LOS ANGELES -- Following the biggest dud of a season in college football history, where Southern California went from preseason No. 1 to 7-6, punctuated by a Sun Bowl loss against a middling Georgia Tech team, Lane Kiffin's Trojans kicked off their spring practice on Tuesday in search of a new starting quarterback and trying to adapt to a new 5-2 scheme under first-year defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast.
The embattled head coach is also hoping some leaders emerge for a program that has often appeared to be its own worst enemy, starting with Kiffin himself.
The Trojans' new motto for 2013 was etched at the entrance to their practice field:
DON'T TALK ABOUT IT
BE ABOUT IT!
But slogans don't win football games. Truth is, the 2013 motto sounds a lot like the 2012 one: PREP NOT HYPE.
| More on college football |
| Related links |
| More college football coverage |
With four-year starter Matt Barkley off to the NFL, sophomores Max Wittek -- the strong-armed starter of the Sun Bowl loss -- and Cody Kessler took most of the reps at quarterback. Just-arrived five-star freshman Max Browne also got some snaps and looked comfortable, especially commanding the huddle, Kiffin noted. The lanky, 6-foot-5 Browne is expected to figure in the QB battle.
Kiffin's biggest praise was for Kessler's performance, saying the mobile 6-1, 215-pounder "really shined and made a lot of plays that were out of rhythm," adding that the Bakersfield, Calif., native -- the guy best known last season for being instructed to wear a different uniform number in a curious special-teams ploy against lowly Colorado -- was "headed to be the MVP of the day" until a late-practice interception on a leaping grab by OLB Jabari Ruffin.
Kiffin said he hadn't decided whether he would name a starter by the end of spring ball -- only that when the right guy emerges, he would then decide.
Another hot topic at USC this offseason is Kiffin's reshuffled coaching staff. Among the bigger moves was his decision to dump offensive coordinator Kennedy Polamalu, a popular assistant among current and former Trojans players. Despite having the OC tag, Polamalu actually didn't call plays. Kiffin did, and that subject got lots of attention as the Trojans struggled on third downs and in the red zone despite Barkley's experience and having the best receiving tandem in the country. Asked whether he would continue to call plays in 2013 or have newly promoted OC Clay Helton handle it, Kiffin said he hadn't decided yet. Browne told reporters that Helton was calling the plays for the practice.
"We're not worried about next fall," Kiffin said when asked about how the play-calling setup might work this season. "Our focus has been on our players."
The hunch here is that it'll still be Kiffin running the offense. He has had other chances to let someone else handle the play-calling so he could manage the big-picture issues of running the program and didn't go that route. Now, with the prospect of relying on an inexperienced QB and in a season in which his team must win to save his job, it would be surprising to think of Kiffin flipping the keys to Helton. Maybe we'll hear publicly there's some "combination" of the two working in concert, but I suspect Kiffin will still make the calls.
As for the Trojans' adjustment to Pendergast's scheme, USC's athletic first-team group up front looked able, led by Leonard Williams and George Uko along with Morgan Breslin and Devon Kennard, who have become standup edge rushers. The bulk of the D-line that led to USC ranking fourth in the country in sacks and No. 11 in tackles for loss in 2012 returns along with Kennard, who missed all of last season due to injury. Five-star DT Kenny Bigelow, an early enrollee, struggled in his first college practice, not surprisingly. Bigelow said he arrived at USC two months ago weighing 315, has shed 15 pounds and plans to lose five more, though in the new scheme, Bigelow's heft would help. D-line coach Ed Orgeron said it might be another two weeks before the Trojans' reserves return to action with Greg Townsend Jr., J.R. Tavai and Cody Temple all nursing injuries.
The best defensive lineman on the field was actually not a Trojan, although Nebraska Cornhuskers great Ndamukong Suh was decked out in USC gear and addressed the team following practice. Suh, in LA to work on a celebrity diving show for television, came to USC thanks to the Trojans' new linebackers coach, Mike Ekeler, a former NU coach.
Statistically, the Trojans weren't awful on defense in 2012. They ranked No. 40 in scoring defense, but USC's inability to cope with spread teams and mobile QBs is why Kiffin's dad, Monte, is now back in the NFL. USC surrendered 39 points in a loss to Arizona and then allowed 62 the next time out in a loss to Oregon. Archrival UCLA later scored 38 on the Trojans in another loss.
Kiffin is hoping the 45-year-old Pendergast is his answer. As Cal's DC in 2010 and 2011, Pendergast's teams led the Pac-12 in defense. However, with only five returning starters on defense last season, the Bears fell to 10th in the conference amid a 3-9 season that ultimately cost head coach Jeff Tedford his job. Most noteworthy in Pendergast's Cal bio (at least likely from Kiffin's perspective) is the fact that in November 2010 the Bears' D held top-ranked Oregon nearly four times below its season average in a 15-13 loss when the Ducks, Monte Kiffin's worst nightmare, came to Berkeley averaging 55 points per game. Before his stint at Cal, Pendergast spent much of his coaching career in the NFL.
Although his scheme has commonly been referred to as a 3-4, Pendergast calls it a 5-2, pointing out that the gap spacing is a little different from what most view a 3-4. Otherwise, Pendergast said most of the things that you would expect to hear from a new defensive coordinator on Day 1:
"We're not going to play slow."
"We wanted to keep it simple so they can fly around."
Pendergast, also the Trojans' secondary coach, at times was animated during Tuesday's two-and-a-half hour practice, challenging and ripping DBs for not being on their game and losing focus. That pleased his new boss.
"I had researched how [Pendergast] coached, but then to see it on the field today was very exciting," said Kiffin. "He was very demanding, very tough on them and really got after 'em."
Said Pendergast: "We're at the very early stages of our installation, so we really just wanted to listen to the guys communicate out there and get a feel for playing with each other. We are a defense that has to be on the same page."
That's something the Trojans had struggled with a lot the past few years.
