Highlights from our best player and coach interviews heading into Saturday's game at Cal ...
Justin Wilcox
Cal quarterback Jared Goff is well-rounded.
"He’s tough. He’ll stand in there and throw it with rush on him. He’ll step into it and delivered the ball. He can make throws off balance. He’s just a really good player."
USC did the little things on defense vs. Utah.
"The three plays Cameron (Smith) made were exceptional, changed the game. But the rest of them were just very solid plays — guys fitting the right gaps, playing with good technique and doing it consistently. And that’s what it takes. It doesn’t take a superhuman effort, generally. You just have to be consistent and stay patient and do your job over and over again, with great technique and effort. We tackled better, got a lot of guys to the football and pushed the pile back. It’s all those small details that end up making the difference in the game. I don’t look at it like it was a special effort."
He can’t say why exactly there were fewer mental mistakes.
"I wish there was an easy answer for that. I think it’s just mental intensity, focus, the ability to do your job and perform consistently, over and over and over again. It’s not one play and then take the next one off. It’s that consistency in performance."
Cal is pass–heavy but is not a one-dimensional offense.
"I think you want to try and make any team one dimensional. But Cal is running the ball 160 yards a game. It’s not like you can just sit back and play two man the entire game. We have to do a good job up front of run, screen and then rush the quarterback. Whether we’re pressuring him or rushing four, we got to do a good job in all of those to play a good game versus these guys."
Su’a Cravens
There is a bullseye on Goff.
“He’s really good. He’s a really good quarterback and if you let him stay in the pocket, he’s going to move around and make a lot of plays. … (The key is) getting pressure on the quarterback. We watched some of the film from this year and whenever he gets pressure on him, he struggles kind of getting out the pocket and throwing on the run. But he can still do it, he’s an athletic guy and he can run the ball too. So the more pressure we get on him, the better we’ll do. …
“I think if we get the ball out of Jared’s hand, we’re going to do a lot better than we should. I mean, he’s the captain of that team, he’s a potential first pick off the board. So if we get the ball out of his hands and make them run the ball or make their receivers win the game, I think we have a better chance of winning. … No long throws. Just keep them short or intermediate and make their receivers make plays.”
The defense might be turning a corner because of depth and experience.
“I think so. I think that the defense we’re running now is known, so I think that the guys that we have are a lot more comfortable running what we do. Last year they were kind of new to it and with the lack of the depth that we had guys were forced to play positions they weren’t comfortable with. But now if a guy can’t play quarters or if a guy can’t play cover three, we have a safety we can rotate with him that’s better at that defense. So I think we should be fine.”
His role will be a bit different this week.
“I get the chance to be in coverage a lot more than normal. But they run the ball, they almost average the same amount of rushing yards as we do on offense. So we’re going to have to stop the run before anything. But we plan on them opening up their offense and attack our corners and safeties, so I’ll be back there.”
Greg Townsend
Losing Steve Sarkisian has galvanized the locker room.
"We love Coach (Clay) Helton. We support him and we want to have his back. We loved Coach Sark, we had his back. But like I said, we’re just coming together and playing as more of a team, playing for each other. That’s something that we learned to do when we had Coach O (Ed Orgeron). It’s the guys not wanting to give up on the coach just because we lost a coach, not wanting to give up on the season. This is still our season. We got a lot of seniors in this group. We’re leading and trying to show the young guys we still got opportunities ahead of us."
Justin Wilcox
Cal quarterback Jared Goff is well-rounded.
"He’s tough. He’ll stand in there and throw it with rush on him. He’ll step into it and delivered the ball. He can make throws off balance. He’s just a really good player."
USC did the little things on defense vs. Utah.
"The three plays Cameron (Smith) made were exceptional, changed the game. But the rest of them were just very solid plays — guys fitting the right gaps, playing with good technique and doing it consistently. And that’s what it takes. It doesn’t take a superhuman effort, generally. You just have to be consistent and stay patient and do your job over and over again, with great technique and effort. We tackled better, got a lot of guys to the football and pushed the pile back. It’s all those small details that end up making the difference in the game. I don’t look at it like it was a special effort."
He can’t say why exactly there were fewer mental mistakes.
"I wish there was an easy answer for that. I think it’s just mental intensity, focus, the ability to do your job and perform consistently, over and over and over again. It’s not one play and then take the next one off. It’s that consistency in performance."
Cal is pass–heavy but is not a one-dimensional offense.
"I think you want to try and make any team one dimensional. But Cal is running the ball 160 yards a game. It’s not like you can just sit back and play two man the entire game. We have to do a good job up front of run, screen and then rush the quarterback. Whether we’re pressuring him or rushing four, we got to do a good job in all of those to play a good game versus these guys."
Su’a Cravens
There is a bullseye on Goff.
“He’s really good. He’s a really good quarterback and if you let him stay in the pocket, he’s going to move around and make a lot of plays. … (The key is) getting pressure on the quarterback. We watched some of the film from this year and whenever he gets pressure on him, he struggles kind of getting out the pocket and throwing on the run. But he can still do it, he’s an athletic guy and he can run the ball too. So the more pressure we get on him, the better we’ll do. …
“I think if we get the ball out of Jared’s hand, we’re going to do a lot better than we should. I mean, he’s the captain of that team, he’s a potential first pick off the board. So if we get the ball out of his hands and make them run the ball or make their receivers win the game, I think we have a better chance of winning. … No long throws. Just keep them short or intermediate and make their receivers make plays.”
The defense might be turning a corner because of depth and experience.
“I think so. I think that the defense we’re running now is known, so I think that the guys that we have are a lot more comfortable running what we do. Last year they were kind of new to it and with the lack of the depth that we had guys were forced to play positions they weren’t comfortable with. But now if a guy can’t play quarters or if a guy can’t play cover three, we have a safety we can rotate with him that’s better at that defense. So I think we should be fine.”
His role will be a bit different this week.
“I get the chance to be in coverage a lot more than normal. But they run the ball, they almost average the same amount of rushing yards as we do on offense. So we’re going to have to stop the run before anything. But we plan on them opening up their offense and attack our corners and safeties, so I’ll be back there.”
Greg Townsend
Losing Steve Sarkisian has galvanized the locker room.
"We love Coach (Clay) Helton. We support him and we want to have his back. We loved Coach Sark, we had his back. But like I said, we’re just coming together and playing as more of a team, playing for each other. That’s something that we learned to do when we had Coach O (Ed Orgeron). It’s the guys not wanting to give up on the coach just because we lost a coach, not wanting to give up on the season. This is still our season. We got a lot of seniors in this group. We’re leading and trying to show the young guys we still got opportunities ahead of us."
