Tuesday Practice Insider

Brian Matthews WeAreSC.com

The Trojans have become infamous during the Pete Carroll era at USC for their dominance on the field, however special teams has been absent from that argument without the presence of a full time special teams coach.

The addition of Brian Schneider has brought with it a drastically different view on special teams, one that seems to embrace the “Beamer Ball” philosophy by gaining an advantage through the widely unpopular aspect of the game.

In fact, the first 45 minutes of Tuesday’s practice were spent honing in on special teams, with everybody aside from the offensive linemen taking part.

Quarterback Mitch Mustain

- Assessing his performance during Sunday’s scrimmage:

“It was better than I thought, but it was still kind of sputter and go, hit and miss. We really entered today emphasizing how turnovers are going to kill us. We have to cut that, we had two turnovers on back-to-back drives. Those are just momentum killers, but on my part it didn’t look bad.

“I had opportunities but we just didn’t execute. I didn’t make any glaring errors, so what I took away from it is that you have to keep pushing. You have turnovers and you have to keep going.”

- On head coach Pete Carroll’s comments regarding Aaron Corp as the leader early on:

“I don’t know what he sees it as. It’s motivation for me, I’m going to come out and keep slinging it and just get better at it. Hopefully they’ll give us the whole four weeks and I’ve just got to keep pushing. He didn’t specify what he meant by it so I’m taking it as nothing and keep working.

- On what steps he’s taking toward becoming a leader:

“It’s kind of a natural progression, you get that opportunity to be out in front and it takes its own.”

- On the now infamous mustache that is now a thing of the past:

“It went through that awkward stage in the middle so I hacked it off. It was even on both sides from my teammates, again I had that one moment when you look in the mirror and it’s not what you want.”

Quoting Pete Carroll

- On the review of Sunday’s scrimmage:

“We had really good, solid work offensively with the exceptions of the turnovers that are going to wreck any day. We had three turnovers on the day that wrecked it. The line of scrimmage was good, we ran hard, a couple of drops that were in the way of some third down conversions.

“Other than that the quarterbacks did fine, I thought “moody” (Curtis McNeal) had a good scrimmage, David Ausberry too and the offensive line in general did a pretty nice job.

“On the other side of the ball Malcolm Smith just jumped out. He had a great day, he made a bunch of plays, some big one-on-one tackles and a big touchdown play that he had. He forced a fumble in another drill, and he’s really doing some exciting things for us. On defense we were after them about pursuit and developing our personality about that. We’re getting after the football really well.”

- On the quarterbacks and the leadership qualities they have displayed:

“I think that was a contrast to John David (Booty) who was real quiet, Mark (Sanchez) was really outgoing. These guys mix it up really well, and it’s really hard for these guys to really assert themselves until they’re the guy, they can try, but it’s not going to happen. Nobody has gone out of their way to make an impression with their personality. They’re just trying to do things right, and that’s what they should be doing.”

- On the progress at the defensive tackle position and the possibility of Armond Armstead moving back inside:

“Averell (Spicer) did pretty well. He played good solid ball for us. He didn’t make a lot of tackles and stuff, but he played good solid football for us and that’s still a job that’s up for grabs. He’s the most experienced and knows his way around the best, understands what we’re asking so he’s still ahead.

“Armond (Armstead) is too good at what he is doing, he’s just learning. I think he’s a real factor, this is a real special body type there. You haven’t seen us have a guy that weighs 290lbs, he’s 30-40 pounds heavier than Lawrence Jackson and Kyle Moore. I really like the way he’s doing the his stuff because he’s really physical, can rush the passer and chases the ball well. This is great move for him, we didn’t know it at the time but it didn’t take but a few days to see.”

- On the extended emphasis on special teams under Brian Schneider:

“Brian (Schneider) is obviously a fantastic coach. He really commands the field, he’s got guys running around everywhere and we really wanted to make this a fundamental spring. The drilling will help us as a team and its really great stuff.”

- On the return of tailback Joe McKnight:

“Thursday we’re going to try him out unless something changes. The plan is to get him out here Thursday and get him ready for Saturday. He feels real good, didn’t have any setbacks coming out of the weekend, but we’ll take it on day at a time.”

Practice Tidbits

- Special guests in attendance included men’s basketball coach Tim Floyd, Patrick Turner, Kenechi Udeze, Gerald Washington, Dominique Byrd, Oscar Lua, Frankie Telfort and Valhalla quarterback Pete Thomas.

- Players sitting out included Anthony McCoy, Michael Reardon, Luther Brown (icepack on his shoulder), Adam Goodman, Drew McAllister, Kris O’Dowd, Curtis McNeal (academic day), Blake Ayles and Nick Howell.

- During 7-on-7, Mitch Mustain connected with longtime running mate Damian Williams for a touchdown while Aaron Corp did the same a few minutes later.

- Stafon Johnson had the run of the day with his back to the goal line, giving a hop-step juke to a defender before breaking into the open field.