Sunday Night With Clay Helton

USC has an extensive injury list: Defensive lineman Rasheem Green has a high-ankle sprain. That is usually a several-week injury. Cornerback Ajene Harris has a bruised knee. No word on severity. Tailback Ronald Jones has a bruised thigh and ankle injury. No word on severity.

Defensive end Porter Gustin is battling a toe and biceps injury that requires rehab. He is 50-50 according to Clay Helton for the Cal game but could be out “an extensive time.” Offensive tackle Chuma Edoga did not play in the second half as he deals with a wrist/hand injury. Linebacker John Houston did not play because of a neck injury.

Remember, USC now has two road games with a short week between Cal and Washington State, which will be a Friday game.

Helton said defensive end Uchenna Nwosu was the defensive MVP vs. Texas and also credited defensive end Christian Rector, who forced a fumble and played three spots.

23 thoughts on “Sunday Night With Clay Helton

  1. Cal and Wazzou just might be what the doctor ordered: finesse teams with West Coast style offenses. Players can get hurt in any game but Stanford and Texas (yes, I know the Cardinal is down, but they still have a BiG physical O-line) really beat up on SC. Might be the only time I wish SC scheduled an FCS opponent- to heal up. I think Rector starts at DE against CAL. Hopefully Marlon’s back too. I actually think Jacob Daniel should move back to DT after having switched to the O-line. Jack Jack is growing through some normal growing pains that even Adoree went through.

    • We don’t need an FCS opponent. USC needs a bye week.

      Playing twelve games in a row with no bye week during the season is going to expose USC if some of those injuries don’t heal up soon.

  2. The pass rush was practically nonexistent in the second half, and the Texas freshman quarterback had time to set up and his confidence grew and he almost beat SC. Injuries wiped out a third of the defense and its toll showed.

    And how about that SC freshman right tackle?– He looked like a matador as he weakly waved at the onrushing bull of a Longhorn.

    Was not impressed with the freshman kicker running away from his teammates so he could bask in his glory all alone.

    Refs did a good job– some close calls but they were the right calls except for that pass interference against the SC corner, what is his name, Jack Jones or something, that was not called. Flagrant.

    And for the t.v. crowd the announcers were unbiased, informed and did not overtalk. They added to the wonder of a marvelous 4-hour extravaganza.

    • Well in the kicker’s defense, the alternative would’ve been to be dog piled by teammates 2-3 times his size so running away was probably a smart move.

    • You didn’t find it the least bit interesting all they talked about was the Texas D despite USC forcing a number of turnovers including their final play which essentially sealed the W?

      • USC offense was supposed to be unstoppable and got a ton of hype all week long before the game. Texas D did a good job of shutting it down. USC D played very hard and did a great job, but Texas offenses was not rated very high coming into the game. Thats why they favored Texases D over USC D

    • unbiased there was one announcer who would’nt shut up about the Texas defense when USC’s defense was shutting down the Longhorns offense

      • We turned off the sound it was so out of control. Joel Klatt thinks he needs to make a profound statement after every play, instead of talking about what happened.

    • We all thought the announcers so biased for Texas it was all we heard about. They climaxed when Texas went ahead, and were dead silent (finally) when USC won. Even the camera coverage was focused on the Texas sideline.

  3. Injuries are part of any season and as Arturo noted I don’t see too much risk of a real physical game against CA or WA St. – let’s be glad it isn’t a bigger menace we’re facing this week

  4. Whenever there is a short week game it is automatically followed by a long week game. Funny how that works.
    During the Stanford game the commentators said that USC prepared the receivers by telling the D backs what the route was. This so the receivers would learn to fight for the ball. Time to do it again.
    If the coaches have the team prepared we’ll be okay. My problem is will they prepare? I don’t think we were looking ahead last week I believe rating teams is a crap shoot. Your guess is as good as mine.
    Turn in a complete game and we win otherwise….

  5. Two things. First off Wolf, you seem to forget that Texas, and the rest of USC’s opponents, has some good players on their rosters that can make plays. You seem to think that every team that USC plays is a community college team that USC should dominate 50-0. Oops, I forgot, that’s UCLA.

    Second, USC is really banged up right now so it is next man up and get it done, no matter how ugly a win is, it is still a win. Style points will not matter if USC runs the table.

  6. Thanks God we’re not in the sanctions era and have some depth. Was great seeing Levi Jones out there during a key play last night – we’ll need to see much more of him, Murph, Betiku, and the rest of the reserves – and we’ll brigade that stuff.

  7. For the first time in six years, this kind of report, while frustrating, isn’t terrifying. They finally have a bit of depth, and some promising freshmen talent. We saw some of that emerge against Texas, with Murphy, Rector. Iosefa, and Jones making important plays (Rector’s was THE most important play). I’m sure these games will be difficult, and more tense than we could anticipate, but Helton should not rush any of those back. Playing Gustin and Edoga was probably a mistake. We need Green badly for the second half of the season. They can shift the middle three linemen around, and hopefully we some plays from Bigelow, Pili, and Tufele.

  8. If that is the best Andrew Vorhees #72 can play at right tackle, then bring in the 3rd stringer who can at least hold his ground. Vorhees couldn’t control his opponent at all who got to Darnold almost every play. Sam is going to get hurt if this keeps up. There is no compassion or patience here when you are allowing your prize QB to get hit on almost every play.

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