Spring Practice #1: Notes

The Trojans kicked off Spring Football on Tuesday and set out to implement new schemes and standards for the 2019 season.

USC head coach Clay Helton has officially closed the book on 2018 and set his sights on the 2019 team and season. "This will be the last time that I'll talk about the 2018 season," he said early on. "This is the 2019 football team, and they're moving forward."

Helton laid out his priorities during spring ball, which include letting his coordinators focus on scheme, while he focuses on his players' fundamentals, technique and discipline. Helton had the players spend 45 minutes in individual drills to hone their technique and he had referees carefully watching practice, throwing flags as soon as they saw infractions. Players who committed penalties were immediately sidelined and coached on how to avoid those mistakes in the future.

The team will also place extra emphasis on the turnover margin this spring. After losing four games down the stretch by 7 points or less in 2018, Helton saw the need to protect the ball better and create more turnovers to give the team more opportunities to win.

To encourage competition during spring ball, Helton will release a 2-deep every Friday. "I don't want any player on this football team to feel comfortable with his position. He's always fighting for a job, always competing for a job," Helton said. "I just want the kids to feel like, 'Hey, practice matters and competition matters.'"

All eyes will be on the quarterback position on that depth chart. True freshman JT Daniels won the QB competition last fall, but with the arrival of new USC offensive coordinator Graham Harrell, the coaches are out to find the quarterback who best fits the new scheme. "It's a completely new system, completely new coaching style," said Daniels. "It only makes sense that you have a whole other round of competition."

Daniels believes Harrell's offensive scheme is simple, but effective, and feels that it plays to his timing and accuracy skills. Rising redshirt sophomore QB Jack Sears, who started one game last season, also thinks he fits well in the system. "I love his system," Sears said. "It's built to go fast, built for an athletic quarterback, built to spread the ball around ... If you like to play fast, it's the perfect offense for you."

Rising redshirt junior QB Matt Fink is embracing the competition this spring. "I'm happy to just be out here competing with the best guys in college football," he said.

Helton expressed his excitement to have Harrell on board as offensive coordinator. "I love his energy. I love his mindset when it comes to the passing game," Helton said. "I think he has an elite run game mind, produced one of the Top 10 quarterbacks in the country, and still ran the ball for 2,000 yards. I think that's what makes him different."

USC's QBs will split reps throughout spring as they learn the new offense. At the conclusion of spring ball, Helton said he'll sit each QB down and tell them where they stand in the competition. "At the end of spring ball, I want to be able to say, 'If we had to play a game today, this is where we'd be at,'" he explained.

The Trojans will be back on the practice field on Thursday, March 7, at 3:15 p.m. That practice and every practice for the rest of spring ball will be free and open to the public. Click here for more information!

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