not quite as far along but still with an opportunity. Jude's doing well. He's coming off foot surgery, has really progressed, he's starting to get back on land being able to run around. So now it's kind of functionally getting him back up to speed, the conditioning level, there's such a -- it's not like, well, he's cleared by the doctors and all of a sudden he's ready to go play high-level college football the next day, right? There's certainly a build up to it. He's in the middle of that. It would be great to certainly be able to have him available here at the back end of the season, but he's not ready yet. He won't play this week, but he's making some nice progress, so hopefully here towards the end, and if it's not the end of the regular season potentially the postseason would be great to have him back."
"He's played at a really, really high level. He's had one turnover, a lot of touchdowns and his team's won a lot of games. He's done it with different ways. He's done here as of late without some really impactful players being able to play both on the line and at the skill positions. He's been as valuable as any player in the country, and I think it's pretty simple. I mean, this stuff always plays out, right? A lot of that stuff, just like conference races and all that, will be decided here as time goes. But up to this point, I don't think there's been a better or more valuable player in college football than him."
What would seeing all three phases of the game coming together this week do for this team's confidence?
"I don't know if it would have a ton to do with the confidence. We have a confident group. I mean, our guys, all three sides expect to play very well and believe we're very capable of doing it, so I don't know it will have as much on the confidence. But sure, it's great to go play well on all three sides. I mean, you win eight of your first nine you're going to be pretty confident, and we're pretty confident right now and know that we can play better. For us, just see that as a constant climb. That's really what this thing is. It's a true journey, and there's still so much left to go in terms of opportunities, impactful opportunities for our program. These guys are very, very excited about this one. We've put ourselves in a great position, and I've got to be honest, I think that's getting lost around here a little bit. Like, don't forget where this thing was last year, and I think a lot of people have. Like, we're 8-1, with everything in front of us. Like, let's make sure we have some perspective around here. And again, regardless if this program won the national championship the year before, all right, or this program lost a bunch of games the year before, like, we're in a phenomenal position. And every person that supports USC football -- whether they do or not -- they ought to recognize that. I just want to make sure that's not getting lost around here. We're damn sure not letting it get lost in our locker room. We're in a tremendous, tremendous spot and really excited about it. And, obviously, our expectation is to go play extremely well on all three sides, and I believe we will."
How did the team handle the short week of preparation?
"I feel like well. It's a new challenge for us. Your body clock's, you get so settled in from a schedule standpoint and then all of a sudden it changes and it does, it throws you a little bit. And especially, again like for us, this is another thing that all of us haven't done together yet. We try to be very clear about the plan from Day 1, we've really challenged these guys to handle it with a professional mindset, but the reality is you can't do things the way you do with 24 hours less. And I think it's on us as a staff to spell out, here's why, here's the plan, here's what you've got to do, and then the guys have got to go embrace it. I think we've handled it well, but we'll see a lot of it with our performance tomorrow night. Pleased with the week, pleased with the effort, but still have a lot of that to go in terms of recovery, the mental preparation. The mental side is so important, because no matter what you do, you're not going to get the same amount of reps that you get on a full week so every week becomes that much more important and the mental preparation on the side for the guys is critical. They hopefully have done a good job of that, because that will show up in the quality of play tomorrow."
Any change in the optimism surrounding Jordan and Mario for Saturday, and also we've seen Jude Wolfe practicing a little bit more, how close is he to returning?
"I feel comfortable saying right now that Jordan and Ralen, I believe, are on track to play barring a setback. We expect those two to play. Mario, Gentry will be game-time decisions still. Not quite as far along but still with an opportunity. Jude's doing well. He's coming off foot surgery, has really progressed, he's starting to get back on land being able to run around. So now it's kind of functionally getting him back up to speed, the conditioning level, there's such a -- it's not like, well, he's cleared by the doctors and all of a sudden he's ready to go play high-level college football the next day, right? There's certainly a build up to it. He's in the middle of that. It would be great to certainly be able to have him available here at the back end of the season, but he's not ready yet. He won't play this week, but he's making some nice progress, so hopefully here towards the end, and if it's not the end of the regular season potentially the postseason would be great to have him back."
