|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 17, 2016Max BrownClay HeltonCameron SmithStanford - 27, USC - 10 CLAY HELTON: Congratulations to Stanford on a very well-played game. I thought the tale of the tape was really in the first half in two phases. Really, third-down efficiency of what they were able to accomplish. They were 55 of 8 in the first half, compared to us being 0 for 4, and that led to ball control and really giving up a couple big plays. One, a wheel route, and the other an ability to get a big run there that's split by Christian McCaffrey. The other thing was we had seven penalties in the first half. We had one in the second, that's seven penalties for 51 yards, really stopped drives. You look up and it's 17-3 at halftime. Made some corrections at halftime. Really came out and I was very proud of the kids the way they competed all the way through the second half. I told them in the locker room, if they compete like that, we clean up the errors, they're going to be a good football team, a really good football team, I truly believe that. We've got some work to do. Can't feel sorry for ourselves. We've got Utah here in five days, we get on a plane. So we've got to get back tonight and get back to work tomorrow. With that, I'll take any questions you've got. Q. Coach, your teams two losses have come to Top 10 teams. How do you determine how your body of work is measured? CLAY HELTON: We want to get better with each game. I saw some things that were improved upon in this football game, and that's the goal is to improve each and every week. We hope to face that team again. I really do. And I told the kids they've got to continue to work. They took a giant leap forward in my mind the way they competed today. The adjustments they made at halftime. And this is going to become a good football team. We played two really good football teams in Alabama and Stanford in our losses. We've got to learn how to win those games and we will. But like I said, we've got corrections we've got to fix and get ready for Utah. We don't have long. Q. (Indiscernible) are those lack of concentration? What's going on? CLAY HELTON: No, no, if you look at the wheel route, if you look at the wheel route you've got kid's eyes in the back field, sees the play action. He's responsible for the flat zone and he's got his eyes in the back field and a very fast person ran down the sideline in Christian and made a great play and finished it. With the long run, I'll have to watch the tape on that. Usually it's a missed run fit when you have a long run. Then on the reverse, we were really, really playing the strong side of the formation really tight. We rolled down the strong safety there, and we're a pursuit football team. We get to the ball and they caught us with a nice play call with the reverse. Good job by David. Q. What is your thought process on 4th and 6 with under 10 minutes left to play? CLAY HELTON: I think we were on the 50-yard line toward midfield with an offense that has a very dangerous weapon. I thought it was important to pin them deep, which we did. We got it inside the 10-yard line, if I recall that right. Q. What is this team's personality? What are you trying to do? CLAY HELTON: Yeah, I look at the two runners today, I look at the two runners overall, and both averaged -- Justin averaged 4.5 yards a run, Rogers averages 5.7. We ended up having those seven penalties in the first half which creates 3rd and long situations which felt like they did a very nice job of being 3rd and 2, 3rd and 3, 3rd and 4. We're sitting there 3rd and 6 3rd and 8. I think that's the biggest thing is eliminating the errors that are killing us, and that's penalties in this football game. Q. Do you run first team with this? CLAY HELTON: If you have those errors, I think it's always hard to run the ball on 2nd and 10. You're going to mix one in on occasion, but you have to be able to eliminate those errors and stay. We talk about first out efficiency with our run-game, play action game, perimeter screen game. When we get away from that because of 2nd and longs, it hurts us. Q. Why is it so hard to get JuJu the ball, and can you win if he's not a bigger part of the offense going forward? CLAY HELTON: Well, tonight I'll have to look at the tape, definitely. But there were times that we did, we tried a long pass down the boundary in a one-on-one situation. We tried the shot down the field in a one-on-one situation there. But one of the things, I've been discredited before by only throwing to one guy, and now you get the ball spread around to different guys, tight ends tonight. Darreus continues to play well; Steven Mitchell played really well, so the ball is being spread around. You can never be right. You can try to throw to one guy or you can try to throw it to the guy that's open. And right now we're trying to throw to the guy that's open. Q. Max, how frustrating is it? It seems like you guys were able to move the ball in spurts, but at the end of the day you only had ten points to show for it? MAX BROWN: Yeah, it's tough. We're going to look at the film. We realize we did a lot of great things. Coach Helton mentioned the run game, passing game was there. At times we were just stabbing ourselves in the foot towards the end of drives. The name of the game is touchdowns, so we have to correct that and it's a big thing moving forward. Q. How do you correct it? What do you do to correct them? MAX BROWN: The obvious part is some of those offsides penalties early on in the game, and those are a matter of going out there and executing. I think at times I put it on my shoulders as far as making the play that's there, making the throw that's there. But I think give them credit, they're a great team, great defense, very sound defense. So they bent at times but didn't break. Q. Max, what was the issue with the false starts with the offensive line? MAX BROWN: Yeah, I think that's probably a question for Zach. They were saying at times maybe their defensive tackle was saying things and my mid cadence. Not totally sure to be honest, and that's why you saw us move to the silent cadence in the second half and end of the second quarter. Q. Cam, was Christian all that you expected? CAMERON SMITH: Yeah, he ran hard. He was exactly what I expected. Q. Cam, you said earlier in the week this is going to be a huge game for you guys. So now how do you handle it? CAMERON SMITH: Come back tomorrow and get better. That's all we can do. I think it's a good test for us. But we've just got to keep moving forward and get better. Q. (Indiscernible) McCaffrey, obviously he's so good, and everybody knows that you guys key in on him, but he's going to still get his 200 offensive yards? MAX BROWN: I think we had a couple missed assignments. But I think for the most part their offensive line they work for him. They move the ball pretty well. I think we tackled him and did an all right job. But there were some times where we missed it and he got loose. Q. (Indiscernible) hit receivers in the end zone. What happened in there? MAX BROWN: Yeah, those are tough, obviously. I think both situations there was some grabbing going on. Could have maybe gone a different way. That's just a matter, it's not even those two plays. It's a full body of work and making sure guys go out there and make the most of an opportunity. Execute when the plays are there. That's something we'll correct and get better at this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|