Full transcript from Clay Helton's Sunday teleconference...
Opening Statement
CH: “Obviously a big win for our program and our Trojan family. Watching the tape, I definitely thought it was our most consistent performance as a team. We played exceptionally well as a team. Defensively, I thought it was our best game on the defensive front. One, controlling the run but two also getting to the passer and getting him off his spot, which I think created turnovers. Obviously Cam Smith did a terrific job in the game of really providing an unbelievable spark for us. Going back and watching the tape, three incredible plays he made on the interceptions. But he was just a consistent force all game. Offensively, I thought the quarterback was extremely efficient, a couple plays we would like to have back but really did a great job of securing the ball and giving us a chance to win. Being plus for on turnover ratio I thought was a huge part in the game. I’m very proud of an offensive line that was young and beat up. To come in and do what they did, I thought they played with physicality, the runners ran with physicality and probably besides Cam Smith, the second biggest star of the game was Khaliel Rodgers. Anytime you get your third string and he goes in there and does what he did and played extremely well, allowing us to function as an offense, I thought it was great. Special teams wise, a couple things to clean up. Obviously we missed another field goal which has been critical for us this season. We have to get that fixed and then had another punt that was tipped past the line of scrimmage. But must get better in the protection part of that phase, again.”
On USC doing exactly what was planned
CH: “Yeah, the last slide we showed the guys before getting on the bus was, you know, we had three phases of the game we thought were critical. Stop the run with a great running back in Booker, bing able to run the ball physically even though they may be tough yards. And then protecting the football was the third phase. And when you look out it, out gaining your opponent in rushing and then being able to protect that ball I thought was the key to the game, plus four turnovers really gave us a great opportunity to put points on the board.”
On whether USC did something different schematically
CH: “We didn’t have the assignment busts that we had at Notre Dame. There was 11 guys just playing on the field doing their job and doing it extremely well, at a high level. Schemes, we’ve called those defensive fronts before but the kids really bought into, hey I’m going to do my job, I’m going to do my assignment, I’m going to trust my brother that’s beside me to do his job. And they were in the right place all night. I think we had one missed assignment on the defensive front that ended up being the longest run of the game. Besides that, they were just solid, play after play after play. When you play sound football with that type of talent on the field, it’s going to be a good day. Extremely proud of out defense, they carried us in that game.”
On becoming USC's permanent head coach
CH: “I’ll let everybody else speculate. I gotta do my job right now and my job is to focus on Cal and to focus on the welfare of these kids. That’s all I can do and that’s what I’m going to do, taking care of these kids and giving them a consistent day in and day out performance as a coach with a coaching staff that’s going to coach their butts off and then worry about it at the end of the season. I’ve said yes, I want the job, there’s no question. I’d be lying if I didn’t. But my day in and day out performance needs to be focused on the kids and winning the next game and I’ll let everyone else speculate on the job.”
On Adoree’ Jackson’s role
CH: “Definitely, it’s a game to game type thing. We were playing a heavy run oriented offense and we were down receivers to be honest with you. And for him to come in and give us the spark that he gave us, he was in the fifties with his overall. The Washington game, he was right at a hundred, which is a lot of plays. The next game, he was right about eighty and in this he was in the mid-fifties. He gave us a great spark. He had eight touches in the game, moving the chains. I know he didn’t show the explosive plays in this, we missed one block on one play, but he gave us a great spark. And you know what he did, everybody pays attention to him. He really freed up No. 9 (JuJu Smith-Schuster) to do some special things, also. So he helped us on offense when we really, really needed him. Obviously, we’re playing a pass offense that is a very, very deep threat this week, probably the best receiving corp that we’ve faced all year with a very talented quarterback. I anticipate him being a little bit more on defense than he was last game. He played two third down snaps for us in the game and really focused on offense and special teams. Credit to Keith Heyward and Justin Wilcox for getting that back end ready and doing the performance that they did without him. But he carried us a bunch on offense this week.”
Injury updates
CH: “Unfortunately, Toa (Lobendahn) has a torn ACL that will require surgery. That’ll be season ending. Two tight ends were actually good news. We X-rayed Tyler (Petite) and Tyler did not have a break in his foot… So that’ll be a pain tolerance thing… Taylor did dislocated his shoulder, it popped right back in and the MRI showed no tear. So again, that’ll be a pain tolerance thing. We’ll try to limit contact with him this week and see where we are for game. So I’ll know a little bit further in the week where they are. Other injuries that were out there, Rasheem Green had a knee injury that the MRI came back as okay, it’s going to be pain tolerance. And then Marvell, Marvell Tell, we got bad news, he does have a broken clavicle that will be 6-8 weeks. ... Neither one of them (Tell and Isaac Whitney, both broken clavicles) looks like their going to require surgery. They were clean breaks. Usually those injuries take about six weeks to re-evaluate, but it’s a minimum six weeks.”
On USC’s offensive pace
CH: “We fluctuated in and out of tempo as you saw. Sometimes just running a little bit more clock, getting the young kids lined up, making sure our communication was good before running the play. Then when you get a little bit ahead, like we were, obviously, time management, your position as a play caller is to control that play clock and run some time off. There was some deliberate attempts to be able to slow the game down and then to speed it up at times so we went in and out of it.”
On deferring the coin toss
CH: “I actually went up to the captains and we were thinking about taking the ball. Cody and I were sitting there and he says coach, let’s make a statement with our defense, let’s go out there and get a stop. I said you know what buddy, you’re right, let’s go do it. So it just set a tone, we thought our defense would give us a spark. We said, hey men, you’re going to have a great game this day and they did. They came out right from the get go and I thought they played tremendously. Again I thought the overall performance of our defense won the game.”
On how USC has lost three games this year
CH: “I think last night we played our most consistent game like I said. And I think consistency is the key both on and off the field. I really felt by eliminating the mistakes that we had, especially, you look at the Notre Dame game and you see the mistakes that cost us ten points playing a very, very good team. We’re going to play great teams from here on out, all Pac-12 teams are championship games basically every week. You have to bring your A-game. I think the kids just did a tremendous job this week of focusing on the assignment part of the game. They played with tremendous effort in the Notre Dame game but we lacked the assignment part of it. This week, they played with great effort and with great assignment and like I told them after the game, guys if you do that, you’re a very dangerous team, you can beat anybody in the country.”
On where the victory ranks compared to others in recent memory
CH: “It was a good win. Definitely a good win at the correct time. We were at kind of a crossroad in our season. And the second half of our season started, the second half of our season and really going into Pac-12 play, for this season, it was a very, very big win, huge win.”
On backup center to Khaliel Rodgers
CH: “We’re going to have to train, probably Nico (Falah) and then you have Cole Smith as a true freshman. Those will be the two that will train this week as a two and three. Obviously we’re going to look at Nico who’s done some quarterback-center exchange with us and getting him assignment sound there. And Cole was with us last week, obviously a freshman, but we’ll have to prepare those two kids. We’ll go through the week and see how that’s going and see who gives us the best option as a back up center. Obviously, a hard situation.”
On the play of his two offensive tackles
CH: “I was so proud of both kids (Zach Banner and Chuma Edoga). Obviously not the ideal situation when you’ve both been trained at right tackle. I really thought Zach, going over to the left side and doing what he did, I thought he was tremendous in pass protection. He did some good things in the run game. You know, I’m always hard on him because he’s an older kid. He’s got some corrections to make but I thought he was truly efficient in the pass game and did a tremendous job. And then Chuma coming in, the way he competed early on, he had a very senior oriented kid that’s really talented on him, the guy gave him a couple good pass rush moves early. But you know what for a true freshman to be in there, to compete like he did and to really get comfortable in his own skin as the game went on, both those kids performed efficiently enough for us to win the ball game.”
Opening Statement
CH: “Obviously a big win for our program and our Trojan family. Watching the tape, I definitely thought it was our most consistent performance as a team. We played exceptionally well as a team. Defensively, I thought it was our best game on the defensive front. One, controlling the run but two also getting to the passer and getting him off his spot, which I think created turnovers. Obviously Cam Smith did a terrific job in the game of really providing an unbelievable spark for us. Going back and watching the tape, three incredible plays he made on the interceptions. But he was just a consistent force all game. Offensively, I thought the quarterback was extremely efficient, a couple plays we would like to have back but really did a great job of securing the ball and giving us a chance to win. Being plus for on turnover ratio I thought was a huge part in the game. I’m very proud of an offensive line that was young and beat up. To come in and do what they did, I thought they played with physicality, the runners ran with physicality and probably besides Cam Smith, the second biggest star of the game was Khaliel Rodgers. Anytime you get your third string and he goes in there and does what he did and played extremely well, allowing us to function as an offense, I thought it was great. Special teams wise, a couple things to clean up. Obviously we missed another field goal which has been critical for us this season. We have to get that fixed and then had another punt that was tipped past the line of scrimmage. But must get better in the protection part of that phase, again.”
On USC doing exactly what was planned
CH: “Yeah, the last slide we showed the guys before getting on the bus was, you know, we had three phases of the game we thought were critical. Stop the run with a great running back in Booker, bing able to run the ball physically even though they may be tough yards. And then protecting the football was the third phase. And when you look out it, out gaining your opponent in rushing and then being able to protect that ball I thought was the key to the game, plus four turnovers really gave us a great opportunity to put points on the board.”
On whether USC did something different schematically
CH: “We didn’t have the assignment busts that we had at Notre Dame. There was 11 guys just playing on the field doing their job and doing it extremely well, at a high level. Schemes, we’ve called those defensive fronts before but the kids really bought into, hey I’m going to do my job, I’m going to do my assignment, I’m going to trust my brother that’s beside me to do his job. And they were in the right place all night. I think we had one missed assignment on the defensive front that ended up being the longest run of the game. Besides that, they were just solid, play after play after play. When you play sound football with that type of talent on the field, it’s going to be a good day. Extremely proud of out defense, they carried us in that game.”
On becoming USC's permanent head coach
CH: “I’ll let everybody else speculate. I gotta do my job right now and my job is to focus on Cal and to focus on the welfare of these kids. That’s all I can do and that’s what I’m going to do, taking care of these kids and giving them a consistent day in and day out performance as a coach with a coaching staff that’s going to coach their butts off and then worry about it at the end of the season. I’ve said yes, I want the job, there’s no question. I’d be lying if I didn’t. But my day in and day out performance needs to be focused on the kids and winning the next game and I’ll let everyone else speculate on the job.”
On Adoree’ Jackson’s role
CH: “Definitely, it’s a game to game type thing. We were playing a heavy run oriented offense and we were down receivers to be honest with you. And for him to come in and give us the spark that he gave us, he was in the fifties with his overall. The Washington game, he was right at a hundred, which is a lot of plays. The next game, he was right about eighty and in this he was in the mid-fifties. He gave us a great spark. He had eight touches in the game, moving the chains. I know he didn’t show the explosive plays in this, we missed one block on one play, but he gave us a great spark. And you know what he did, everybody pays attention to him. He really freed up No. 9 (JuJu Smith-Schuster) to do some special things, also. So he helped us on offense when we really, really needed him. Obviously, we’re playing a pass offense that is a very, very deep threat this week, probably the best receiving corp that we’ve faced all year with a very talented quarterback. I anticipate him being a little bit more on defense than he was last game. He played two third down snaps for us in the game and really focused on offense and special teams. Credit to Keith Heyward and Justin Wilcox for getting that back end ready and doing the performance that they did without him. But he carried us a bunch on offense this week.”
Injury updates
CH: “Unfortunately, Toa (Lobendahn) has a torn ACL that will require surgery. That’ll be season ending. Two tight ends were actually good news. We X-rayed Tyler (Petite) and Tyler did not have a break in his foot… So that’ll be a pain tolerance thing… Taylor did dislocated his shoulder, it popped right back in and the MRI showed no tear. So again, that’ll be a pain tolerance thing. We’ll try to limit contact with him this week and see where we are for game. So I’ll know a little bit further in the week where they are. Other injuries that were out there, Rasheem Green had a knee injury that the MRI came back as okay, it’s going to be pain tolerance. And then Marvell, Marvell Tell, we got bad news, he does have a broken clavicle that will be 6-8 weeks. ... Neither one of them (Tell and Isaac Whitney, both broken clavicles) looks like their going to require surgery. They were clean breaks. Usually those injuries take about six weeks to re-evaluate, but it’s a minimum six weeks.”
On USC’s offensive pace
CH: “We fluctuated in and out of tempo as you saw. Sometimes just running a little bit more clock, getting the young kids lined up, making sure our communication was good before running the play. Then when you get a little bit ahead, like we were, obviously, time management, your position as a play caller is to control that play clock and run some time off. There was some deliberate attempts to be able to slow the game down and then to speed it up at times so we went in and out of it.”
On deferring the coin toss
CH: “I actually went up to the captains and we were thinking about taking the ball. Cody and I were sitting there and he says coach, let’s make a statement with our defense, let’s go out there and get a stop. I said you know what buddy, you’re right, let’s go do it. So it just set a tone, we thought our defense would give us a spark. We said, hey men, you’re going to have a great game this day and they did. They came out right from the get go and I thought they played tremendously. Again I thought the overall performance of our defense won the game.”
On how USC has lost three games this year
CH: “I think last night we played our most consistent game like I said. And I think consistency is the key both on and off the field. I really felt by eliminating the mistakes that we had, especially, you look at the Notre Dame game and you see the mistakes that cost us ten points playing a very, very good team. We’re going to play great teams from here on out, all Pac-12 teams are championship games basically every week. You have to bring your A-game. I think the kids just did a tremendous job this week of focusing on the assignment part of the game. They played with tremendous effort in the Notre Dame game but we lacked the assignment part of it. This week, they played with great effort and with great assignment and like I told them after the game, guys if you do that, you’re a very dangerous team, you can beat anybody in the country.”
On where the victory ranks compared to others in recent memory
CH: “It was a good win. Definitely a good win at the correct time. We were at kind of a crossroad in our season. And the second half of our season started, the second half of our season and really going into Pac-12 play, for this season, it was a very, very big win, huge win.”
On backup center to Khaliel Rodgers
CH: “We’re going to have to train, probably Nico (Falah) and then you have Cole Smith as a true freshman. Those will be the two that will train this week as a two and three. Obviously we’re going to look at Nico who’s done some quarterback-center exchange with us and getting him assignment sound there. And Cole was with us last week, obviously a freshman, but we’ll have to prepare those two kids. We’ll go through the week and see how that’s going and see who gives us the best option as a back up center. Obviously, a hard situation.”
On the play of his two offensive tackles
CH: “I was so proud of both kids (Zach Banner and Chuma Edoga). Obviously not the ideal situation when you’ve both been trained at right tackle. I really thought Zach, going over to the left side and doing what he did, I thought he was tremendous in pass protection. He did some good things in the run game. You know, I’m always hard on him because he’s an older kid. He’s got some corrections to make but I thought he was truly efficient in the pass game and did a tremendous job. And then Chuma coming in, the way he competed early on, he had a very senior oriented kid that’s really talented on him, the guy gave him a couple good pass rush moves early. But you know what for a true freshman to be in there, to compete like he did and to really get comfortable in his own skin as the game went on, both those kids performed efficiently enough for us to win the ball game.”
