University Southern California Trojans
2018 Spring Practice #5: Notes
March 22, 2018 | Football, USC Ripsit Blog, Features
The USC Football team braved the rain on Cromwell Field for their fifth practice of the 2018 spring session.
- USC head coach Clay Helton announced that no player injuries occurred today.
- Helton also announced that Joe DeForest, Lenny Vandermade and Andy LaRussa will be added as analysts for the team. Helton included that DeForest will take over for linebackers Coach Johnny Nansen for the rest of spring. Nansen had a successful knee replacement surgery today.
- Helton looks forward to getting back on Howard Jones Field tomorrow and said he "anticipates a more scrimmage type atmosphere. I'm excited to see the quarterbacks function in live movement periods."
- It was clear Helton was pleased with today's rain, as it gave the coaches and players insight on how to handle the ball in slippery and less than ideal conditions.
- Helton noted that he is excited to have his senior leaders back for another year, and spoke highly of rising senior LB Cameron Smith and his intelligence on the field. "He's actually calling defenses now for us," he said. "If you watched in the latter half of the year, coach was allowing Cam to be able to identify what was going on defensively and then audible the defense if he needed to."
- Smith was thrilled with the defense's passion today. "I think as a team we are focusing a lot on the small things and that's a big one for us as a defense, taking that step and trying to find things we can get better at," he said. "We're an older defense that has been in the same system for three years now which is not very common around here so it feels good."
- Rising redshirt freshman DL Jay Tufele is appreciating the time he has to learn in spring ball. "It is my first spring so it just feels good to go through everything slowly and by the time fall comes around, it will be just like second nature."
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