You know what we definitely learned from USC spring practice?
You can’t always take the coaches’ word. This is why it gets dangerous when you become a stenographer for the coaches. Their analysis can be off base or embellished.
Some examples:
- Here’s what Lincoln Riley said during USC spring drills about the defense.
“What we’ve seen of those guys up to this point we’ve been very, very pleased with.”
If you watched Saturday’s scrimmage, you could have a different take. Watch this play. Two of the key missed tackles are by a player who has been with the first-string defense during spring (De’jon Benton, No. 79) and a player who is supposed to play a lot (Tackett Curtis, No. 25).
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsMarShawn Lloyd moving like this makes my heart happy pic.twitter.com/vXGXLri1Kq
— Jason DiRienzo (@allpurposescout) April 16, 2023
- USC linebackers coach Brian Odom said this last week about Curtis:
“You had a good idea of what his best was, but how consistently he’s close to his best, that’s the one thing that separates him from a lot of other people.”
- Riley on cornerback Ceyair Wright: “He’s been one of the, to me, breakout players. It sounds weird to say a breakout player for a guy that I think started nine games for us last year.”
- Riley on Korey Foreman: “He has improved and is such a better player right now than he was 12 months ago. It’s not even close. It is not even close.”
Neither player had breakout scrimmages.
- You know who tends to be more honest? The most unpopular coach with the fans, Alex Grinch.
“You can’t microwave it,” Grinch said this spring on fixing the defense. “You gotta go through it. And we also have to make sure as you go through it that at USC, we’re not afraid of the struggle. We’re not afraid of the hard stuff.”
- Former USC guard Malik Thomas is transferring to the University of San Francisco. He averaged 2.4 points per game last season.
InsideUSC with Scott Wolf 
Start Recruiting Defensive Lineman that can Tackle and Stop the Run… Needs to be Taken care of right now.. fight on.
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I think that Curtis will be good. He took a bad angle on that play and missed the tackle. He’s only a freshman. He should still be in high school. He has a lot to learn. I think that he will be good.
When are they going to get rid of Yogi Roth? As usual, he spent a ton of time on interviews right while the play is going on. The play was on a smaller portion of your tv screen so you can’t make out numbers. You want to know who made that tackle or who ran the ball but you never get that info because Yogi and his first mate Ted Robinson are talking about former USC players or NFL players or whatever. He’s SC’s version of Bill Walton who’s always taking about all the books he’s read while the basketball game is going on.
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agreed. he was in the right place, just a step behind. he isnt used to the speed of the player around him. give him some time and he will adjust and would have nailed that tackle.
i am more worried about the players who are simply in the wrong place all the time.
yogi – another reason to leave the Pac-12. goodbye.
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At best I saw reasons to be encouraged the defense will be better than last year,and enough to win some games SC lost in final minutes.Games are won in the 4th quarter if they are close ’cause the defense rises to the occasion.
The offense is very good ,almost excellent with Williams at q/b.
This fall ,competition will bring out the best in coaching .
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And there will be plenty of competition
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I certainly want wouldn’t want to be your stenographer. Negativity vexes my soul.
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You got me on that last comment. I just don’t know how it applies.
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hi john,40 pir scent of r playurs wir injirred satir day sow we aint play gud like the uthur teem,we wudda wun if we wuznt injirred,that aint a axscuse,thatsa facked,
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…plus 40% of the coaches of have been lying to their stenographers ….
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…please to delete 2nd “of”…..
#..BeforeCal75KicksMeToCurb[Again]….
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Nobody was playing 100% out there. You really can’t judge the defense by what you saw they’re just not going 100%. The only thing we learned from the practice as far as I’m concerned is we have a lot more speed with Zachariah branch the two freshman running backs and Marshawn Lloyd.
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I learned that Raleek Brown is going to be really good in the slot. That change of direction was an epic cut. I dont think there is a defensive player who could have touched him.
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And besides, the coaches have had weeks to evaluate their players whereas there were only a relatively few plays in the scrimmage to go by, but don’t let reality
obscure one’s opinions
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Ha! At InsideUSC everyone has the right to obscure reality…..
#…AllTheyWant…
#[ToParaphraseMikeBohn:”IsThisAGreatSiteOrWhat?!”]
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It appears the players were given rules about tackling – no tackling below the waist in this practice game. So it was more of a flag football game. So don’t blame Tackett for the rules.
USC is a soft team. Teams like Utah know they can beat them just playing tough for four quarters.
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Caleb is gonna teach Utah a lesson before USC leaves Pac 12….
#He’llProbablyHaveToDoItTwice
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Lets all give Alex Grinch a break this year as it is going to be his last. No need to beat him while he is down.
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wtf?
#SCGrad:YouKnowTheRulesHere…
#…BeatingPeopleWhenThey’reDownIsWhatWeDoBestHere
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Okay here we go being asked to discount what coaches say by the guy who quotes unnamed coaches.
For the spring game I wanted to see the best against the best. I didn’t. ( Owns will tell me that’s because Ucla wasn’t available and Cal75 will say something clever) Instead I saw what the coaches wanted to see, various players in a game like setting.
We call them scrimmages for a reason. They are simulated games choreographed to see how players respond. They don’t count against the record and there’s film to be dissected.
When our blog overlord quotes coach Ian Maihead, remember he has told us a coach’s word can’t be trusted.
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According to CA representative Judy Chu “Mifepristone is safer than Tylenol”.
I don’t think the babies would agree. 👶
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Don’t ever knock, Judy Chu….. she’s done SO much good over the course of her life…. she just never stops bringing more good to the table…
#…That’sWhoSheIs…
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And to think we used to complain about “activist judges”
They’re totally fine when it goes our way!
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You mean the way they’re supposed to, as defined by the Constitution?
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
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So Cal — It’s funny someone calls himself “White Male Land Owner”….cuz… according to the Supreme Court NO ONE owns their land anymore. The concept of the Fee Simple is dead. ALL land is “subject to local, state and federal regulation, control and seizure.”
SuggestionForNewName:”OwnerOfDiminishingFee”
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They’ll take my land from my COLD…DEAD…HANDS!
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We Democrats love our 65 million murdered unborn Americans in the last half century based on a zone of privacy, penumbras and emanations. Then we open the Southern border to make up the shortage!
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Scott Wolf is being melodramatic. They are no rules about tackling “soft” or above the waist only. You tackle some the waist or these guys will embarrass you-like Curtis got embarrassed. The key is the next play folks. It didn’t happen again. That’s the difference. It won’t happen again and again. Vanilla offense vs vanilla defense and the defense was able to compete albeit barely. A great game by anyone in April means nothing in August. I believe another monster D-tackle is in order just in case Barrs gets hurt. But this year team is really longer and decidedly stronger while still being fast. Now can they survive the summer?
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Coach Riley asked everybody to make “smart decisions over summer.”
#HopeTheyWereListening…
#[If”Yes”,We’reGoodToGo]
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Scooter,
A very big and serious problem: I made a copy of the USC roster and took it to the scrimmage. Wehn I started looking at it, I saw they had No. 11 and then when i was looking for No. 13, Caleb’s number it was not there. The next number was No. 14. That shows you the incompetency of SC public relations. Does this reflect on the football team? i bet it does
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Scott gives no credit to #28 who tackled Lloyd, despite getting juked by him. The kid didn’t give up on the play.
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