Spring Game Notes & Observations Report: The Trojan Huddle
**Spring camp officially ends when the team plays a spring game previously known as the Trojan Huddle, at the Coliseum in front of the fans. And what better way to celebrate the end of camp than with a USC win on the backs of the defense?
**I’d make the claim that the day was perfect when the Coliseum’s thermometer was stuck at 72 degrees, but I can’t. Perhaps the fans will be more interested in the fall, however, with the returning Heisman winner receiving his copy of the statue, Trojan fans proved again that even a free game isn’t an option.
**The Heisman Trust came out from New York for the event while Brett Neilon, Travis Dye, Clyde Moore, Brandon Outlaw, and Sean Mahoney stood behind Caleb Williams for the on-field halftime ceremony.
**Lincoln Riley’s first year, the spring game’s announced attendance was 33,427. In the 2nd go-around with higher “expectations,” and “better players” only 25,213 showed up. I assume everyone found a PAC-12 Network feed to watch the game.
**The team buses arrived between 9:45 & 10:00 AM, and the parents were there even earlier; I saw Colin Mobley and Latrell McCuthin’s mom at least 1 hour before that. Solomon Tuliaupupu’s father Coach Turnbull is chatting it up with Coach Shaun Nua.–I’ve been building Solo up this spring and he did not disappoint–Solo played a tremendous game and it looks like he could be a major-minutes guy in 2023.
**So when I get to the press box(it felt great!) and locate my seat, the first thing I notice at midfield is the SC interlocking logo; it’s facing the student section side of the field and not the donor section. 2023 is also the 100-Year anniversary of the Grand Ol’ Lady and the end zones are commemorating the occasion with a reminder.
**Random 1923 Note—Following the game when Erik McKinney, Greg Katz, and myself did our postgame “5 Things,” I recorded my portion from Club 1923 located at the top of the Coliseum.
**The giant Heisman jersey numbers weren’t up in the Peristyle either. If I were in charge of the day, the previous 7 winners would have been up and then I would have unveiled Caleb Williams No. 13.
**Matt Leinart was at the game. I would have had him and Reggie standing out there too with their Heisman Trophy statues.–Felt like a missed opportunity to celebrate.
**Typically when the Spirit of Troy enters the stadium they march from the tunnel and then along the west (visitors) sideline. Saturday the band marched on the opposite (home team) sideline. By 10:15 they were already in front of the Coliseum entertaining the fans standing in line to get inside.
**The Victory Bell is ringing all over the place. Before, during, and even after the game in the locker room. Maybe it was a coincidence, but while the media was waiting to interview Lincoln Riley and the players, someone yelled out “Ja’Kobi[Lane]!” and then someone rang the bell. There were other 2023 signees checking out their new teammates: David Peevy, Micah Banuelos, Tobias Raymond, & Deijon Laffitte.
**Pregame routine observations; Mason Murphy is taking a barefooted jog around the Coliseum field. The offense is wearing Cardinal-colored warmup gear and the defensive players are wearing gray with Cardinal-colored numbers. The gray looks hideous–they remind me of junior high school PE uniform shirts.
**I know it wasn’t installed that long ago, however, the giant replay video screen at the south end of the stadium needs to be replaced. The picture is faded and all pixilated. Still, The House of Victory promotional video was amazing!
**Lots of recruits at the game and Mike Bohn was yucking it up with the class of 2024 TE Walter Matthews after Dave Emerick introduced the two.
**Team captains on offense were Josaiah Zamora and Mario Williams, and for the defense, Zion Branch & L Simpson.
**Tahj Washington and Zachariah Branch were the starting kick returners, with Eddie Czaplicki handling the kickoff. The kick was short to the 4-yard line and fair caught by Branch. Garth White handled the 2nd half kickoff with the exact same result.
**There was nothing on special teams to write home about from the game, although Denis Lynch made both of his FG attempts from 45 & 43 yards.
**The starting offensive line at the end of spring may or may not be your starting OLine at the end of fall camp. When Caleb and the offense took the field, his 5 best friends in charge of protecting the QB lined from L–R: Michael Tarquin, Gino Quinones, Justin Dedich, Jarrett Kingston, and Jonah Monheim.
**When the starting offense took the field, it took three plays before the band was playing Fight On. The first play was a 45-yard pitch & catch from Caleb to Brenden Rice(Ceyair Wright covering), and then 2 plays later [Caleb]Williams to [Mario] Williams in the corner of the end zone for a 10-yard TD pass.
**Starting on defense De’Jon Benton, Solo, Kyon Barrs, Jamil Muhammad, Mason Cobb, Shane Lee, Jaylin Smith, Calen Bullock, Bryson Shaw, Ceyair Wright, & Domani Jackson.
**As far as Caleb, that was it for the day. The only other time he went onto the field was at halftime for his bronze statue ceremony. Following the game when Monheim was asked about the offense’s first series he said, “we’re back!”
**The defense gave up the early TD but after that, they actually held the offense in check despite the final 42-34 score. I lost track of how many sacks the defense created but I had at least 4.
**Defensive line was very active and making adjustments before the snap and De’Jon Benton is the guy making the calls.
**The defense is still opportunistic but they tackled better also. There are more positives than negatives compared to last season. They produced 3 INTs and a fumble recovery and probably deserved 1 more INT. However, one Mater Dei player wanted it more than the other Monarch when Domani Jackson was set to pick off a Malachi Nelson pass, but Raleek Brown came back and took the ball out of the air. When the two fell to the ground a wrestling match ensued and Raleek won.
**In the first half Jacobe Covington and Dorian Singer had a similar situation in the end zone. Singer was given the TD initially, but when the replay was over Lincoln Riley changed the decision and gave Covington the first of his two INTs on the day.
**The PAC-12 Network is doing the game and the TV timeout officials are getting their spring work in too. *sigh*
**The offense had their challenges against the defense but the freshmen running backs left me wanting more.—And what I mean is I cannot get enough of those two!
**A’Marion Peterson and Quinten Joyner need to swap jerseys. Both are amazing runners who flashed why the staff wanted them. When I saw Peterson hit the hole on his first carry, and then shuffle his feet through the hole before shifting gears, I would have sworn I was watching a young LenDale White.
*****FRESHMEN THAT PLAYED OBSERVATION*****
**The Class of 2023 is going to have huge returns on the staff’s recruiting investment. Sam Greene got a sack early in the game.
**Zachariah Branch is going to be good but it felt like he was trying too hard to make something happen before he caught the ball.–he had a couple of drops that he should not drop.
**Before MarShawn Lloyd had the game’s best run of the day, on a previous play Solo read the play and raced down the line of scrimmage for the TFL on Lloyd.
**It was meant to be. During one of the game’s timeouts, The House of Victory promo video was shown. Lloyd is one of the players in the montage and he says, “when I think of victory, I think of Reggie Bush” One of Reggie’s most iconic plays was his OJ Simpson-esque cutback run at midfield against Fresno St. Lloyd came close to duplicating that run at the same part of the field before Xamarion Gordon brought him down.
**The defense was flying around and for the most part technically sound with the tackling, although there were some misses.
**The defense took over the 2nd half. Earl Barquet sacked Miller Moss on the first play. And when did Miller find his extra gear?!!? I did not have Moss running for first downs on my Bingo Card when he took off for his big gain keeping the drive alive.
**When Muhammad forced the Nelson fumble someone cued up the Benny Hill theme music because no one was able to pick up the loose ball until Max Williams finally fell on it 20 yards upfield.
**Tackett Curtis is all that AND THE BAG OF CHIPS! Make all the former Trojan player comparisons, the bottom line is Curtis plays the game with bad intentions. He is going to scare an opponent into dropping the ball because they won’t want to take the punishment! On one play Curtis tried to take a kill shot on Kyron Hudson, and I’m glad he mostly missed.
**The defensive line and front-7 impressed me during the game. There was one play when Jack Sullivan showed off his strength as Joyner ran into him, and Sullivan just stood his ground while stopping Joyner up at the point of impact.
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