Thuc Nhi Nguyen (LA Times)  —  The first-game excitement has faded. The nerves have settled. Now the real work starts.

ARIZ transfer Dorian Singer scores his first TD vs SJS

After a mostly uninspiring season-opening win against San José State, No. 6 USC will try to level up against Nevada, only 2-10 last season. While freshman Zachariah Branch spectacularly exceeded already lofty expectations for the five-star prospect, inconsistencies left QB Caleb Williams frustrated after the game and pushed him to step up his leadership during practice.

“I’ve been hard on myself,” he said. “I’ve been hard on the team.”

“We know to become the team that we want to be, that we just have to relentlessly just improve and just keep going,” coach Lincoln Riley said. “But that’s our challenge this year, is not get too caught up in all of [the expectations] and just staying the course.”

Here are some things to watch for during 38-point fave USC’s game against the Wolf Pack at the Coliseum on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. (Pac-12 Network):

OL Gino Quinones blocks for QB Caleb Williams in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 2. USC coaches are still looking for OLs to stand out as position winners. ( Matthew Visinsky / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

“I’m just waiting for somebody to quit throwing body blows and throw some knockout punches.”

Riley said he didn’t anticipate repeating last week’s plan of changing the line every series, but frequent changes will remain until players separate themselves. The guard positions — where Gino Quinones, Alani Noa, Emmanuel Pregnon and Michael Tarquin are rotating — are especially tight.

Quinones, who started at right guard last week with the freshman Noa starting on the left side, said he wasn’t sure he would get the first snaps until the game started.

Zachariah Branch, the crowd-pleaser. “You better know where No. 1 is, especially on special teams right now,” NEV head coach Ken Wilson said, “because he’s a game-changer when he gets the ball in his hands.”

“It’s healthy for us,” said Quinones, a redshirt senior. “It’s a challenge for all of us to step up and when we go in, to make sure there’s no drop in any of the changes.”

Tarquin, a transfer from Florida, was among the players Riley said stood out in the first game. Tarquin was listed as a starter at right guard entering the opener but instead came off the bench behind Quinones.

While Henson appeared to be growing impatient with the lack of clarity within his group, he chose to focus on the silver lining that every player is getting critical game reps that will help solidify depth.

“You can be discouraged by it and be like, somebody needs to step forward with consistency with their play, or you can also look at it from the standpoint of the guys are playing pretty good and they’re battling,” Henson said. “You got more than one guy that’s sitting there playing at a pretty high level. That’s the way I kind of take it, as the second way.”

MarShawn Lloyd runs by SJS DB (and former Trojan) Chase Williams (1) and LB Bryun Parham (6) during the second half of the Trojans’ win on Aug. 26. (Ryan Sun / AP)

MarShawn Lloyd never slips. He usually never misses running lanes like the ones he did early against San José State. So at halftime, after mustering no runs longer than four yards on seven carries, the transfer from South Carolina sought help from senior offensive analyst Kliff Kingsbury.

“Too fast,” said Kingsbury, a former Texas Tech and Arizona Cardinals coach.

After being too wired for his long-awaited USC debut, Lloyd said he will practice patience against Nevada. For a running back who prides himself on his breakaway speed, the change of pace is necessary as the Trojans try to establish a consistent running game.

“When you’re a running back, you can’t think of the big play every play,” said Lloyd, who settled in for 42 yards on a team-high nine carries last week. “I was just so antsy wanting the big play but can’t. You gotta take it step by step.”

“No blocky, no rocky,” Lloyd said, echoing a favorite saying of former USC running back Travis Dye. “If you don’t know how to block as a running back, especially nowadays and having Caleb next to me, he’s a valuable person on the team. If you can’t block for him, you don’t play.”

Raleek Brown tries to get loose vs Tulane in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 2. Sam Hodde / AP)

Former four-star recruit Raleek Brown was a near no-show in the opener, finishing with one catch for 14 yards in his first game as a full-time receiver. When USC released its depth chart Wednesday, the former running back was missing and is now considered a scout teamer, having been bumped out of the final slot receiver spot by freshman Makai Lemon.

When asked about Brown this week, Riley jumped to the former Mater Dei star’s defense.

“Everybody wants to judge you like it’s going to be like this the rest of the year after Game 1. It’s one game,” Riley said. “We didn’t get judged last year on how the Rice game went. We all need to remember that for individual teams, for units, for the entire team, there’s a lot of good. Raleek’s done a lot of good. He’s going to be a tremendous player; these are things that you go through.”

DB Domani Jackson runs a drill at practice in August 2022. (Michael Owen Baker / For The Times)

Takeaways were USC’s defensive calling card last year, but the call dropped last week.

The Trojans failed to force a turnover for just the second time in Alex Grinch’s unpopular tenure as defensive coordinator. But they had their chances. Cornerback Domani Jackson dropped a potential interception. Rush end Jamil Muhammad forced a fumble, but the ball squirted out of bounds before the Trojans could recover.

Questions about USC’s defensive improvement from a bad 2022 showing weren’t answered satisfactorily in the Trojans’ 56-28 Week 0 win against San Jose State. Any slips by Grinch bring mounting pressure with expectations for immediate results as the Trojans push for the college football summit.

Frankly, Grinch’s defense needs to make a statement, and fast. If USC’s weak links are exploited, and the defense stumbles again against an inexperienced Nevada offense they should smother? Sound the alarms at Heritage Hall.

After the Trojans had 29 takeaways last season and led the country in turnover margin, getting back to their ball-hawking remains “the main thing,” Muhammad (below) said.

“We can go three and out, three and out, three and out and we can shut somebody out,” he added, “but if we don’t really get any takeaways or any sack fumbles, or some type of turnover, we don’t really help the offense out that much.”

Former CU QB Brendon Lewis will be leading the Nevada Wolf Pack on Saturday. (David Zalubowski / AP)

While most teams were solidifying starting lineups and refining play calls during the final two weeks of fall camp, Nevada still was hiring coaches.

The Wolf Pack hired special teams coordinator Peyton Yanagi on Aug. 15 and shuffled the staff again on Aug. 22 when quarterbacks coach Nate Costa abruptly resigned. Yanagi is a first-time full-time assistant at the Football Bowl Subdivision level and Nevada’s second special teams coordinator since March.

After Costa bolted 11 days before the opener against USC, offensive coordinator Derek Sage, who had been working with tight ends, took over the quarterback room and oversaw a position battle won by Colorado transfer Brendon Lewis. The junior started 13 games for the Buffaloes as a freshman in 2021 and earned the season-opening start as a sophomore, but slipped down the depth chart and entered the transfer portal during the season.

latimes.com

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