USC defense has different feel in camp after full offseason
Due to the pandemic, USC was unable to implement new defensive coordinator Todd Orlando’s scheme in person before the 2020 season, so players were learning on the fly as they prepared for the delayed season. But the Trojans just had a full, traditional offseason, from spring football to summer conditioning, creating more confidence that everyone is on the same page this fall. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, SCNG)
Adam Grosbard (OC Register) — LOS ANGELES — For the USC defense, the 2020 fall camp was more of a crash course. Due to the pandemic, the team was unable to implement new defensive coordinator Todd Orlando’s scheme in person. The offseason install was mostly relegated to Zoom, so players were learning on the fly as USC prepared for the season.
But USC had a full, traditional offseason this year, from spring football to summer conditioning. So there’s a different feel for the defense this fall.
“I think everybody’s on the same page of the playbook,” safety Isaiah Pola-Mao said. “Last year, it was kind of like, you understand the plays, you understand what you’re supposed to do. But you don’t understand the big picture and the little things within the play. So I think we all have taken that step forward as a defense.”
As important as that grasp of the defense is, Orlando feels like another factor for the difference this camp is the offseason lifting program.
Since the start of camp, coaches have raved about the work the team has done under new director of sports performance Robert Stiner, hired from Notre Dame this winter to help transform the roster.
“Once you have a little bit of shield to your body, a little bit more muscle, faster, you have a little bit more confidence,” Orlando said. “You get a full cycle of weight lifting and you get a full cycle of spring football and you come back and have weight lifting again, and now we’re here at this spot, it’s different.”
One of the benefactors of that offseason program is defensive lineman Tuli Tuipulotu, who gained approximately 25 pounds since the spring to get up to 290. Defensive line coach Vic So’oto said the added weight, without losing agility, allows Tuipulotu to line up at either end or tackle.
“Coach Vic has us really flexible to play everything,” Tuipulotu said. “That’s what I’m expecting, to play everything.”
BACK IN THE FOLD
Cornerback Isaac Taylor-Stuart was back with the team after missing the first two practices for the birth of his first child, a baby girl named Emery. Though he was one of the few not in shoulder pads as he made his camp debut, Taylor-Stuart made a nice tackle for loss on a screen pass to the outside.
The junior corner said his daughter adds some motivation for him moving forward as a player.
“That just makes it like I’ve got to provide for my child so I’ve got to make it not really about me but really about her,” he said. “So that means everything I’ve got to do it’s got to be everything 100 percent full speed and I’ve just got to give it everything I’ve got.”
Cornerbacks coach Donte Williams said he has seen Taylor-Stuart mature rapidly over the offseason as he looks to take the starting job vacated by Olaijah Griffin’s early departure for the NFL.
“He was someone that maybe if he had a question he just wouldn’t ask or speak up about it. Now, Isaac’s a totally different person,” Williams said. “He speaks up about it, he became a leader, he’s someone that the younger guys ask questions. He’s a whole different kind of teammate.”
BRIEFLY
Starting nickel back Greg Johnson was not at practice on Monday after working with the team the first two days of camp.
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