Clay Helton Previews Arizona's Offense and Defense
The USC Trojans will travel down south to play the Arizona Wildcats in Tucson on Saturday. The travel experience will be slightly different this year. USC has chartered the "biggest" plane possible for Clay Helton and his team, to provide adequate space for players and staff. University personnel, boosters, and student managers will not be present, and you can expect to see a reduced roster from 110 players (last Saturday) to "a little over 74."(Helton)
Scouting Arizona's offense and defense has been "difficult" said Helton in a presser on Tuesday.
"It is hard, just being honest, when you don't have a scouted look, you have got to focus on your execution and focus on what your kids are good at." (Helton)
Due to the Arizona vs. Utah game being canceled last week, USC must fall back on the Wildcats 2019 film to prepare for this game.
"We are guessing that we are going to get odd front based on what we've seen when he [Paul Rhoads] was at Arkansas. Their personnel [matches] up with it. But you don't know. [In] three years you can add anything and have new ideas so we will just have to [have] great communication again." (Helton)
Arizona has a new defensive coordinator, Paul Rhoads, who spent the last two seasons at UCLA as the defensive backs coach (2018-2019) and two seasons prior with the Arkansas Razorbacks (2016-2017) as the defensive backs coach and defensive coordinator.
A source within UCLA's athletic department, told SI All Trojans,
"Rhoads has the mind of a former head coach. He has an extremely sound scheme. He will have the Wildcats playing fast and tackle well. Expect them to focus on stopping USC's pass game. Rhoads is a former defensive backs coach, so he will give those players great tools for success."
Arizona has a returning offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone who has been apart of the program since 2018. Predicting Mazzone's offense will be a bit more straight forward, with two years at Arizona under his belt. However, the Wildcats have yet to play a game in 2020, and it's the unknown of what new schemes Mazzone plans to implement that USC will need to prepare for.
TO WATCH: Clay Helton Preview Arizona's Offense & Defense. Click the video above.
Clay Helton's Talks Arizona's Offense:
"He [Noel Mazzone] always provide[d] electric offenses, up tempo offenses that make you cover every inch of grass on the field, the spread offenses that he runs. He has a good young quarterback in Grant Gunnell, we have not seen a ton of Grant having gone against Khalil Tate the past couple of years. On film, a little bit different style of quarterback but I thought he did an exceptional job coming in and handling the RPO game which is a big part of their offense. Getting the ball out quick, he has good deep ball accuracy and when you go back and look at the tape he is a quarterback that protects the ball. Only one interception in [the] eight games that he was in last year."(Helton)
TO WATCH: Clay Helton Talk Controlling The Perimeter vs. Arizona. Click Below.
Clay Helton's Talks Arizona's Defense:
"The last time he [Paul Rhoads] coordinated was in 2017 with Arkansas. Scouting that tape basically three years ago, we will see what changes that have been made. He [had] a lot of odd front back then which kind of fits their personnel. Defensive front wise [Arizona has] a lot of new faces. They brought in a couple grad transfers as well as some junior college players to bolster up that D-Line. A couple of young linebackers that we will face. Probably the guys we know the best personnel wise is probably the back end. [We] got a lot of respect for [Lorenzo] Burns and Wallace who have played a lot of good ball for them for awhile." (Helton)
[WATCH: ESPN analyst Jim Mora Jr. Breakdown USC's Defensive Strategy]
[READ: 10 Things To Know: USC vs. Arizona State]
For more USC news visit www.alltrojans.com. Follow us on Twitter
