Todd Orlando Evaluates The Trojans' Secondary
Todd Orlando had his debut as defensive coordinator for the USC Trojans on Saturday. Defensively, USC did some things right, they were physical out of the gate in the 1st half and stopped Arizona State on offense in the 4th quarter from evening the score. We saw Orlando run a blitz quite often against Zak Hill's offense. Bringing five or more rushers towards the line of scrimmage, and USC often fell short. Jayden Daniels is a very mobile quarterback, he was the leading rusher on Saturday for Arizona State with 11 carries, 124 yards and 13 for loss, and frankly he exploited the Trojans on defense.
"We've got some run things to clean up which we will. A couple alignment mistakes. Obviously give Zak and his crew a lot of credit in terms of their offense and what they do and they are talented. But we found a way and that was to me a really good sign of a good ball club." (Orlando)
Orlando was pleased with the performance of USC's secondary - their cornerbacks.
"They did a good job, they were aggressive. Their coach [Donte Williams] is an extremely confident guy. I think that guys are playing with a lot of confidence right now but there is a long season [ahead]. If you're talking about the game specifically, I thought they went up there and challenged guys. During the game, there was not one time where as a play caller you sat there and say 'ooo' that guy got by us and that could have been ugly."(Orlando)
Part of USC finding success on the outside was attributed to Arizona State's best wideout option Frank Darby going out with a rib/chest injury. However, USC's secondary did a nice job of covering ASU's offensive play makers. The Sun Devils finished the game with only 11 receptions on the day.
As USC prepares for this weeks game against Arizona, the defense as a whole will look to improve specifically, in tempo and alignment mistakes.
[READ: Arizona At First Glance: Offensive Players USC Fans Need To Know]
[READ: USC Trojans Fast Tempo Ranks No.1 In College Football]
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