USC conducted its first scrimmage of the spring Saturday. It lasted roughly 40 plays, but one stands out.
Sophomore free safety Talanoa Hufanga, who is sporting a yellow, non-contact jersey this spring, landed hard on his shoulder and was down for several minutes. He would later walk off the field favoring the right side of his upper body where he suffered a broken collarbone in October. I wouldn't be surprised if Hufanga is out for the rest of spring.
"He just fell and something tweaked," Coach Clay Helton said. "We'll have to see exactly what it is. The good news is, we are in spring. It is March. Like I told him, he'll be 100 percent by the time we get to fall camp. ... It looks like a tweak. We'll see where it's at."
For the record, Hufanga (and strong safety Isaiah Pola-Mao, who's also in a yellow jersey), were not on the field when USC was tackling. They were brought in between live periods, although the intensity was still very high as they alternated. The play in which Hufanga went down was the last rep before the final live period.
***
JT Daniels was dealing today.
I had him completing 6 of 9 passes, including three touchdowns. His best play was actually a red option that saw him keep it and roll to his left and hit Amon-Ra St. Brown downfield. ASB then made Raymond Scott miss and sauntered into the end zone. This wasn't Daniels' first read. I think the play called for him to hit the intermediate route, only it wasn't open. Daniels kept his eyes downfield, one of his best traits, and saw ASB crossing from the opposite side and made a strong throw to the sideline while going to his left. Just a fantastic play. Helton had said after the season he implored Daniels to improve his core strength and it appeared to show up there.
Helton said he's down to 211 pounds after playing at around 220 last season.
"You can tell in this offense there's some movement you got to be able to do," Helton said. "There's going to be times you're going to need to create within the offense, somebody falls down and you got to create in the pocket. But he's got rid of some of the baby fat. He's toned up. He was bragging the other day. He's really trimmed down and looks good."
Daniels' second TD pass was to walk-on Jack Webster, who found himself all alone because of a blown coverage. Daniels closed out practice with a strong, 15-yard TD throw to Tyler Vaughns, who niftily stayed on his feet and managed to break the plane as he fell out of bounds.
It looked to me that Daniels again has the best command of the offense. I asked about that afterward but Helton would only say things looked “fluid,” noting that he needed to watch the tape. Thus far he has not been interested in singling out any of the QBs.
A good number of the other attempts from Daniels, Matt Fink and Jack Sears were of the shorter variety. They had to get the ball out quick as they were subjected to several DB blitzes. Sears, interestingly, got all his reps when they weren't live. I had him completing 8 of 10 passes. I'm sure it was scripted that way beforehand, but Sears did get the first two reps of the opening 11-on-11 period and did not look good. He was nearly sacked on the first one and threw the ball to no man's land. Then he rushed an overthrow to Michael Pittman down the sideline while facing a CB blitz. The next 12-15 reps all went to Daniels and Fink.
The other top performer on the day was TB Markese Stepp. He had a notable sequence halfway through the scrimmage where he took a screen pass and appeared to go down a few yards upfield, only he kept his bent knee off the ground and then exploded forward and broke multiple tackles en route to a 15-yard gain. He bulldozed his way up the middle for a 10-yard TD on the very next play. On the ensuing 2-point attempt, he leaped over the line for the conversion.
Stepp's power is obvious. What I keep wondering about is how his speed will translate. We probably won't really know until the fall, but he definitely appears to be moving well. He also had TD catch in 7-on-7s where he took a swing pass and ran past the secondary despite not having the angle.
"Big, physical back. When you get to those live periods, you see his value," Helton said. "A lot of times, everybody thinks they're getting him, sometimes when they've thud him up or touched him, that's a big man to get to the ground. By far had a great day today."
After six practices, Helton sounds encouraged about how the offense has transitioned to the Air Raid.
"I think today was a reality check for us," he said. "Because until you get everyone on the sideline and say, OK we're playing real live ball, the ball's going to move, we're playing first, second and third down, whatever happens, you don't realize how fast it goes, and how fast you got to get your eyes back for the next play and how fast you got to get lined up to keep the defense off base. So today was a good day to test reality. The ball moved very well up and down the field."
Other scrimmage highlights:
DE Drake Jackson intercepted a pass off a deflection at the line of scrimmage. It was an athletic play, except he fumbled during the return and OL Liam Jimmons recovered.
OLB Hunter Echols and DL Jay Tufele each recorded sacks. Tufele also sniffed out a screen to Williams and took him down quickly in 11-on-11.
LBs John Houston, Juliano Falaniko and Abdul-Malik McClain and CB Isaac Taylor-Stuart had deflections. ITS also had a great pass breakup in 7-on-7. Daniels threw a pretty ball deep to Devon Williams, and ITS yanked it out of his arms. There were couple instances today where Williams needed to finish better and lost out on receptions because of it.
***
Notables:
Saturday capped off a good day and week for Taylor-Stuart. He broke up a pass in 11-on-11 and played good D on Williams in general. He's taking a lot of reps versus the top receivers and responding to the challenge. Even his body language has improved.
Hufanga, per usual, was really making his presence felt while out there. He had an interception in 1-on-1s and broke up a pass in 11-on-11.
TE Josh Falo was targeted throughout the afternoon and had six catches between 11-on-11 and the scrimmage.
DB Chase Williams had an INT in 11-on-11 and OLB Eli'jah Winston had a pass break-up.
In 1-on-1s, CB Greg Johnson had a deflection, CB Briton Allen had a PBU and St. Brown toe-tapped his way to a TD.
***
Notes:
TBs Steven Carr and Vavae Malepeai were limited and did not partake in the scrimmage. Helton said there's been a flu virus going around.
LB Solomon Tuliaupupu, OT Clayton Bradley, QB Kedon Slovis, CB Dominic Davis and DL Caleb Tremblay remained out.
DT Brandon Pili returned.
Adoree' Jackson and Rasheem Green were in attendance.
OC Register beat writer (and USC alumnus) Joey Kaufman covered his final practice. He's moving on to the Columbus Dispatch to cover Ohio State. Helton gave him a nice tribute at the end of his presser. Sadness.
I plan to have Standouts from Week 2 posted later this weekend.
USC will practice again Tuesday at 3 p.m.
Sophomore free safety Talanoa Hufanga, who is sporting a yellow, non-contact jersey this spring, landed hard on his shoulder and was down for several minutes. He would later walk off the field favoring the right side of his upper body where he suffered a broken collarbone in October. I wouldn't be surprised if Hufanga is out for the rest of spring.
"He just fell and something tweaked," Coach Clay Helton said. "We'll have to see exactly what it is. The good news is, we are in spring. It is March. Like I told him, he'll be 100 percent by the time we get to fall camp. ... It looks like a tweak. We'll see where it's at."
For the record, Hufanga (and strong safety Isaiah Pola-Mao, who's also in a yellow jersey), were not on the field when USC was tackling. They were brought in between live periods, although the intensity was still very high as they alternated. The play in which Hufanga went down was the last rep before the final live period.
***
JT Daniels was dealing today.
I had him completing 6 of 9 passes, including three touchdowns. His best play was actually a red option that saw him keep it and roll to his left and hit Amon-Ra St. Brown downfield. ASB then made Raymond Scott miss and sauntered into the end zone. This wasn't Daniels' first read. I think the play called for him to hit the intermediate route, only it wasn't open. Daniels kept his eyes downfield, one of his best traits, and saw ASB crossing from the opposite side and made a strong throw to the sideline while going to his left. Just a fantastic play. Helton had said after the season he implored Daniels to improve his core strength and it appeared to show up there.
Helton said he's down to 211 pounds after playing at around 220 last season.
"You can tell in this offense there's some movement you got to be able to do," Helton said. "There's going to be times you're going to need to create within the offense, somebody falls down and you got to create in the pocket. But he's got rid of some of the baby fat. He's toned up. He was bragging the other day. He's really trimmed down and looks good."
Daniels' second TD pass was to walk-on Jack Webster, who found himself all alone because of a blown coverage. Daniels closed out practice with a strong, 15-yard TD throw to Tyler Vaughns, who niftily stayed on his feet and managed to break the plane as he fell out of bounds.
It looked to me that Daniels again has the best command of the offense. I asked about that afterward but Helton would only say things looked “fluid,” noting that he needed to watch the tape. Thus far he has not been interested in singling out any of the QBs.
A good number of the other attempts from Daniels, Matt Fink and Jack Sears were of the shorter variety. They had to get the ball out quick as they were subjected to several DB blitzes. Sears, interestingly, got all his reps when they weren't live. I had him completing 8 of 10 passes. I'm sure it was scripted that way beforehand, but Sears did get the first two reps of the opening 11-on-11 period and did not look good. He was nearly sacked on the first one and threw the ball to no man's land. Then he rushed an overthrow to Michael Pittman down the sideline while facing a CB blitz. The next 12-15 reps all went to Daniels and Fink.
The other top performer on the day was TB Markese Stepp. He had a notable sequence halfway through the scrimmage where he took a screen pass and appeared to go down a few yards upfield, only he kept his bent knee off the ground and then exploded forward and broke multiple tackles en route to a 15-yard gain. He bulldozed his way up the middle for a 10-yard TD on the very next play. On the ensuing 2-point attempt, he leaped over the line for the conversion.
Stepp's power is obvious. What I keep wondering about is how his speed will translate. We probably won't really know until the fall, but he definitely appears to be moving well. He also had TD catch in 7-on-7s where he took a swing pass and ran past the secondary despite not having the angle.
"Big, physical back. When you get to those live periods, you see his value," Helton said. "A lot of times, everybody thinks they're getting him, sometimes when they've thud him up or touched him, that's a big man to get to the ground. By far had a great day today."
After six practices, Helton sounds encouraged about how the offense has transitioned to the Air Raid.
"I think today was a reality check for us," he said. "Because until you get everyone on the sideline and say, OK we're playing real live ball, the ball's going to move, we're playing first, second and third down, whatever happens, you don't realize how fast it goes, and how fast you got to get your eyes back for the next play and how fast you got to get lined up to keep the defense off base. So today was a good day to test reality. The ball moved very well up and down the field."
Other scrimmage highlights:
DE Drake Jackson intercepted a pass off a deflection at the line of scrimmage. It was an athletic play, except he fumbled during the return and OL Liam Jimmons recovered.
OLB Hunter Echols and DL Jay Tufele each recorded sacks. Tufele also sniffed out a screen to Williams and took him down quickly in 11-on-11.
LBs John Houston, Juliano Falaniko and Abdul-Malik McClain and CB Isaac Taylor-Stuart had deflections. ITS also had a great pass breakup in 7-on-7. Daniels threw a pretty ball deep to Devon Williams, and ITS yanked it out of his arms. There were couple instances today where Williams needed to finish better and lost out on receptions because of it.
***
Notables:
Saturday capped off a good day and week for Taylor-Stuart. He broke up a pass in 11-on-11 and played good D on Williams in general. He's taking a lot of reps versus the top receivers and responding to the challenge. Even his body language has improved.
Hufanga, per usual, was really making his presence felt while out there. He had an interception in 1-on-1s and broke up a pass in 11-on-11.
TE Josh Falo was targeted throughout the afternoon and had six catches between 11-on-11 and the scrimmage.
DB Chase Williams had an INT in 11-on-11 and OLB Eli'jah Winston had a pass break-up.
In 1-on-1s, CB Greg Johnson had a deflection, CB Briton Allen had a PBU and St. Brown toe-tapped his way to a TD.
***
Notes:
TBs Steven Carr and Vavae Malepeai were limited and did not partake in the scrimmage. Helton said there's been a flu virus going around.
LB Solomon Tuliaupupu, OT Clayton Bradley, QB Kedon Slovis, CB Dominic Davis and DL Caleb Tremblay remained out.
DT Brandon Pili returned.
Adoree' Jackson and Rasheem Green were in attendance.
OC Register beat writer (and USC alumnus) Joey Kaufman covered his final practice. He's moving on to the Columbus Dispatch to cover Ohio State. Helton gave him a nice tribute at the end of his presser. Sadness.
I plan to have Standouts from Week 2 posted later this weekend.
USC will practice again Tuesday at 3 p.m.
