Following Wednesday's physical practice, the Trojans will have two days off before the start of their modified game week on Saturday.
- Redshirt senior DT Antwaun Woods - who has been limited in the last week with a shoulder problem - "tweaked" his pectoral muscle in practice, redshirt junior TE Taylor McNamara rolled his ankle and redshirt junior WR Christian Tober will be out "for a while" with a broken clavicle, head coach Steve Sarkisian announced on Wednesday.
- Sophomore wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster missed his second consecutive practice due to "personal reasons" according to Sarkisian.
- On a positive note, senior CB Kevon Seymour increased his workload a bit on Wednesday, a promising sign for the head coach. "He looked a lot better today," Sarkisian explained. "From where he was maybe a week ago at this time to today, he's moving great."
- According to the head coach, getting Seymour back to full strength will hopefully allow Adoree' Jackson the opportunity for more offensive reps, something the dynamic sophomore took advantage of against Arizona State. "He has a stride about him, it's unique. I think inevitably that's what fast people look like against people that they're faster than," said Sarkisian, whose coaching staff has spent the week focused on an important question. "How do we find a way to keep getting number two the ball. He's so effective when he gets the ball in his hands so we've got to keep looking at it."
- Another player making a significant offensive impact this season is redshirt sophomore Steven Mitchell Jr. (pictured) who, despite scoring four touchdowns in four games, believes he has even more of an impression to make this season. "My goal is to get in the end zone as much as I can, but also I'm very happy with myself from a blocking standpoint," explained the receiver. "You guys have seen my speed but I don't think you've seen my full potential."
- Sarkisian was eager to praise Mitchell Jr. and the unique ways he impacts this year's formidable offense. "He's dynamic with the ball in his hand that's for sure. You see the explosiveness," the head coach said of the redshirt sophomore. "He's able to make people miss. He showed great speed on the sideline in his touchdown run the other night. Hopefully we continue down that road with him."
- The USC defense displayed much improvement in Saturday's dominating victory, something redshirt senior captain Anthony Sarao attributes to a different energy. "I think we just played with a lot of juice this week. I think we played together," Sarao explained. "Against Stanford I think we were a little flat, we didn't play together. But I think this week we just had fun and we got to the ball."
- According to the linebacker, the most encouraging part about the win was that it revealed a lot about the heart of this year's team. "I think it speaks a lot about how we handle adversity. It would be easy to just lay down against them, especially on the road and in that type of environment, but everybody was ready. The leaders really didn't have to say too much. Everybody understood what was going on and understood that we had to win that game."
- Sarkisian announced the early signing of the fourth member of the Class of 2016 on Wednesday, physical WR Michael Pittman out of Oaks Christian High School. "I like his physicality. For our system, as we've come to find out, when you have big, physical wide receivers on the outside not only catching the ball, but blocking, they're a real presence for us. I think he's going to provide that same mold of the position that we're looking for."
- Here is the head coach after Wednesday's practice...
