Adam Grosbard (The Register) — In football, a player’s value and effectiveness can be directly tied to the fit in the scheme laid out by the coaching staff.
Fortunately for USC, there is a growing belief that the defensive scheme under new coordinator Todd Orlando is a good fit for some of the stalwarts already on the roster.
One of the players benefiting from the system is strong safety Talanoa Hufanga. The junior has long been one of the key cogs in USC’s defense; he had 51 tackles as a true freshman, and earned second-team All-Pac-12 honors as a sophomore while missing three games with injury.
Now as healthy as he’s been in his time at USC, Hufanga has appeared to be a perfect fit for Orlando’s defense through the first two weeks of camp.
“The variety of different fronts and coverages he gives, it really was made for Talanoa,” head coach Clay Helton said. “You’re talking about a 210-, 215-pound man that runs a 4.4, can cover, can hit, can be a box player. Can literally walk in between the tackles and be in a linebacker position. He’s one of those special, special skill sets that are required for this system.”
The system asks Hufanga and free safety Isaiah Pola-Mao to be the quarterbacks of the defense, calling out plays and getting teammates aligned. It’s a new responsibility, but one the pair is embracing.
“I think our coaches have done a great job of making it more known that we have to be a bigger presence than it used to be,” Hufanga said Wednesday on a Pac-12 media call. “We gotta make up for some things that we didn’t do in the past, for sure.”
Another player who has seemed to thrive under Orlando is outside linebacker Palaie Gaoteote IV. One area Orlando, who also serves as linebackers coach, has drilled into Gaoteote on the daily is how to get off blocks to make plays on the ball.
Helton has noticed the junior creating separation from tackles and guards, as opposed to last year when Gaoteote tended to stay stuck to his blocker. But Gaoteote is also staying in shape, cutting 10-15 pounds off his weight from last season, and playing with more energy as a result.
“He just has this mental toughness right now and physicality right now that he’s just taking his game to a different level,” Helton said.
__________
TrojanDailyBlog members — Always feel free to add information or topics to the TDB which don’t necessarily pertain to any particular moderator post or member comment.