USC’s new defensive coordinator didn’t waste time schooling Trojans on new scheme
The arrangement wasn’t ideal for anyone involved, least of all the new defensive coordinator tasked with toughening up a unit that, for seven months, was barred from standing next to each other, let alone colliding.
But that moratorium on full-contact practice was lifted Wednesday, finally offering Orlando a long-awaited glimpse of what his USC defense is made of.
“Today will be the day,” Orlando said Wednesday morning. “This is where the separation begins.”
Orlando, who last coached defense at Texas, called the virtual install time “a blessing in disguise.” Even if it might only take his new defense so far.
“Until you go against live, at the end of the day you’re not going to trick everybody in terms of your scheme,” Orlando said. “You’re going to be based on how hard you run to the football, how you get off blocks and how you tackle.”
But those aren’t the only areas that were to be evaluated starting Wednesday. Considering how long players have had to learn the scheme, Orlando made clear he won’t be as forgiving when it comes to forgetting assignments.
“If you go out there and you don’t know what you’re doing after meeting with someone for seven months, that pretty much explains how much you care,” Orlando said. “That’s important to me. The more you put in, the more you get out.”
A clearer picture of USC’s new defense should crystallize in the coming days, with contact no longer limited. Orlando said he’s already adjusted his scheme, which relies on mixed fronts and aggressive blitzing, to fit USC’s personnel.
Drake Jackson, who spent last season as more of a strict defensive end, shed 25 pounds and shifted into a hybrid linebacker role. Safeties Talanoa Hufanga (15) and Isaiah Pola-Mao are expected to take on more active roles in directing the defense. And with depth limited at linebacker, Ralen Goforth and Kana’i Mauga have emerged as top candidates to start alongside Palaie Gaoteote in roles they’ve had to learn on the fly.
But full contact could always force further change.
The loss of Jay Tufele, who opted out to focus on the NFL draft, has already thrust senior defensive tackle Brandon Pili into the starting lineup.
“It left a big void in our defensive line, experiencewise,” Pili said. I just feel like now that burden is on me, being the veteran.”
Orlando has proven in previous stops that he’s capable of a quick reboot; though, never quite under the current circumstances he now faces. At Texas, Orlando oversaw a defense that improved from 80th to 24th in points allowed. Before that, his inaugural Utah State defense ranked seventh in points allowed.
In both cases, Orlando said, those defenses simply needed “a kickstart.”
“I think that’s what [I’ve done], the places I’ve been coming into, is just to try to free these guys up,” Orlando said. “It’s OK to fail, man. That’s what practice is about. Fail big.”
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More coaches, more players & even HC’s are getting hit with the virus and games continue being cancelled. It will be a miracle if this doesn’t happen to the Big-10 & PAC-12 once they get into the mix. When football isn’t as important to a certain conference (guess who) as it is to others ,as well as flaky Governors, there could be a quick bailout?
I’ll be fully on board with the new coach “O” when I see the team tackle. I have really grown tired of seeing so many two hand touch type tackles in recent years. I don’t think the guys are afraid of contact, but they lacked technical skills.
Too many plays went for extra yardage because of sloppy arm tackles. It’s like their coordinator had no college playing experience.
Coach Orlando seems to cut from the same cloth as Coach O from LSU.
Both as passionate coaches. They inspire their players.
They coach them well.
Helton is more ice cream and candy. And hire his buddies and relatives.
He does not believe in tackling.
All can hope for is he is an ok manager.
He has a good OC and DC.
It probably has more to do with AD Bohn than Helton.
Being a manager before if you have assistants better than you you let
them run and just do the management stuff.
Which is also pretty important.
I agree with the comparison usc50 — But our current remaining problem is that Drevno is no Tim Davis. The interplay between the two of them impacted the behavior/attitudes of the O-line and D-line — and to a very large extent, created our 34 game win streak JMHO.
Saban gets the Rona, and it is full steam ahead for a big game against Georgia this weekend. We all know that if Clay Helton were to contract the Rona midseason, that would be the end of Pac-12 football for the season. But that’s the SEC. “It just means more.”
It’ll be interesting to see if any school from the West can ever again win a national championship. Sure, the teams out here can all decide to bring in a great HC and hope it all works out. But as you say, football still means more, and I would say a LOT more, in the South. And I think that gap is widening.
I think it is pretty obvious. Paying a commissioner huge dollars who has a track record of underachievement, paying to create a network to broadcast its own games and the administrations still put out a poor product on the field just tells me the presidents have been watching too much virtual TV and don’t know what’s real. I agree that until the attitude of the PAC-12 schools changes to follow what the other Power 5 conferences are trying to do in developing their football programs, the PAC-12 will only get into the playoffs by a quirk or mostly by “accident”.
Frankly, what should happen now is a major power play by USC, where we are either handed the keys to the kingdom to oust Scott, and remake the entire thing in our image, or we leave for the Big 12. But the problem is that USC is as ass backwards as the Pac 12 right now, so not only is that not going to happen, but we’re no more competent than Larry Scott to drive business in the Pac 12. I used to consider the question whether USC would recover its glory (and by that I don’t just mean a… Read more »
Rock, you know what should happen, I know and just about everyone else on this website knows what should take place. But I am not holding my breath that Folt/Bohn do squat about anything PAC-12 conference. It would be just another sign how important football is to this administration. Don’t anyone get their hopes up. I hope I am wrong of course.
During Nick Saban’s amazing reign, he has lost a whopping 12 coordinators. Doesn’t seem to matter. He just wins, even though many other legendary programs lose a coordinator or two and the downhill slide starts.
Then, Saban plays against all these hotshots who leave to coach other teams after great success at ‘Bama, and he beats them all to a man. Crazy, remarkable fact of college football.
There are geniuses at every endeavor. Saban is a genius level coach, as is Pete Carroll as is Bill Billichek and as was Vince Lombardi. Saban is a genius at the collegiate level; Carroll did it both at collegiate level and in the NFL; Lombardi and Billichek at the NFL only. McKay was a genius at the collegiate level but not in the NFL. I would put Urban Meyer in the genius level in collegiate ball and it appears that Dabo Swinney may well be a genius at the collegiate level as well. I personally think Saban is the best… Read more »
Personally, as much as I like Pete Carroll, I don’t believe he would have been successful in the NFL had he not drafted Russell Wilson. He surely deserves credit for that, but without Wilson, Carroll had a clear losing record with the Seahawks. Wilson totally dictates how Seattle always does, certainly not Pete’s D. IMO, Wilson is one of the top three players in the game. Seattle just defeated the Vikings, who thoroughly outplayed the Seahawks. That’s because Wilson again scored a game-winning late TD based on a perfect Wilson drive. What I’m saying is that with the right players… Read more »
PC had to realize the value of a dual threat QB after what happened in the Rose Bowl against Texas & specifically Vince Young for the nattie? Urban Meyer has always realized this value. Thus Wilson playing for the seahawks, has pulled out numerous wins using both his legs & his arm.
Saban’s ability to continue bringing in top quality assistant coaches has kept his program top 2/3 much longer than PC did. Whether or not PC lost interest in the college game, it is the position coaches that keeps a program winning at a very high level. Of course recruiting top talent has much to do with winning also. But even if you bring in top recruits, if you have poor position coaches, you are going to be mediocre. Clay Helton has proven that plainly.
Love the philosophy of fail big in practice. It lets guys go out and be aggressive and try to make a big play.
You can find out a whole bunch when you let guys play that way. Some are capable to play a little more free and still be successful and others are not. It’s fine, the guys who are not need to stay on script.
As long as they fail going at 100% and not at 75%, the CH way.
I just like the idea of physical practices. I only hope Hugs stays out of the way.