Some of these appeared in stories we wrote throughout the week. Others didn't. But here they are, the most interesting comments from USC players and coaches this week all in one spot.
Clay Helton
On QB JT Daniels ...
"I wish everybody could see him on the sideline and see his demeanor and his poise. It's been like the other ones I've been around, the good ones, that it doesn't faze him. You can tell he's having fun out there. You can tell he has management of the game and sees everything that's going on, which is great. He's a really good communicator as far as what he saw and why he pulled the trigger. So sky's the limit for the kid. After Game 4, I really like where he's at. He's not a finished product, but I'm going to tell you, for being where he's at at 18 four games in, I'll take another performance like he had last week."
On the significance of the Arizona game ...
"Really important game for us. Not only a road game, but really when you talk about Pac-12 South games and I think about the past, it's so important that you make your Pac-12 South wins. The last two times we've gone to the Pac-12 championship, we had to run the table in the Pac-12 South and here's our first game with a Pac-12 South opponent. It's a very, very important game in our mind. I know it's the next one, but anytime that you compete against a Pac-12 South opponent, you know that you control your own destiny by getting those wins."
On what he's seen from Arizona ...
"Coach [Kevin] Sumlin I think has done a great job progressing his team from Game 1 to Game 4, coming off back-to-back wins and you can see what he's doing offensively. We all know about [quarterback] Khalil Tate, we know how dangerous he is, but what I've been really impressed with is how they've been able to manage [him]. He's got an ankle right now that is limiting him in the run game, but they've done a really nice job with Khalil in the RPO game and taking deep ball shots. They're leaning on the running back in J.J. Taylor, who did a heck of a job last week with like 286 yards [284] vs. Oregon State. And then mix in the RPO game and the play-action shots off of it, and you look up and Khalil's thrown for 260 yards a game, they're rushing for 240 and they're an explosive, explosive offense averaging 7 yards a play."
Offensive coordinator Tee Martin
On encouraging signs from the ground game last week ...
"We had a good night Friday night. It was good to get some explosion runs and some chunk runs, that was good, but we want to continue to strive for consistency and not get negative plays and things of that nature. When we're on the right people and we're communicating up front and getting on the right guys, we've been doing pretty good all season. But when that doesn't happen, that's not the case. We did a better job Friday, so a lot of positive out of Friday and I want to keep building on that."
On using a little fullback, I-formation last week ...
"It's a package that we have when needed. It's something we put in this spring and throughout training camp, and when we have an opportunity to use it based on the structures that we're playing against then we will. If the opportunity doesn't present itself, then you won't see it."
On the snapping issues last week ...
"Got to get better, just can't have it. They were making some hard verbal cadences themselves on defense, and a couple times they got penalized for it and a couple times they didn't. And I think it affected the snaps. And it's just hard. They've got the nose guard moving right in front of you, two or three D-linemen moving right in front of you. That was hard for him, but no, it's something that we've got to get better at -- the low and the high snaps. ... It's something that we addressed in the meetings. It's something that we addressed [Tuesday] in practice."
On the running back rotation ...
"Well, Clay substitutes the running backs on the sideline during the game. I think he does it based on the feel and how they're looking. I'm upstairs, myself and [running backs coach Tim] Drevno are upstairs, so he manages based on how he feels and what he sees."
Defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast
On the performance of the cornerbacks last week ...
"I felt like that Iman [Marshall] played pretty well. I felt like he's played pretty well through the first part of the season. We identified some things that he needed to work on to get better, and he's working at them hard and I thought he played pretty well. ... I thought it was inconsistent on the left side. Too many explosive plays. You know, we've just got to continue to keep working at that left corner position and try to build some continuity there."
On freshman corner Olaijah Griffin ...
"I think he's a player that's very instinctive. That's why we recruited him and you saw that in fall camp, and I can see him continue to grow as the season's gone on."
On the breakout game from freshman safety Talanoa Hufanga ..
"If he gets a full week of practice at one position, he's a guy that very rarely do you have to tell him something twice. So he's a very coachable kid, and I think we'll all be glad that he got to play this early as a true freshman onward down the line. He's gaining some valuable experience."
On lack of interceptions despite having 29 pass breakups ...
"Believe me, we talk about it a lot. Maybe we're trying too hard. We always stay out here, we throw balls, we talk about location of ball, location of reading the quarterback, location of receiver, location down the field between the defensive player and the receiver. So we've just got to keep working it, I think. A lot of times over my career the turnovers kind of come in bunches, so hopefully sometime soon that will start falling in our favor. But it's definitely something that we're not happy about, with really the fumbles either. We haven't caused enough turnovers."
QBs coach Bryan Ellis
On communicating with JT Daniels during the game ...
"Every time he came over he's got good suggestions, and I've got good things to tell him and it's a great conversation on the sideline."
On whether Daniels is surprising him with any of his big throws ...
"He's not a freshman anymore. We're going on Game 5. He's got some experience now. No, it's not a shock anymore."
Quarterback JT Daniels
On his thoughts reflecting back on his last game ...
"There's a lot of good things, a lot of things we're getting better on as an offense and as a whole. Real close to some timing things that we'll be connecting on, I think, a lot more soon. But I think we're going in a positive direction."
On his confidence that the offensive breakout last week is sustainable moving forward ...
"I think I'm more confident that we'll just keep getting better and better. If you look at the general trend of all of our games, I think there's been like one or two things off in each game as an offense that last Friday there wasn't anything that was just off. Now we've just got to improve in every area and start getting better at the things that we're now starting to execute on."
On his unrestrained confidence throwing the deep ball ...
"When you have Michael Pittman and Tyler Vaughns and Amon-Ra [St. Brown], what they do so well is you're really not going to throw an interception on a deep ball. They'll make sure that either they catch it or the ball hits the ground. When you have guys like that, there's no reason not to take your shots when you have them. And even when you don't, there are plays that Pitt and Tyler and Amon shouldn't come up with that they'll come up with."
On what he's learned to improve his chemistry with Pittman and Vaughns ...
"A guy like Tyler, just make sure you don't overthrow Tyler because Tyler will make sure it's a catch or it's hitting the ground. Pitt has some real speed, he's got a second and third gear when the ball's in the air so Pitt's a guy I want to throw the ball deep and throw it out there and let him run under it."
Wide receiver Michael Pittman
On rounding into form ...
"I've been getting better as like time goes on. I had a shoulder and it just keeps on getting better and better each week, so I'm starting to get back to where I can move without thinking about the pain in the back of my head. I'm getting to that point where it's almost like I'm 100 percent."
On Daniels' aggressive downfield mentality ...
"We like knew him before he even came in here because he'd always be up at practice and we would work with him like off of campus. We'd go meet him somewhere, so we always knew that he was that guy. His confidence and mentality, you just know that he's a crazy dude. ... He's definitely not gun shy."
Cornerback Olaijah Griffin
On preparing for a larger role this week ...
"I feel really good. My confidence is really up high right now, and as long as I keep working and I just keep getting reps with the 1s I'm going to be even more confident."
On the adjustment for him his first month of college football ...
"No adjustment. Just keep working on my craft and just trying to get better. Same me, same OG just working. ... I knew my time was going to come soon, but I just know I had to keep working and get better."
Clay Helton
On QB JT Daniels ...
"I wish everybody could see him on the sideline and see his demeanor and his poise. It's been like the other ones I've been around, the good ones, that it doesn't faze him. You can tell he's having fun out there. You can tell he has management of the game and sees everything that's going on, which is great. He's a really good communicator as far as what he saw and why he pulled the trigger. So sky's the limit for the kid. After Game 4, I really like where he's at. He's not a finished product, but I'm going to tell you, for being where he's at at 18 four games in, I'll take another performance like he had last week."
On the significance of the Arizona game ...
"Really important game for us. Not only a road game, but really when you talk about Pac-12 South games and I think about the past, it's so important that you make your Pac-12 South wins. The last two times we've gone to the Pac-12 championship, we had to run the table in the Pac-12 South and here's our first game with a Pac-12 South opponent. It's a very, very important game in our mind. I know it's the next one, but anytime that you compete against a Pac-12 South opponent, you know that you control your own destiny by getting those wins."
On what he's seen from Arizona ...
"Coach [Kevin] Sumlin I think has done a great job progressing his team from Game 1 to Game 4, coming off back-to-back wins and you can see what he's doing offensively. We all know about [quarterback] Khalil Tate, we know how dangerous he is, but what I've been really impressed with is how they've been able to manage [him]. He's got an ankle right now that is limiting him in the run game, but they've done a really nice job with Khalil in the RPO game and taking deep ball shots. They're leaning on the running back in J.J. Taylor, who did a heck of a job last week with like 286 yards [284] vs. Oregon State. And then mix in the RPO game and the play-action shots off of it, and you look up and Khalil's thrown for 260 yards a game, they're rushing for 240 and they're an explosive, explosive offense averaging 7 yards a play."
Offensive coordinator Tee Martin
On encouraging signs from the ground game last week ...
"We had a good night Friday night. It was good to get some explosion runs and some chunk runs, that was good, but we want to continue to strive for consistency and not get negative plays and things of that nature. When we're on the right people and we're communicating up front and getting on the right guys, we've been doing pretty good all season. But when that doesn't happen, that's not the case. We did a better job Friday, so a lot of positive out of Friday and I want to keep building on that."
On using a little fullback, I-formation last week ...
"It's a package that we have when needed. It's something we put in this spring and throughout training camp, and when we have an opportunity to use it based on the structures that we're playing against then we will. If the opportunity doesn't present itself, then you won't see it."
On the snapping issues last week ...
"Got to get better, just can't have it. They were making some hard verbal cadences themselves on defense, and a couple times they got penalized for it and a couple times they didn't. And I think it affected the snaps. And it's just hard. They've got the nose guard moving right in front of you, two or three D-linemen moving right in front of you. That was hard for him, but no, it's something that we've got to get better at -- the low and the high snaps. ... It's something that we addressed in the meetings. It's something that we addressed [Tuesday] in practice."
On the running back rotation ...
"Well, Clay substitutes the running backs on the sideline during the game. I think he does it based on the feel and how they're looking. I'm upstairs, myself and [running backs coach Tim] Drevno are upstairs, so he manages based on how he feels and what he sees."
Defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast
On the performance of the cornerbacks last week ...
"I felt like that Iman [Marshall] played pretty well. I felt like he's played pretty well through the first part of the season. We identified some things that he needed to work on to get better, and he's working at them hard and I thought he played pretty well. ... I thought it was inconsistent on the left side. Too many explosive plays. You know, we've just got to continue to keep working at that left corner position and try to build some continuity there."
On freshman corner Olaijah Griffin ...
"I think he's a player that's very instinctive. That's why we recruited him and you saw that in fall camp, and I can see him continue to grow as the season's gone on."
On the breakout game from freshman safety Talanoa Hufanga ..
"If he gets a full week of practice at one position, he's a guy that very rarely do you have to tell him something twice. So he's a very coachable kid, and I think we'll all be glad that he got to play this early as a true freshman onward down the line. He's gaining some valuable experience."
On lack of interceptions despite having 29 pass breakups ...
"Believe me, we talk about it a lot. Maybe we're trying too hard. We always stay out here, we throw balls, we talk about location of ball, location of reading the quarterback, location of receiver, location down the field between the defensive player and the receiver. So we've just got to keep working it, I think. A lot of times over my career the turnovers kind of come in bunches, so hopefully sometime soon that will start falling in our favor. But it's definitely something that we're not happy about, with really the fumbles either. We haven't caused enough turnovers."
QBs coach Bryan Ellis
On communicating with JT Daniels during the game ...
"Every time he came over he's got good suggestions, and I've got good things to tell him and it's a great conversation on the sideline."
On whether Daniels is surprising him with any of his big throws ...
"He's not a freshman anymore. We're going on Game 5. He's got some experience now. No, it's not a shock anymore."
Quarterback JT Daniels
On his thoughts reflecting back on his last game ...
"There's a lot of good things, a lot of things we're getting better on as an offense and as a whole. Real close to some timing things that we'll be connecting on, I think, a lot more soon. But I think we're going in a positive direction."
On his confidence that the offensive breakout last week is sustainable moving forward ...
"I think I'm more confident that we'll just keep getting better and better. If you look at the general trend of all of our games, I think there's been like one or two things off in each game as an offense that last Friday there wasn't anything that was just off. Now we've just got to improve in every area and start getting better at the things that we're now starting to execute on."
On his unrestrained confidence throwing the deep ball ...
"When you have Michael Pittman and Tyler Vaughns and Amon-Ra [St. Brown], what they do so well is you're really not going to throw an interception on a deep ball. They'll make sure that either they catch it or the ball hits the ground. When you have guys like that, there's no reason not to take your shots when you have them. And even when you don't, there are plays that Pitt and Tyler and Amon shouldn't come up with that they'll come up with."
On what he's learned to improve his chemistry with Pittman and Vaughns ...
"A guy like Tyler, just make sure you don't overthrow Tyler because Tyler will make sure it's a catch or it's hitting the ground. Pitt has some real speed, he's got a second and third gear when the ball's in the air so Pitt's a guy I want to throw the ball deep and throw it out there and let him run under it."
Wide receiver Michael Pittman
On rounding into form ...
"I've been getting better as like time goes on. I had a shoulder and it just keeps on getting better and better each week, so I'm starting to get back to where I can move without thinking about the pain in the back of my head. I'm getting to that point where it's almost like I'm 100 percent."
On Daniels' aggressive downfield mentality ...
"We like knew him before he even came in here because he'd always be up at practice and we would work with him like off of campus. We'd go meet him somewhere, so we always knew that he was that guy. His confidence and mentality, you just know that he's a crazy dude. ... He's definitely not gun shy."
Cornerback Olaijah Griffin
On preparing for a larger role this week ...
"I feel really good. My confidence is really up high right now, and as long as I keep working and I just keep getting reps with the 1s I'm going to be even more confident."
On the adjustment for him his first month of college football ...
"No adjustment. Just keep working on my craft and just trying to get better. Same me, same OG just working. ... I knew my time was going to come soon, but I just know I had to keep working and get better."
