USC’s secondary shines in spring game showcase – San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Running back A’Marion Peterson (22) is swarmed by the defense during the USC spring football game on Saturday, April 20, 2024, at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

LOS ANGELES – The windows are now closed and the seams in the field are tightening before the quarterbacks’ eyes, a development that could open new opportunities for USC football in the Lincoln Riley era.

This defense, said golden-haired heir Miller Moss, makes you earn it, as the quarterback smiles despite a mediocre performance in USC’s spring game Saturday afternoon. He had noticed it this spring, before Saturday, while watching film of previous years’ offensive installations, seeing openings for throws that no longer felt open. And Moss saw it even more clearly on Saturday, when he fired a third pitch on USC’s first drive that hung just a beat too long.

And 6-foot-4 Mississippi State transfer DeCarlos Nicholson, using every inch of his spindly 6-foot-4 frame, leaped to punch away a completion that — in a previous USC life — would have gone for a touchdown went.

This offseason, head coach Riley and new defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn made it a priority to add length in the secondary. And a new and improved pack of long-armed dynamos in coverage, who succinctly fit into a scheme that Prophet Brown in the returning corner said is “completely different” postgame, stood out most noticeably during a spring show of offense versus defense in the Los Angeles . Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

After the initial split with Nicholson, USC recorded four picks on the day in just two quarters of football, making a number of game-changing plays that stood out regardless of a softened whistle-by-tackle format.

“This is a very unique DB room,” cornerback Jacobe Covington tweeted just moments after leaving the field.

On the second series of USC’s game, UNLV transfer Jayden Maiava came in at quarterback and led a long drive before hitting a go get it ball along the right sideline. Nicholson was stuck in a 1-on-1 hold and twisted just at the last second.

Choose.

On subsequent series, Moss moved back behind center, with Riley splitting reps fairly evenly between potential starter Moss, Maiava and third-string returner Jake Jensen. And as the junior quarterback fired a rope outside the numbers, freshman cornerback Marcelles Williams — one of the standouts of spring camp — followed the ball and stretched his arms toward the sky.

Choose.

On the next series, Jensen tried, but he floated a ball short down the left sideline straight into the lanky arms of redshirt freshman corner Maliki Crawford.

Choose. Third in a row.

Brown added another early in the second half, a tipped pass in the end zone that floated into his arms, racing the length of the field and joking after the play that he didn’t have that far has been running since he played track in his high school. to dawn. And even in what essentially amounted to a glorified spring training, it was clear — both in the transformed staff and in the plan of Lynn and new DBs coach Doug Belk — that USC’s secondary had formed a new identity while playing the Big Ten Conference.

“We’re put in a position to make these plays,” Brown said, “and have the freedom to go out there and make plays quickly.”

Conversely, Saturday afternoon didn’t inspire much confidence in USC’s offensive cohesion, a strange outcome of sorts that nevertheless felt like an overall victory for the program after years of defensive struggles. Moss was solid, but left much of the gunfire he showed in December’s Holiday Bowl, finishing 16 of 21 for 133 yards, a touchdown and two picks. Maiava made the best impression from the quarterback position on Saturday, going 15-of-17 despite the lone interception and hitting sophomore Makai Lemon on a beautiful back-shoulder ball in the end zone for a 17-yard touchdown.

However, Riley pretty much cleared up any idea of ​​a quarterback competition entering summer and fall camp, noting that sophomore Maiava was “moving forward quickly” but that Moss was “certainly at the forefront at this point.”

“We’re in a position right now where we don’t have to pick a starter, but if we were to play today it would definitely be Miller,” Riley said after the game.

Lemon impressed with a game-high six catches, while sophomore Duce Robinson added four for 56 yards. USC’s run game also showed flashes of depth, with sophomore A’Marion Peterson running for 41 yards on nine carries and freshman Bryan Jackson scoring twice.