Quinten Joyner’s Fast Track

USC RB Quinten Joynerโ€™s progress key to a balanced offense

The pass-heavy Trojans need more ‘when the ball is not in his hands,’ Riley says of the explosive redshirt freshman

USC running back Quinten Joyner reacts after running for a touchdown against Utah State in the second half Sept. 7, 2024, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
USC RB Quinten Joyner reacts after running for a TD against UTAH ST in the second half Sept. 7, 2024, at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, OCR/ SCNG)

Luca Evans (OC Register)ย  —ย  LOS ANGELES โ€” They put him through a crash course in the fall, and Quinten Joyner quickly figured out he needed to write things down.

He put himself on the map in just the second game of his collegiate career last season, a 216-pound power back who seems to rip through every open hole in his field of vision. Afforded a few handoffs in a blowout victory, Joyner careened for a 47-yard touchdown. โ€œHome-run speed,โ€ as ex-USC receiver Mario Williams called it then. That was never the issue.

Joyner was entrusted with just one pass-blocking rep in 15 snaps. Therein lied the issue.

Slightly less than a year later, Joyner sat with new running backs coach Anthony Jones Jr. and the rest of USCโ€™s backs in a meeting room before his redshirt freshman season. There, they dissected every single rep he had in that Nevada game, and in another, as Mississippi State transfer Woody Marks recalled. They chopped up tape of his runs. Of his pass plays. Of his protection. Told him where his hands should be, and what to do, and what not to do.

โ€œJust take the inside away,โ€ Joyner said, then in the fall, asked what heโ€™d taken in terms of blocking tips from such sessions. โ€œJust find a way to win.โ€

He is an ace in head coach Lincoln Rileyโ€™s sleeve on Saturdays, a back who Riley said in the spring pops โ€œone big play a dayโ€ popping plenty in 2024 โ€“ averaging a stunning 9.1 yards a carry through seven games in 2024. And yet Riley has often left Joyner up his sleeve, the backโ€™s sheer explosiveness not quite enough at times to mask those reps where he hasnโ€™t been able to find a way to win. Heโ€™s shone with the ball in his hands; again, thatโ€™s never been the issue.

โ€œHeโ€™s got to continue to become a better player,โ€ Riley said Monday, โ€œwhen the ball is not in his hands.โ€

The Trojans may need Joyner, ultimately, a little deeper than even the stark black ink of his efficiency recommends. At times through a confounding 3-4 stretch, USCโ€™s offense has fallen out of sync in ways rarely seen in Rileyโ€™s coaching tenure, heavily reliant on early-down quick-hit looks through the air to establish momentum.

Entering Saturday against Rutgers, quarterback Miller Mossย ranks second in the entire FBS in pass attempts; USCโ€™s passed on about 60% of its offensive plays this season, the highest distribution of any Riley-coached or -coordinated team since his first year as an offensive coordinator at East Carolina in 2010.

Riley shrugged it off when asked Thursday, pointing that USCโ€™s offensive philosophy evolved week to week. But the full picture is a far cry from how Rileyโ€™s offenses looked at Oklahoma, built off a steady and creative ground game in which that pass distribution, traditionally, hovered more around 40%. And the constant heartbeat there, powering one of the most dynamic attacks in the nation, was a heavy two-back system. First came Samaje Perine and Joe Mixon; then came Trey Sermon and Kennedy Brooks.

โ€œI think, when Lincoln really blew it up โ€“ when he implemented, when he really understood and got great at the run game,โ€ former Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops told the Southern California News Group in the fall. โ€œThe mix, and the flow, with all his great ideas throwing the football.โ€

Moss has aired out 50-plus passes twice, though, in just seven games this season at USC. Caleb Williams threw 50-plus once in his time coached by Riley. Baker Mayfield never did. Same goes for Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts.

โ€œAt the end of the day, whether we hand it off 50 times or throw it 50 times, Iโ€™ve never gotten crazy caught up in that,โ€ Riley said Monday. โ€œYou donโ€™t know how each game is going to unfold.โ€

โ€œBut yeah, in a perfect world, do I want the quarterback throwing 50 times? Not necessarily. Although, like I said, if thatโ€™s what weโ€™ve got to do, thatโ€™s what weโ€™ve got to do.โ€

The solution, potentially, lies layers deep, in Rileyโ€™s evolving trust in Joyner. Senior Mississippi State transfer Woody Marksย came to USC, in large part, to prove he could be a workhorse; heโ€™s been one of the better all-around backs in the country in 2024, and it was a โ€œlittle toughโ€ to take Marks off the field, Riley admitted Monday. But USCโ€™s head coach, too, hasnโ€™t shown consistent faith in Joyner to spell him.

After Joyner ripped off a 75-yard touchdown against Penn State, he received exactly two more carries. Heโ€™s been entrusted, in total, with eight pass-blocking snaps in 2024. When Joyner committed a costly fumble in USCโ€™s loss to Minnesota, Riley yanked him.

โ€œQuintenโ€™s a good, young player,โ€ Riley said, the week after the Minnesota game. โ€œWeโ€™re never going to certainly toss a guy away after one mistake. But theyโ€™ve got to show progress and theyโ€™ve got to show that, โ€˜All right, I made this mistake once, itโ€™s not going to happen again.โ€™โ€

Earlier in the fall, Riley made clear his program wouldnโ€™t be able to rely on one back every game. They still have, in large part, with Marks.

But his confidence in Joyner, Riley made clear Monday, is growing.

โ€œHeโ€™s obviously made some big plays for us,โ€ Riley said, โ€œand weโ€™re going to count on him to do so going forward.โ€

ocregister.com

___________

TrojanDailyBlogย membersย โ€”ย ย We always encourage you to add factual information, insight, divergent opinions, or new topics to theย TDBย that donโ€™t necessarily pertain to any particular moderator post or member comment.

SUBSCRIBE HERE TO RECEIVE NOTICE OF NEW COMMENTS OR REPLIES.
Notify of
23 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Chris
Major Genius
Chris
Offline
October 25, 2024 6:38 am

Inserted a Big10 ref for last nights game. How do you miss a blatant facemask 4 feet in front of you?

USC1988
Noble Genius
USC1988
Offline
October 24, 2024 8:23 pm

Play the kid … Marks needs a break, play Jackson too

Trojanfanatic
Noble Genius
Trojanfanatic
Offline
October 25, 2024 6:06 am
Reply to  USC1988

Means Riley needs to improve his pass / run play call ratio to allow this carry distribution. Since are run efficiency appears to be in the positive, it would be nice.

Chris
Major Genius
Chris
Offline
October 25, 2024 10:50 am
Reply to  USC1988

Give marks 20 carries , Joyner 15.

USC1988
Noble Genius
USC1988
Offline
October 24, 2024 8:19 pm
Reply to  Allen Wallace

1973 Rose Bowl … Sam Bamโ€™s 4 TD leaps, AD, Richard Wood, Lynn Swam.
That was the hook for me. Those players, the colors, the coach, the band.
Then 1974! what a season 55-24 and Haden to McKay then to Diggs for 2!

TrojanRon
Noble Genius
TrojanRon
Offline
October 25, 2024 3:00 am
Reply to  Allen Wallace

I remember watching the 1963 Rose Bowl with my dad and grandfather. I was only 8 and didn’t get much of what was going on, except that it was a close game and WIS almost caught SC in the end, practically in the dark. My first memory of a live game was when my family lived in Sacramento and my grandparents came up from Glendale and took us to a USC vs Stanford game in Palo Alto. Mike Garrett was the running back and would win the Heisman that year (1965). My grandfather passed away suddenly in 1967 and my… Read more ยป

volunteerTrojan
Major Genius
October 25, 2024 9:29 am
Reply to  Allen Wallace

November 30, 1974 for me. 55-24. ‘Nuff said.

USC1988
Noble Genius
USC1988
Offline
October 24, 2024 8:21 pm
Reply to  Allen Wallace

You would not had been the only one … watching him get whipped at ND, watch the 1st pick, made me wonder why he was starting at SC.

volunteerTrojan
Major Genius
October 24, 2024 7:27 pm
Reply to  Allen Wallace

Let’s have Darnold lead the Vikings to a super bowl victory and let the chips fall where they may.

USC1988
Noble Genius
USC1988
Offline
October 24, 2024 8:21 pm

Face mask ! Wth

volunteerTrojan
Major Genius
October 25, 2024 8:11 am
Reply to  USC1988

Pitiful. His last is not Mahomes or Rogers, so no love.

volunteerTrojan
Major Genius
October 24, 2024 3:58 pm

I just got back this afternoon from a work trip to Morristown, NJ (about 20 miles west of Newark and Rutgers.) There were quite a few Rutgers fans in their fan gear on my flight to LAX. They were really nice guys, sympathic to others with teams in the doldrums. They are staying through early next week, many of them taking in multiple sporting events like the Rams, Lakers, Kings and maybe Dodgers. They remarked how great a sports scene we have out here. They didn’t have much hope for tomorrow’s game against USC, but they were looking forward to… Read more ยป

volunteerTrojan
Major Genius
October 24, 2024 3:47 pm
Reply to  Allen Wallace

It’s no consolation to me.

UtahTrojan
Noble Genius
UtahTrojan
Offline
October 26, 2024 8:19 pm
Reply to  Allen Wallace

It is his 4th to visit the Colorado campus. Starting to feel like he is gone.

Golden Trojan
Major Genius
October 24, 2024 10:17 am

So SLR is making MM pass the ball, much more than his Heisman Trophy QBs, with a passing efficiency ranked 64th out of 110 FBS QBs. But a guy that would rank 3rd in the nation in YPC, but only has 33 carries, sits. Up is down and down is up. I guess genius is hard for our untrained eyes to understand.

Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2024 Trojan Daily Blog — Primer Child WordPress theme by GoDaddy
23
0
Go to top of Commentsx
()
x