2019 Fresno State Thursday: Notes

The Trojans held their final practice before Saturday's season opener against Fresno State.

USC head coach Clay Helton announced that seniors Michael Pittman Jr., Jordan Iosefa, John Houston Jr. and Christian Rector were voted team captains by their peers.

Helton also announced that redshirt freshman OLB Abdul-Malik McClain underwent a knee scope procedure and will miss Saturday's season opener. McClain will be out for a couple of weeks.

Walk-on running back Quincy Jountti was awarded a scholarship at today's practice. Jountti's older brother Corbin, who also walked on at USC, surprised him with the news. Jountti transferred to USC from Sacramento State in 2018 and won USC's Service Team Co-Offensive Player of the Year Award last season. "We had the availability to [award a scholarship] and per man, I went to each coach and every coach said Quincy," Helton said. "You can see it the way he handled last year sitting out, the way he plays on special teams, any time that we need somebody to help out and give any type of look, he's been there. He's very deserving of it."

Helton anticipates that multiple true freshmen will see action on Saturday. "There will be some out there with the One offense, One defense, and there'll be some that will be special teams players," Helton said. "And that's the beauty of what the rule last year did for us. The four-game rule just allows you to do so much. You can select half those freshmen to play early and you can select half to play late."
Those freshmen will go up against a Bulldog team that went 12-2 and won the Mountain West in its third year under head coach Jeff Tedford. "This is a typical Jeff Tedford group ... They'll be well-coached," Helton said. "You don't see a lot of people bust with his group ... It'll be about fundamentals and execution."
After nine months off the Coliseum grass, the Trojans are understandably excited to get back to business. Helton hopes the Trojans will play "enthusiastically but not emotionally." He gave the team the following challenge: "Control our emotions and just do our job."

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