2018 Arizona Wednesday: Notes

The Trojans hit the practice field on Wednesday with their eyes set on earning their first road win of the season.

Helton said the primary focuses of today's practice were keeping up with Arizona's up-tempo offense and "keeping contain on probably the most dangerous quarterback that we'll face all season as far as being able to create" in Khalil Tate.

Tate garnered attention from Heisman Trophy voters last season for his impressive offensive output, but his style seems a bit different this year. Tate had 179 pass attempts and 153 rush attempts in 2017, but through four games this year, he's choosing to pass much more often (116 pass attempts to only 23 rushes). "He's more of a quarterback this year and last year he was almost more of a running back," said senior LB Porter Gustin. "This year, he's looking to throw. Whether that's an ankle issue or scheme or him just deciding that he wants to throw the ball more, that's what they're doing."

Despite Tate's tendency to pass more often this season, the Trojans are still preparing for him to pull the ball down and take off running. "A dual-threat quarterback is always tough," Gustin said. "But we know what he can do and we know what he's capable of. We've got to prepare for that. It's like they're playing with an extra man out there."

Tate has improved his deep ball over the last few years. After averaging just 5.4 yards per attempt in 2016, he ranked 10th in the nation last year at 8.9 and sits at 9.0 through four games this season. "He does an unbelievable job on the deep ball," Helton said. "He's got terrific deep ball accuracy ... He drops it in the bucket."

While Tate maybe the focus, the Trojans also have to contend with Arizona RB J.J. Taylor, who leads the Pac-12 in rush yards and all-purpose yards. "You put J.J. Taylor with [Tate's] 260 yards passing, that's a dangerous offense," remarked Helton.

USC DL Jay Tufele said the team has worked hard all week to contain Tate and Taylor. "Our main focus right now is on their run game," he said. "I think we've done a great job so far and come Saturday night, I think we're going to put it to work."

Tufele is coming off a Pac-12 Special Teams Player of the Week award for blocking WSU's game-tying FG attempt this weekend, but the redshirt freshman gave all the credit to his teammates. "At the end of the day I was just doing my job and it's a whole team effort," he said. "I'm really grateful, but it's a whole team award. I'm just grateful that they noticed."

USC's defense currently leads the nation with 29 pass breakups, but still hasn't notched an interception on the season. Helton attributed that to the fact that USC plays more man defense than zone. "You don't see a ton of picks vs. man coverage, you see a lot more in zone," Helton said. "We do have a lot of pass breakups. Hopefully we'll get our hands on the ball just a little bit more."

This morning, USC's coaching staff met to decide which freshmen to play in Game 5 vs. Arizona and which to shut down for the season due to a new NCAA rule that allows players to redshirt if they played in four games or fewer. "There are some decisions that have to be made when you get to four games — are you going to commit to play a guy for the rest of the year?" Helton remarked.

The Trojans are 0-2 on the road so far this season, and hope to turn that around in Tucson this Saturday. "We talked about how important the mental toughness of the game is when you go on the road," Helton said. "You go in there and you tell yourself, 'I'm not going to be the guy that lets my team down.' ... It's time to go compete for a great road win vs. a team that's won two in a row."

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