I caught the coaches tour in Newport Beach with John Robinson, coach Andy Enfield and Coach Todd Helton.
John Robinson-As usual JR is the opener and told jokes with a USC twist. He then hosted 2 USC athletes in an interview - footballer Tyler Vaughns and BBaller Derrick Thornton. When asked what game they were looking most forward to Vaughns chose Notre Dame, Thornton chose UCLA. In the past JR's foil was Zach Banner who could hold his own better in exchanges.
Coach Enfield - He said with all these coaches tour he was with 4 football coaches. With the loss of Boatwright and Melton, he felt the team did well and the intro did show his 3 year win total was the best in USC basketball history. All three New recruits coming in next season are outside California state (My Note: 2 from Seattle, 1 from Florida.). Two 5 star recruits will come in the 2019.class. When asked about most likely to surprise in the P12 he said "UW, everyone is back". New coach Eric Mobley, not only has 2 well coached sons, but is also considered a big man coach (my note-that’s needed) . PAC12 had 12 guys in the pros in 2017 and Possibly 8 more in 2018 draft. When asked about the shutout in the NCAA playoff despite placing 2nd in the PAC12 season and runner-up in the PAC12 playoff. With ratings of 30's in SOS and RPI. Strong defense and high up in defensive rebounds they were snubbed . 6 teams with losing records in their conference including ASU who was 8-10 in P12 versus USC 12-6 were invited. (My Note though they say Pac12 was bad they were 6-2 vs. SEC in regular season who had 9 teams in NCAA).
Coach Helton- He lost weight. And is much more gung ho, high energy than a few years ago. He lauded USC as a great education school (My Note- Likely uses that with pitch to recruits) a top 10 overall rated school with top ratings in some of those programs. 64K applicants applied to USC, 5 K got in. And among the players some had their degree and work on Grad work. Every senior on the team will likely have his degree by playoff time.
Clay felt this was his first full team with real depth (the NCAA effect). He said his biggest recruiting was in coaches staying, for stability and consistency of the team after several changes of the past. He is addressing OL with size and athleticism to play the Pac12, Alabama, Ohio State, etc (My note: in the last 3 years the average OL was 6-4.5, 292 lbs). In that WSU game they lost 3 OL (My note-and went into somewhat of a tailspin, losing to WSU and ND and almost to Utah in 4 games).
One big hole last year was the absence of Adoree Jackson DB-WR-Ret He had both straight ahead speed and could elude tacklers. Velus Jones was said to have some of those characteristics Steve Carr had a bone fragment pressing on his back nerve and that's been Successful . The idea in QB evaluation is day by day, The Spring training session was to get both QB ready, since they both had so few prior game snaps, for selection in Fall. The best (most ready?) QB plays in 1st game. J T Daniels was given the game playbook at start of spring training but couldn't play. He's a quick learner- On one practice play Daniels asked Helton if the receiver wasn't supposed to be at a different spot per the playbook. Helton thought about it and said "You're right". The jokingly said "I love you".
John Robinson-As usual JR is the opener and told jokes with a USC twist. He then hosted 2 USC athletes in an interview - footballer Tyler Vaughns and BBaller Derrick Thornton. When asked what game they were looking most forward to Vaughns chose Notre Dame, Thornton chose UCLA. In the past JR's foil was Zach Banner who could hold his own better in exchanges.
Coach Enfield - He said with all these coaches tour he was with 4 football coaches. With the loss of Boatwright and Melton, he felt the team did well and the intro did show his 3 year win total was the best in USC basketball history. All three New recruits coming in next season are outside California state (My Note: 2 from Seattle, 1 from Florida.). Two 5 star recruits will come in the 2019.class. When asked about most likely to surprise in the P12 he said "UW, everyone is back". New coach Eric Mobley, not only has 2 well coached sons, but is also considered a big man coach (my note-that’s needed) . PAC12 had 12 guys in the pros in 2017 and Possibly 8 more in 2018 draft. When asked about the shutout in the NCAA playoff despite placing 2nd in the PAC12 season and runner-up in the PAC12 playoff. With ratings of 30's in SOS and RPI. Strong defense and high up in defensive rebounds they were snubbed . 6 teams with losing records in their conference including ASU who was 8-10 in P12 versus USC 12-6 were invited. (My Note though they say Pac12 was bad they were 6-2 vs. SEC in regular season who had 9 teams in NCAA).
Coach Helton- He lost weight. And is much more gung ho, high energy than a few years ago. He lauded USC as a great education school (My Note- Likely uses that with pitch to recruits) a top 10 overall rated school with top ratings in some of those programs. 64K applicants applied to USC, 5 K got in. And among the players some had their degree and work on Grad work. Every senior on the team will likely have his degree by playoff time.
Clay felt this was his first full team with real depth (the NCAA effect). He said his biggest recruiting was in coaches staying, for stability and consistency of the team after several changes of the past. He is addressing OL with size and athleticism to play the Pac12, Alabama, Ohio State, etc (My note: in the last 3 years the average OL was 6-4.5, 292 lbs). In that WSU game they lost 3 OL (My note-and went into somewhat of a tailspin, losing to WSU and ND and almost to Utah in 4 games).
One big hole last year was the absence of Adoree Jackson DB-WR-Ret He had both straight ahead speed and could elude tacklers. Velus Jones was said to have some of those characteristics Steve Carr had a bone fragment pressing on his back nerve and that's been Successful . The idea in QB evaluation is day by day, The Spring training session was to get both QB ready, since they both had so few prior game snaps, for selection in Fall. The best (most ready?) QB plays in 1st game. J T Daniels was given the game playbook at start of spring training but couldn't play. He's a quick learner- On one practice play Daniels asked Helton if the receiver wasn't supposed to be at a different spot per the playbook. Helton thought about it and said "You're right". The jokingly said "I love you".
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