Q&A with USC offensive coordinator Graham Harrell
When facing as many five-man boxes as you did against Washington, do you think you might have been able to run a bit more?
Graham Harrell: "I really thought we ran the ball pretty well, to be honest with you. We averaged seven yards a carry and ran successfully. Every time we got moving it seemed like we turned the ball over. To me the bigger issue was the turnovers. I think we ran the ball well and we ran the ball fairly often. At times we should have handed it off and he [Matt Fink] threw a little RPO off of it. I thought the O-line did a heck of a job and the running backs ran pretty well. Especially against BYU, which played a similar defense, we were averaging like four yards a carry. And then you go in there and average seven yards a carry. So, they did a lot of things well. We just got to take care of the football and I think that solves most of your issues."
Assuming Kedon Slovis is back for Notre Dame, does Fink go back to being the backup?
GH: "Yeah, if Kedon’s healthy, we named him No. 2 because we thought he gave us our best chance to win at the beginning of the deal. Like I said from the beginning, I think Kedon’s a special player. A player’s health is obviously, you got to take care of those guys, especially when it comes to head injuries. It’s something I don’t know much about. So, he’s got to figure that out, and whenever his heads right, he’ll be right too. But he’s a great player, and hopefully he gets healthy. The most important thing is for him to get healthy. But when he does get healthy, I would plan on playing him."
Both QBs have thrown three INTs on their road starts. What’s the key to limiting those turnovers on the road?
GH: "I hope it doesn’t have anything to do with being on the road. I think its more decision-making. Because w got how many more game on the road, and I don’t get much say on whether we play at home or on the road. But I don’t talk much about what stadium we’re playing in because it’s a football field, the same dimensions no matter where you play. They’re playing with 11 and we’re playing with 11, whether its in the Coliseum or in South Bend, Indiana. To me it comes down to making better decisions. Hopefully they’ll learn from it and learn for the mistakes and take care of the football. If we take care of the football, it solves most of your issues."
Is the offense what you imagined it to be five games into the season?
GH: "Yeah, I think they’ve done a lot of good things. With the quarterback change, you’re going to do some different things to try to fit that guy, obviously. But when teams have allowed it, we’ve been really explosive. That’s what I thought it would be. When teams try to take it away, I thought the O-line did a heck of a job the other night and the receivers and running backs played pretty well too. The running backs averaged seven yards a carry that’s a heck of a job. So, that’s what I thought, tat we could be successful playing any style of football because of the guys we have. They’ve shown that. Again, I think red zone mistakes and turnovers in general throughout the whole season, not just the two road games but in all the games, have hurt us at times. But other than that, they’ve moved the ball well and been explosive both running the football and throwing the football. I think we can have success playing any style of football with the guys we have. We just have to continue to execute and continue to improve. But I think they’ve done a heck of a job, for the most part, other than some turnovers."
Has the tempo and pace been what you want?
GH: "Yeah, I think they’re playing, when we try to go really fast, they do a good job of that, and then at other times I think they play at a pretty good tempo. Again, I think they’ve bought in, they’ve executed pretty well. Turnovers have been the biggest issue of the first five games."
How do you mitigate that with an off week to think and talk about that?
GH: "I think it just comes down to execute. There’s nothing to change. A lot of it has to do with experience. The more live reps you get, the more coverages, the more time you’ve seen a play, the more comfortable you get with it, the more you can execute. You just kind of get a second nature of where people are and you have a feel for that that’s comes with reps and experience. The more reps we can give these guys, the better, obviously. But it’s decision-making. You got to be disciplined enough to check down the football. That’s something that’s we’ve talked to them about, especially when team are going to drop eight on us, like a couple teams have. So it comes down to making good decisions. The more reps you get, the better you’re going to be. I think Kedon, I think we got a room full of special guys. But he’s still a true freshman. At times, a true freshman is going to make some mistakes because it’s the first time he’s ever been out there, and that’s part of it. But we got to try to expedite that process as fast as possible. But he’s a special guy and he knows he’s made poor decisions. They all do. It’s pretty clear when it's on you or not on you. A lot of it is decision-making, and we just go to make good decisions. But I’m confident they will."
Do you expect what Washington and BYU did to be a blueprint for future opponents?
GH: "We’ll see. I think if that’s in your, some people, that’s in their package to do it, and then some teams it’s not. If it's in their package, probably, if not, I wouldn’t think people are just going o make something up that they don’t do, or just try to go do something they don’t know. Just because you’re not going to have many reps on it. If you’ve never done it and just try to go out there and do it in a week, the execution is not going to be what it is, compared to something you have and that you’ve worked on for years. I don’t know if that’s what people will do or not. If it's in their package, we’ll probably see a decent amount of it, if it’s not I would imagine they would come out and do what they do. They may play a little more deep, try to take away explosives, which is what, at the end of the day, those last couple teams tried to do. But I don’t think they’re just going to make up, try to copy that defense if it's not something they do. We’ll see. Whatever they play, we got to try to go execute."
If you do keep seeing it, is there one adjustment you’d like to see your guys make against that look?
GH: "Like I said, I thought they did some really good things and ran the ball really well. To me, the quarterback just has to be disciplined enough to check he football down if you don’t have it down the field, if you do that, you’re going to move the ball. Because we got special guys, there’s a couple reps, if you go look, we had guys open. If you throw it, Michael Pittman’s wide open, if you throw it to him, and he’s got 15 yards of space, good luck tackling him. But you got to be disciplined enough to throw it to that guy. As a quarterback, it can be frustrating at times, because you want to take a shot, you want to throw it down the field. Sometimes they’re just not going to allow you to do that. But you can still explosive throwing a hitch to Michael Pittman and then asking a 170-pound corner to come tackle him. I like our chances. He might tackle him every now and then, but he’s not going to tackle him every time. You got to be disciplined enough to do that. I think that’s the answer, is just make wise decisions. If they’re not going to let you throw it down the field, don’t throw it down the field. Put it in those guys’ hands and let them go be special with the ball in their hands because that’s who they are."
