Tuesday practice report

On3 imageby:Erik McKinney08/24/21

ErikTMcKinney

USC was back on Howard Jones/Brian Kennedy Field on Tuesday afternoon and the Trojans were joined once again by running back Keaontay Ingram and Darwin Barlow, both back from two weeks on the sideline.

Ins and outs

Running backs Keaontay Ingram and Darwin Barlow both returned to the field and full contact for the first time since both were injured two weeks ago. Getting them back on the field is huge for the USC offense overall and the running game specifically. They both said they’ve been wanting to get back on the field of late and were finally let loose today.

Defensive end Korey Foreman dressed but was held out of contact. He’s still dealing with groin and elbow injuries that he played through during Saturday’s scrimmage. Wide receiver Drake London also sat out Tuesday’s practice as he deals with an ankle injury.

Tight end Malcolm Epps got some work in after being relegated to a boot for a while as he deals with a turf toe issue.

Offensive line

The daily report on the offensive line.

Courtland Ford began the day with the first team at left tackle and Jonah Monheim was at right tackle. Later on, Monheim flipped to left tackle and Jalen McKenzie came in at right tackle. The guess here still is that Ford and Monheim are the starters come San Jose State, but head coach Clay Helton said today he sees both McKenzie and Monheim contributing this season. He added that he’ll talk to the players to reveal starters at some point this week.

Slovis stands out

Kedon Slovis was really good during fall camp and he capped it off with another nice performance on Tuesday. He’s turning slants, outs and deep balls into simple handoffs at this point. He had a couple pinpoint throws during one-on-ones, including one he dropped perfectly into the arms of K.D. Nixon over good coverage from Jayden Williams.

Slovis found Nixon on the first drive of the full team period on another deep route. Cornerback Chris Steele was blanketed all over Nixon down the field, but Slovis’ throw pulled Nixon away from the coverage just enough and hit him perfectly in stride where Nixon could catch it as he went to the ground and shield the ball away from Steele. It was just a beautiful throw and catch.

Not having London on the field really hurts the USC offense, but his absence has allowed Slovis to work more in game situations with other receivers and it looks like those connections are becoming sharper as the season comes closer. That’s ultimately a good thing for the Trojans.

Texas two step

Ingram and Barlow being back on the field is huge for the USC offense. Vavae Malepeai has done a lot for the Trojans in his USC career and he looks healthy and physically ready for a productive season. Running backs coach Mike Jinks has said he wants to find a top two and at this point, even with Ingram and Barlow limited for so much of camp, it’s going to be really, really difficult to keep one of them on the sidelines. This is one of the truly interesting position battles remaining.

Ingram had a run today where he was met by Drake Jackson in the backfield, until he wasn’t. At 6-feet, 215 pounds, Ingram has incredible agility and he was able to make a move and leave Jackson behind. He then put a second move on a defensive back and continued upfield. Ingram said he let Jackson know about it after the play.

“You know I gotta talk a little smack,” Ingram said after practice.

Barlow only got one carry on the day but he made the most of it, finding a hole through the line and putting a move on Calen Bullock to gain more yards.

“It felt good to get out there, cut,” Barlow said. “Just the feel for getting back in the pads. It felt great to be out here with the team.”

Helton said they wanted to give Malepeai a bit of a rest today. He’d been one of the guys carrying the load with Ingram and Barlow sidelined.

One on ones

Nixon had a nice day overall with those two grabs from Slovis. He also caught a touchdown against coverage from Isaiah Pola-Mao.

John Jackson III had a couple nice one on one reps, beating Chase Williams for a touchdown and making a nice one-hand grab in the back of the endzone on a throw from Slovis. It was almost a great day for Jackson, who had a nice block on the perimeter during team work. His lone mistake came with a drop on a play where he did everything right before that and would have been a nice leaping grab on a perfect throw from Jaxson Dart.

Tight end Lake McRee had a couple nice grabs, hauling one in against good coverage from Raymond Scott and then getting himself wide open for a short touchdown grab later on.

Bullock had a nice pass deflection against Jude Wolfe. He also gets credit for a successful defense, but Michael Trigg came down with another impressive catch along the sideline, though it looked like he landed out of bounds.

Freshman receiver Kyron Ware-Hudson is getting more involved. He had a nice back shoulder grab in one-on-ones.

Walk-on receivers Ty Shamblin and Josiah Zamora both had impressive grabs in the back corner of the endzone.

Notable plays

The runs by Ingram and Barlow were the plays of the day. Really impressive stuff from those two.

Hunter Echols and Tuli Tuipulotu made nice stops along the line of scrimmage.

Slovis overshadowed the other quarterbacks a bit, but the freshmen had good days as well. Dart hooked up with Michael Jackson III on a sharp catch and throw where Jackson got to show off his hands a bit. Miller Moss found Ware-Hudson on a short throw where he could catch and turn and get upfield. Moss connected with Kyle Ford on a back shoulder throw, and then delivered a really nice throw to Michael Jackson III on a deep ball to the endzone, but Jackson III seemed to lose it in the sun and it fell incomplete.

Walk-on running back Matt Colombo got into the endzone on a short run behind blocks from Andrew Milek and Justin Dedich.

It seemed to be a good day for the offensive line overall. Offensive line coach Clay . McGuire said they struggled a little early in the one on ones against the defensive linemen. But the pass protection during team was solid for the most part, though the defense won a few. Raymond Scott and Nick Figueroa caused some pressure up the middle and Drake Jackson got around an edge on one play. And it looked like Calen Bullock got there for a sack on another.

Chris Steele had one of the impressive defensive plays on the day, sticking with Tahj Washington on a quick route and getting his arm between Washington and the ball to knock it away. Steele didn’t quite have time to get his head turned around and reacted afterward as though he felt he could have picked it off had he done so.

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