USC Interim Head Coach Clay Helton held his weekly conference call with the media, this time on Saturday. Here’s a full transcript of the call.
Opening Statement
Clay Helton: “Very proud of our football team for their fourth consecutive Pac-12 victory. You know, the Pac-12, I think, is an exceptional conference and every victory that you get on the road should be celebrated. 4-0 in the second half of our season, 2-0 in November and still trying to make this championship run which we’re very proud of. Somebody did tell me it was the first time since 2005 to come back from a double digit deficit. Obviously we don’t want to be in that situation but I think once more, again, it shows the mental toughness of this football team, to be able to come back in that situation and show extreme poise. After watching the tape, I felt like our blueprint for winning showed up again. We out rushed our opponent, holding a team that was averaging over 108 yards a game to only 59 yards, 1.6 per rush and we didn’t lose the turnover battle again. That’s been our key to winning these last four Pac-12 victories. I think our defensive front continues to improve. Six sacks and ten tackles for loss. I believe that’s 19 sacks in the last five games.
Players that have really stood out in my mind, Delvon Simmons, I thought was exceptional, having two sacks and a caused fumble, a blocked field goal. You know, the caused fumble and the blocked field goal were huge momentum changers in that second half and can’t say enough about him. Su’a Cravens, I just felt like, it just felt like he was all over the field, making great plays, had eight tackles and a sack, two tackles for loss. I thought he did a tremendous job. Cody Kessler, I can’t speak enough about his leadership and his poise. To come out in that second half, go 9-for-12 and have three touchdown passes that second half, he just didn’t look unfazed and he led us to a big victory. And I was proud of Justin Davis, I thought a very physical, mature running style, averaging 6.1 yards per carry and you know, once again, you look up and its third and six to end the game, like it was at Cal and he makes the play, does a tremendous job.
Injury wise, I’ve got some really sad news. We continue to have some very unlucky breaks, these are some kids that have been exceptional for us during the season, I can’t thank them enough for what they have done to help our football team. But Cam Smith unfortunately after an MRI has a torn ACL and will be out for the season, that will require surgery. Lamar Dawson suffered a shoulder injury that will require surgery and will be unable to pay again this season. And our starting guard, Viane (Talamaivao) got a torn mensicus in his knee that we will go day to day with, it’s something that you can’t play with but obviously you have to be able to tolerate some pain, so we’ll have to see where he is, rehab wise. Until then, we’ll try to get Chris Brown ready.”
On filling the inside linebacker spot that both Smith and Dawson play
CH: “We’re going to have to look, thank goodness we were deep at the position, we have to take a next man up mentality. You know, Boodah (Olajuwon) Tucker played in that game for us as well as we have Michael Hutchings. One of the swing guys that we’ve been able to use to has been Uchenna (Nwosu), can come into the box also and you still have Anthony Sarao. So we feel confident that with those four guys being on the interior that we can hold up. And we may look at Jabari (Ruffin). Jabari has not only been a rush but he’s also been a SAM backer, to be able to possibly back up Su’a also. Fortunately, we’ve got some depth to back up the position and we’ll take a next man up mentality, we trust those kids’ talent and it’s their time to help our football team.”
On getting into a better rhythm early which seems to be a problem of late
CH: “Just the last two games in my opinion. I went back and broke it down and after watching the tape, I really thought there were a couple areas that we need to be better at. I thought we had some missed assignments especially in the first quarter offensively that we need to address. That hurt us in the run game. We really were trying to establish the run game early, verse a lot of one high coverage. But I felt like we really wanted to establish that to be able to to create some one-on-one match ups which paid off later for us, especially, the one that sticks in my mind is the touchdown to JuJu verse that one high coverage. So the missed assignments were I think were critical and something we need to address. And then the third down efficiency. I look at the first half and we go one for seven and then you come back in the second half and you go four of six. We knew we had to keep the ball away from a very talented offense that can run the ball. And then defensively, I felt the same thing. We were three of six in the first half and then two of seven in the second so we got off the field in the second half. And then the turnover, the turnover I thought on the miscommunication of the route there on third down gave them the ball in the red zone. So it’s something we’re going to have to address. I think we’re a very talented offense, I think that we’ve shown that throughout the season and it’s something that we’ll make sure we address going into Oregon.”
Opening Statement
Clay Helton: “Very proud of our football team for their fourth consecutive Pac-12 victory. You know, the Pac-12, I think, is an exceptional conference and every victory that you get on the road should be celebrated. 4-0 in the second half of our season, 2-0 in November and still trying to make this championship run which we’re very proud of. Somebody did tell me it was the first time since 2005 to come back from a double digit deficit. Obviously we don’t want to be in that situation but I think once more, again, it shows the mental toughness of this football team, to be able to come back in that situation and show extreme poise. After watching the tape, I felt like our blueprint for winning showed up again. We out rushed our opponent, holding a team that was averaging over 108 yards a game to only 59 yards, 1.6 per rush and we didn’t lose the turnover battle again. That’s been our key to winning these last four Pac-12 victories. I think our defensive front continues to improve. Six sacks and ten tackles for loss. I believe that’s 19 sacks in the last five games.
Players that have really stood out in my mind, Delvon Simmons, I thought was exceptional, having two sacks and a caused fumble, a blocked field goal. You know, the caused fumble and the blocked field goal were huge momentum changers in that second half and can’t say enough about him. Su’a Cravens, I just felt like, it just felt like he was all over the field, making great plays, had eight tackles and a sack, two tackles for loss. I thought he did a tremendous job. Cody Kessler, I can’t speak enough about his leadership and his poise. To come out in that second half, go 9-for-12 and have three touchdown passes that second half, he just didn’t look unfazed and he led us to a big victory. And I was proud of Justin Davis, I thought a very physical, mature running style, averaging 6.1 yards per carry and you know, once again, you look up and its third and six to end the game, like it was at Cal and he makes the play, does a tremendous job.
Injury wise, I’ve got some really sad news. We continue to have some very unlucky breaks, these are some kids that have been exceptional for us during the season, I can’t thank them enough for what they have done to help our football team. But Cam Smith unfortunately after an MRI has a torn ACL and will be out for the season, that will require surgery. Lamar Dawson suffered a shoulder injury that will require surgery and will be unable to pay again this season. And our starting guard, Viane (Talamaivao) got a torn mensicus in his knee that we will go day to day with, it’s something that you can’t play with but obviously you have to be able to tolerate some pain, so we’ll have to see where he is, rehab wise. Until then, we’ll try to get Chris Brown ready.”
On filling the inside linebacker spot that both Smith and Dawson play
CH: “We’re going to have to look, thank goodness we were deep at the position, we have to take a next man up mentality. You know, Boodah (Olajuwon) Tucker played in that game for us as well as we have Michael Hutchings. One of the swing guys that we’ve been able to use to has been Uchenna (Nwosu), can come into the box also and you still have Anthony Sarao. So we feel confident that with those four guys being on the interior that we can hold up. And we may look at Jabari (Ruffin). Jabari has not only been a rush but he’s also been a SAM backer, to be able to possibly back up Su’a also. Fortunately, we’ve got some depth to back up the position and we’ll take a next man up mentality, we trust those kids’ talent and it’s their time to help our football team.”
On getting into a better rhythm early which seems to be a problem of late
CH: “Just the last two games in my opinion. I went back and broke it down and after watching the tape, I really thought there were a couple areas that we need to be better at. I thought we had some missed assignments especially in the first quarter offensively that we need to address. That hurt us in the run game. We really were trying to establish the run game early, verse a lot of one high coverage. But I felt like we really wanted to establish that to be able to to create some one-on-one match ups which paid off later for us, especially, the one that sticks in my mind is the touchdown to JuJu verse that one high coverage. So the missed assignments were I think were critical and something we need to address. And then the third down efficiency. I look at the first half and we go one for seven and then you come back in the second half and you go four of six. We knew we had to keep the ball away from a very talented offense that can run the ball. And then defensively, I felt the same thing. We were three of six in the first half and then two of seven in the second so we got off the field in the second half. And then the turnover, the turnover I thought on the miscommunication of the route there on third down gave them the ball in the red zone. So it’s something we’re going to have to address. I think we’re a very talented offense, I think that we’ve shown that throughout the season and it’s something that we’ll make sure we address going into Oregon.”
