Arizona Thursday: Notes

The Trojans hit the practice field one last time Thursday afternoon before their big Pac-12 matchup against Arizona on Saturday night.

USC head coach Clay Helton said the injury report was identical to Tuesday's, but he anticipates DL Josh Fatu (concussion) will contribute more against Arizona than he did against ASU.

Helton spoke about having RB Stephen Carr (foot) back in some capacity on Saturday for the first time since the September 29 game against Washington State, which was also the last time Helton got to use both Carr and RB Ronald Jones II: "Stephen was good today. I don't know if he's ready to go out there and get 40, 50 snaps, but it does look like he is ready to contribute...You're talking about two kids [Carr and Jones] that create great explosiveness. It's nice to have Stephen back, he's a great weapon that you have and looking forward to using him."

Speaking about how his offense used tempo to their advantage last week, Helton mentioned that, "We always have tempo in the system, and [offensive coordinator Tee Martin] has pulled it out when necessary, and I thought it gave us a good boost last game. It's something that, at the end of the day, I think it's extremely important when we're talking to our kids about is staying on the field and hopefully limiting the opportunities that Arizona has."

Discussing Arizona QB Khalil Tate's running ability and how his defense will respond, Helton said, "I think the biggest thing we've stressed to our defense is just not taking the eye candy of chasing the quarterback...This is going to be a really disciplined football game by our defense, they're going to have to play disciplined especially with these two runners."

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