Raleek Brown practices; left tackle battle continues; “No blocky, No rocky…”
Lincoln Riley says he expects Brown to play Saturday — if he continues to progress in his recovery
Adam Grosbard (OC Register) — LOS ANGELES — If there wasn’t any sense of concern for USC fans following Saturday’s resounding season-opening win over Rice, it was the state of freshman running back Raleek Brown.
Brown left the Coliseum on a cart with a bag of ice around his right ankle after recording 76 total yards and a touchdown in his first career game.
But the shifty freshman was back at practice on Tuesday, albeit with a wrap around his ankle. Head coach Lincoln Riley expressed optimism that Brown would not have to miss Saturday’s Pac-12 opener against Stanford.
“He was able to do quite a bit with us today,” Riley said. “If he keeps progressing, I’d expect him to play. But we’ll see.”
For his part, Riley was pleased with the true freshman’s first game performance.
“He continues to get more and more comfortable with the rest of our stuff and you see some of those explosions, natural abilities that he has in the open field,” Riley said. “Took care of the ball, didn’t make any mistakes so I thought it was a pretty good first session for him.”
Champagne Problems
If there was one downside to USC’s three interceptions returned for touchdowns, it was that the Trojans’ first-team offense did not get to see as much of the field as Riley would have liked.
“I mean, I love it,” Riley clarified. “I’ll take it every week.”
But as a result, it made things a little harder to clarify for a couple of position battles.
At left tackle, Riley still feels like there is an ongoing position battle between Courtland Ford and Bobby Haskins. While Ford got the start on Saturday, both players received 24 snaps.
“I thought it was a winning effort from both of those guys, what we hoped it would be,” Riley said. “Neither one of them hurt themselves by any stretch. I think they both showed why they’re going to both be in the mix and then we’ll just see how this thing evolves from here.”
That evolution could include simply playing both tackles each week, Riley admitted. But he did lay out his best-case scenario for the competition.
“My hope is that somebody is playing unbelievable and the other is playing really good and that’s the separation,” he said.
Another position that didn’t get its requisite reps was running back, where Travis Dye and Austin Jones got 13 and 12 snaps, respectively against the Owls.
Jones finished with the better rushing day, gaining 48 yards on four carries to go with two touchdowns. But Dye added 21 yards in the passing game and made a sack-saving block in the backfield.
Dye said Tuesday that pass protection was an area of focus for him during the off-season working with running backs coach Kiel McDonald.
“No blocky, no rocky, that’s just how it is,” Dye said. “I knew I had a route. I saw the d-end coming up. He’s shown all these ribs, so I had to get me some baby back ribs real quick.”
Injury Report
Cornerback Domani Jackson did not practice and had a sleeve on his right knee after not suiting up for the Rice game. The freshman could be available against Stanford, Riley said, if he is cleared to practice this week.
Riley gave the same timeline for defensive tackle De’jon Benton, who missed practice with a cast around his left wrist.
ocregister.com
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He would sit at least another week.
re-injured ankle sprains take forever to heal. even in kids made of rubber. sc
No one has discussed what I thought was a GLARING difference in what we saw admittedly in only 1 game of LR’s so far, but it was such an improvement over the 5 years of Mr. Helton’s teams. Only 1 offside call and NO personal fouls at all and none in key situations. Are we on the verge of discipline & personal accountability finally getting through and being enforced by LR and coaching staff? God, I hope so.
My, how time flies!
For the first time in nearly half a decade, USC moved into the top 10 of the AP’s top 25.
And all it took was one single win under LR against a bad team to do it.
Is it better to use Brown sparingly or ask him to go all out? Stanford is not the squeaky clean school they pretend to be. I’ve seen their tacklers grab and twist as they go to the ground. I watched the scoreboard click seconds off when by rule it was supposed to stop. They just aren’t to be trusted. So if a player is the least bit injured it might be good to hold him out.
I’d really like to see the Trojans totally hammer STAN. Their “intellectual brutality” schtick probably just got under my skin (as well as some of their better players) once the NCAA tried to illegally cripple USC and allowed STAN to gain an improper advantage. Now that USC is leaving the Cardinal in the dust with the rest of the Crap-12 (I hope), I’d like to see them get roughed up bad in Palo Alto by a Lincoln Riley team that is good enough to score points at will with a QB like Caleb Williams taking snaps, and all of our… Read more »
Would like to see Kory’s attitude of wanting to play bad enough, possibly like Raleek’s, that he wills himself practicing. Of course the nature of his injury may have something to do with that ability.
Maybe Korey Foreman was just hugely overrated all the time. All this talk about his unseen in college “unlimited potential” reminds me of all the recruits I over-ranked with SuperPrep. Korey’s not even one of the best players on the USC team, and never has been. The nation’s so-called #1 recruit looks more like a #1 project to me. I always enjoy seeing USC players do well and live up to their potential, especially when they are big-effort guys. Unfortunately, I don’t see Korey being that type, but I sure hope the lightbulb goes on for him someday, assuming he… Read more »
Korey Foreman better wake up & wake up quick, as his NFL fortunes will be unsigned, and not even a free agent. Agee if somebody can get to him it will be LR, so we all win if Korey can “wake up” come alive to his previously rated skills, so I wish him and us well on that. We need an outside edge big time and were not getting it now.
Personally, I don’t think KF is as physically talented or skilled as many others do. I’m in a big minority, and hopefully, I’m dead wrong, and it’s just an attitude or a work ethic issue.
But whether he’s a “head case”, or simply over-rated physically/athletically, I’m counting on others instead.
Nothing sounds season ending as far as injuries are concerned which is a relief. LR sure seems to know in his head the amount of PT each guy is getting as even the RB stable came out pretty even. Each RB, just like each WR offers up something just a little different and it makes playing against USC that much more difficult in how to man up against them. Stanford offers up a team that will be somewhat formidable and USC cannot afford to have any lapses.