Injuries Reveal USC's Resiliency and Untapped Talent

How good is USC? Probably better than it's been. The Trojans blowout victory against Arizona on Saturday was driven largely by reserves forced into action by injuries.

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

LOS ANGELES -- Clay Helton’s job was on the line. Not on Saturday -- at least I don’t believe so anymore -- but coming into the season. He knew he needed to win every game possible, probably 10 of them minimum. That prompted him to hire an offensive coordinator whose system he believed in despite it being foreign to him and assign a new assistant to every position group.

It wasn’t quite the Notre Dame reboot from a few years ago that Helton and former athletic director Lynn Swann conjured. But the changes, which would also include a new strength and conditioning staff, were widespread. Through seven games, and especially after this seventh one, a 41-14 win versus Arizona, two notable conclusions can be drawn:

The Trojans are resilient and they are deep.

The former was simply not the case last year, as they repeatedly struggled to hold leads and only once rallied back from any sort of deficit. In its most lopsided win in two years, USC was down six starters at kickoff and proceeded to lose arguably its two best defensive players and two best running backs.

That so many of their replacements performed without a distinct drop-off -- they were upgrades in some cases -- is a credit to coaching. The players were unquestionably prepared well, which runs counter to a popular criticism of Helton on USC Twitter. Yet their production also raises a question that has been asked as much as any during his regime:

Why don't these players play more?

Beyond convoluted quarterback competitions, a host of good players have been hamstrung by a lack of playing time early in their careers. Ronald Jones, Michael Pittman, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Palaie Gaoteote, Olaijah Griffin and Markese Stepp are obvious ones. We’ll never know exactly which others have been underutilized.

Saturday suggested there are many. You can start with the two that ended up accompanying Helton at the postgame podium. Linebacker Kana’i Mauga and running back Kenan Christon were pressed into prominent roles because of injury against Arizona and were USC’s best players on either side of the ball.

Mauga, whom Helton tabbed as the unofficial special teams captain, was simply a menace in his first career start. His forced fumble in the first quarter gave the offense, which had yet to earn a first down through four drives, a short field to work with. The Trojans scored their first touchdown a few plays later. His interception in the red zone in the third quarter set up a field goal. 

By the time his night was done, the seldom-used inside sophomore had also tallied a game-high 13 tackles, including two tackles for loss and a sack.

“He reminds me a lot of what Pitt did, when he was a young person,” Helton said, pointing to how Mauga has been biding his time behind Gaoteote. “It was like unleashing somebody that was just waiting for his chance. Can’t tell you how happy I am for him and our team that we have a guy like this.”

If USC’s destruction of Arizona at the Coliseum is any indication, USC has a handful of guys like that. Christon, who arrived this summer as the fastest football prospect in the state, was making his college debut. He entered in the third quarter, after Stepp and Stephen Carr were injured, former walk-on Quincy Jountti fumbled and Stepp re-entered for one play on a balky ankle, and he immediately mesmerized.

The true freshman broke off touchdown runs of 55 and 30 yards to bury the Wildcats, leaving a cloud of them in his rearview both times. The Trojans haven’t had a running back move like that since Sultan McCullough.

“It’s hard (for defenders) to judge his speed,” Helton said. “The angle that both the safety and the corner took, you could tell that it wasn’t going to happen. They weren’t going to catch him. It’s nice to have that feeling, when you know the ball breaks and he’s even, he’s leaving.”

His teammates had grown accustomed to seeing his track speed up close in practice. They still came away in awe.

“I didn’t even see him hit the hole and then I look up and he’s already by the end zone,” center Brett Neilon said.

Running backs coach Mike Jinks was standing next to Helton for the first score and told him once Christon hit the line of scrimmage that he was gone. The assistant had remarked earlier in the week how he hoped he’d be asked after the game why Christon hadn’t played sooner. He wasn’t being facetious. The inquiry would imply the rookie had done well. The staff knew what he could do. They almost always do.

They just need to believe it.

“Some guys are ready Game 1 and some guys are really building themselves to being ready,” Helton said. “This guy with the first six weeks prepared himself.”

If three backs hadn’t gone down and another not fumbled, Christon wouldn’t have seen the field when he did. This would be nitpicking if USC were a playoff team. For a program that is 4-3 this year and 9-10 since the beginning of last season, it’s a perplexing problem.

Christon might not have been prepared for a prominent role at the start of the season, but his elite skill could have helped in some capacity in losses to BYU, Washington and Notre Dame, each of which killed explosive plays from a receiving corps that doesn’t have a true downfield threat. Christon has the type of speed that stretches and stresses defenses, as evidenced by his team-high 103 rushing yards on just eight carries over less than two quarters.

“He’s just different,” quarterback Kedon Slovis said. “We got a lot of special backs, but he hits the hole and when he gets to the second level he separates himself.”

Jinks, this time trying to be coy, also said prior to the game that he wasn’t even sure how exactly Christon would be employed, noting he might line up at receiver. That doesn’t come naturally to the San Diego product, unlike the last great USC back from his region. But Christon has proven on the track field and appears primed to do so on the gridiron that he’s faster than Reggie Bush.

"I just take it all in,” he said of the Bush comparison. “I try not to think about it too much because it's easy to get overwhelmed in college football."

That’s how the Wildcats felt after facing mostly a second-team defense that would lose safety Talanoa Hufanga and defensive end Drake Jackson. They didn’t score until the Trojans’ third-teamers had taken the field in the fourth quarter. USC registered as many sacks on quarterback Khalil Tate -- six -- as it allowed completions, which resulted in minus-27 rushing yards for the dual-threat demon.

Defensive lineman Caleb Tremblay, linebackers Hunter Echols, Abdul-Malik McClain and Ralen Goforth, and defensive backs Max Williams, Chase Williams, Dorian Hewett and Kaulana Makaula were all thrust into expanded roles and showed they belong.

“We’ve seen that across the board with our young players,” Helton said. “We have a talented young bunch. There’s a bunch of freshmen and sophomores on this team and I’ve said it multiple times, I think this is going to be a team that’s really good for a long time. They’re going to grow together.”

Several underclassmen seem to be ripe. They just need reps. Mauga doesn’t play a lot because he backs up Gaoteote and John Houston. The senior captain had one of his best games of the season. He also had yet to miss a defensive snap this year until exiting in the final frame with the game decided long before. His production simply hasn’t warranted such a commitment.

That wasn’t on Mauga’s mind after the best game of his career. But his answer to a question about what was driving him in his biggest opportunity to date was telling.

“Just to prove that I know my stuff,” Mauga said.

In the process, he proved he should at the very least be rotated in more. He’s clearly not alone, either. Playing time typically comes down to trust, and USC’s coaches should have more of it in their own players. After all, they’re the ones coaching them all week for these games.

Do they not trust themselves?

-- Adam Maya is a USC graduate and has been covering the Trojans since 2003. Follow him on Twitter @AdamJMaya.