Texas Wednesday: Notes

The Trojans hit the practice field on Wednesday with just two more days between them and a sold-out Saturday evening battle with Texas.

USC head coach Clay Helton said that LB Porter Gustin had surgery on his toe Wednesday and is questionable for Saturday, depending on a doctor's opinion and Gustin's pain level. Full injury report: OT Chuma Edoga (hand), LB John Houston Jr. (stinger), DT Rasheem Green (sore toe), WR Michael Pittman Jr. (ankle), DT Marlon Tuipulotu (knee sprain), CB Iman Marshall (ankle).

Helton called Gustin "one of the toughest kids in my 23 years of coaching," but if he must miss Saturday's game, sophomore LB Connor Murphy will start in his place and Christian Rector will see increased reps.

With Tuipulotu doubtful for Saturday's game, Brandon Pili, Kenny Bigelow Jr. and Malik Dorton worked at NT today.

Helton said the team focused on handling Texas' up tempo offense and stopping them on third down in practice today, as their 57.6 conversion percentage is helping them keep drives alive and average 48.5 points per game.

The team has spent countless hours in the film room this week preparing for all of Texas' QB options. While Shane Buechele started the season opener, true freshman Sam Ehlinger stepped in for Game 2 due to Buechele's shoulder injury, and the two QBs are listed as co-starters on Texas' depth chart this week. Texas also experiments with WR Jerrod Heard at the wildcat position.

"We are just going to make sure we know when he's in the game and everybody's on alert and so we can play situational ball against him," said DB Ajene Harris of Heard. "We just need to know who were dealing with, who's in the game and what's the situation."

In addition to preparing for three QBs, the defense is getting ready for what senior safety Chris Hawkins called "two big running backs that are bigger than all our players, except for our d-linemen" in Chris Warren III (6-foot-4, 250 lbs.) and Kyle Porter (5-foot-10, 220 lbs.).

With a sold-out game against Texas coming just seven days after an emotional win over Stanford, Hawkins said the defense is trying not to let up. "We want to be consistent," the team captain said. "We want to be the best. For us to be the best, we have to do it week in and week out."

Helton has taken extra care to make sure his team doesn't suffer a letdown after beating Stanford. He compares having Stanford and Texas back-to-back this year to having Washington, UCLA and Notre Dame in three straight weeks last season. "[Texas] is a team that I think's a ticking time bomb waiting to explode, and with each game under Tom Herman, they're going to get better and better," Helton said. "So we can't have a letdown, or we're going to get beat."

Helton is confident that the team is up to the challenge. "The bigger the game, the bigger these guys play," he said.

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