USC looking to settle offensive line battles in near future
Adam Grosbard(OC Register) — LOS ANGELES — One of the key position battles of USC’s fall camp has been along the offensive line. But, barring any unexpected developments this week, the Trojans are hoping to wrap that up after Saturday’s second scrimmage.
The main battle has been at the tackle positions. Redshirt freshmen Courtland Ford (74) and Jonah Monheim have rotated between first-team left tackle and second-team right tackle for much of camp, though Monheim got the most reps at starting left tackle during this past weekend’s scrimmage.
On Monday, though, Ford worked at starting left tackle while Monheim moved to starting right tackle, a position that had been held down by senior Jalen McKenzie last season and for the first eight practices of camp. All three struggled in pass blocking situations on Monday, especially against edge rushers Drake Jackson and Juliano Falaniko.
The trio of Ford, Monheim and McKenzie will compete for the starting tackle positions this week, with a possible decision looming.
“It’s close battles out there but you kind of get of a feel for who those first two groups are going to be and which side they’re going to be on so you can lock them into those sides,” head coach Clay Helton said on Monday.
Offensive line coach Clay McGuire echoed those sentiments last week, saying that he wanted the starting unit to build chemistry before the season opener against San Jose State.
“It can’t be one of those things where they don’t know what they’re going to go into mock week or game week as far as which side they’re going to play,” McGuire said. “So as we get closer to that date we really need to settle in and start building some chemistry and continuity amongst those guys at the positions they want to play.”
INJURY REPORT
Starting their second full week of camp, the Trojans are a little banged up.
Defensive end Korey Foreman sat out practice on Monday with a slight groin strain, Helton said. Foreman played through the injury in Saturday’s scrimmage, which made his dominant performance in that exhibition even more impressive.
On Saturday, Foreman had offensive tackles on their heels as he pushed through into the pocket, blocking several passes at the line of scrimmage. But in Monday’s practice, he was in defensive line coach Vic So’oto’s hip pocket as he watched 11-on-11.
Tight end Malcolm Epps is continuing to rehab through turf toe. Though Helton said the transfer has been diligent in his rehabbing efforts, he could still be sidelined for three to four weeks, which could potentially keep him out through the season opener against San Jose State on Sept. 4.
“If it was an offensive lineman, you could probably still play it, get away with it,” Helton said. “But you’re talking about a guy that runs 20-plus miles per hour, turn on a dime. It’s gonna take a little bit.”
Running backs Keaontay Ingram (ankle) and Darwin Barlow (hamstring) both sat out practice on Monday but are expected back within the next week.
Cornerback Chris Steele and defensive tackle Jamar Sekona both are in health and safety protocols and away from the team. Sekona missed practices late last week, but Steele woke up feeling sick on Monday and did not come in to work with the team, Helton said.
The Trojans also had some long-term injuries pop up. Safety Briton Allen (left) tore his ACL and will require season-ending surgery, Helton said, while cornerback Adonis Otey (below) was in a sling on Monday after surgery to repair a broken bone in his hand. Helton said Otey’s recovery will be extended and could end his season.
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LAT — SR UCLA WR Delon Hurt (Anaheim Servite) has been suspended after he was charged with both felony oral copulation and sexual battery. 125,000 bail. “The sexual battery charge alleges that Hurt forced the victim ‘against her will while unlawfully restrained by the defendant(s) and an accomplice to masturbate and touch an intimate part of Delon Hurt.’” If convicted of the charges, Hurt faces up to 12 years in prison. Hurt is the second prominent member of UCLA’s team facing criminal charges. Starting OG Paul Grattan Jr. faces three charges resulting from a bar scuffle but has been allowed to remain… Read more »
Boys, Boys, Boys. Real life and real women are not porn sites. Get off the porn and behave like gentlemen. Develop a relationship with a woman, treat her with respect and communicate! That way you may have great sex and stay out of jail!
Not surprising that the fascists’ that run LA County public health would require mask for outdoor events. The county health director isn’t a real doctor, but I guess that doesn’t matter, because she is a SJW. Do vaccines work? If so, why do the vaccinated need to wear a mask? Its outdoors, where the virus doesn’t spread.. It’s more likely you will get hit by a stray bullet than get hospitalized due to COVID. But hey, when you love power and control, I guess it’s hard to give it up. Just another reason to leave the most screwed up state… Read more »
The lefty mind set is we all have to protect those that don’t want the shot from themselves. I say at this point, if you don’t want the shot and don’t want to wear a mask, that is the risk you take. Let the rest of us go on with our lives!
“49ers waive Josh Rosen in first round of roster cuts; former top 10 pick looking for his fifth team in four years.
“The recent cut has been a setback for Rosen’s chances of continuing his NFL career. He was signed off the Tampa Bay Buccaneers practice squad in December by the 49ers and was with the team for nine months, only to be beaten out by Nate Sudfeld for the team’s No. 3 quarterback job…”
Glad the jackass has been cut again. So much for him making the 9 teams that didn’t draft him pay. He must be an awful teammate, a real cancer in the locker room. No surprise he is a bruin, just like Trevor Bauer.
Well hopefully for him he invested his NFL money wisely to launch his after football life. Good luck to him. Just goes to show, you can be the most amazing guy in High School but who knows where you end up.
Five-star Rosen never needed the money anyway. My understanding is his family has always been bucks up (some always said Rosen lacked drive). The fact that he managed to get drafted as high as #10 (and the 4th QB taken) is a great example of evaluation weirdness and at times, total inaccuracy and fantasy.
For instance, both Rivalsand Scoutranked Rosen as literally the best QB in his class (he enrolled at UCLA in 2015). Rivals also ranked him as the best overall recruit, period. Oooooops!
How do you grade a strength & conditioning coach?– by how many injuries the players under his wing get hurt?… I would not go to an SC game without the mandatory mask rule. And even at that, I will find a seat where I am at least 20 feet away from anybody (6-feet is not enough). And of course this season there will be few Trojans attending the games, so the good-seat pickins’ should be an easy go…. All this worry about Slovis getting hurt due to an inoffensive line is out of line. The quarterback position requires that an… Read more »
LA County has ordered that everyone attending outdoor events where more than 5,000 people are in attendence must wear masks regardless of vaccine status.
The questions are: do coaches and players need to wear masks? Do the fans in the suites have to wear masks? Will this affect the attendence? Will any drop off in attendence be blamed on that instead of Clay Helton?
I decided this season to imaginary bet. My imaginary pot will be $20,000. I am going to bet the SC -San Jose game for $1,000 and take San Jose State to cover (16 1/2 points is the spread). I am also going to bet UCLA for two games at $1,000 each. I will take UCLA and give up 10 points to Hawaii and then take UCLA and get 4 1/2 points against LSU. I think the SC – San Jose game is easy money, but perhaps Clay will surprise me this year. I am betting early because I expect the… Read more »
This sounds like a fun idea! Would you mind if I copy your idea and make it a contest here on the blog and I will put up some prize money to make it interesting?
CLEM plays only one ranked team during the entire reg season (based on the pre-season polls) and that’s GA in their opener on Sept. 4, 4:30 PT, at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, NC.
I sure would love to see JT Daniels beat those guys.
I don’t have an issue at all with who is playing QB at USC, or his backups.
You can only keep so many superior QBs on your team, and I would say USC already has two of those on the team, maybe three. That breed of player just doesn’t like to sit on the bench behind another star, not anywhere. They come to play, usually immediately.
USC football has a lot of problems, but QB isn’t one of them.
https://youtu.be/xPvftOCA-9I Allen, I just found this radio clip from 2006. The rant is epic. We need this guy Valenti to watch the Clay Helton Trojans and offer his thoughts.
This could have been a report from any of the fall practices for the past 4-5 years. Line questions, injuries, Clay keeping guys out of practice, blah blah blah. Only change is coaches made them go 11 on 11 and dud away with the 7 on 7 stuff. Why go 7V7 on a full pad day anyway? Can Mike Bohn just stick Clay in a role within the athletic department until his contract is up? I would honestly take no head coach and let coordinators run the show for the rest of the year over Clay.
Still thinking 11-1 with 9-3 being realistic? I am still at 6-6. It appears Rock has moved from 7-5 to 6-6. Did you notice that the new tackles could not contain our DL pass rush? Notice the coaches are saying we must pass protect better. The proper statement from a competent staff would be: we are going to pass protect better and here is how and why!. Instead we get Clay making bizarre statements (we need to pass protect) and McGuire follows the party line. I still fear for Kedon. I cannot see how he does not get rocked at… Read more »
Yes, I’m still in that 9-3 or 10-2 camp. I’m always optimistic and drink the kool aid. We would have to have everything go wrong to be 6-6. We would have to be 90’s bad, and there is still too much talent to have that happen. But Clay is magic, he can certainly bring us down a whole bunch of notches.
The main battle has been at the tackle positions. Redshirt freshmen Courtland Ford (74) and Jonah Monheim have rotated between first-team left tackle and second-team right tackle for much of camp, though Monheim got the most reps at starting left tackle during this past weekend’s scrimmage.
The Trojans also had some long-term injuries pop up. Safety Briton Allen (left) tore his ACL and will require season-ending surgery, Helton said, while cornerback Adonis Otey (below) was in a sling on Monday after surgery to repair a broken bone in his hand. Helton said Otey’s recovery will be extended and could end his season. 
LAT — SR UCLA WR Delon Hurt (Anaheim Servite) has been suspended after he was charged with both felony oral copulation and sexual battery. 125,000 bail. “The sexual battery charge alleges that Hurt forced the victim ‘against her will while unlawfully restrained by the defendant(s) and an accomplice to masturbate and touch an intimate part of Delon Hurt.’” If convicted of the charges, Hurt faces up to 12 years in prison. Hurt is the second prominent member of UCLA’s team facing criminal charges. Starting OG Paul Grattan Jr. faces three charges resulting from a bar scuffle but has been allowed to remain… Read more »
Boys, Boys, Boys. Real life and real women are not porn sites. Get off the porn and behave like gentlemen. Develop a relationship with a woman, treat her with respect and communicate! That way you may have great sex and stay out of jail!
Not surprising that the fascists’ that run LA County public health would require mask for outdoor events. The county health director isn’t a real doctor, but I guess that doesn’t matter, because she is a SJW. Do vaccines work? If so, why do the vaccinated need to wear a mask? Its outdoors, where the virus doesn’t spread.. It’s more likely you will get hit by a stray bullet than get hospitalized due to COVID. But hey, when you love power and control, I guess it’s hard to give it up. Just another reason to leave the most screwed up state… Read more »
The lefty mind set is we all have to protect those that don’t want the shot from themselves. I say at this point, if you don’t want the shot and don’t want to wear a mask, that is the risk you take. Let the rest of us go on with our lives!
I’m all choked up.
“49ers waive Josh Rosen in first round of roster cuts; former top 10 pick looking for his fifth team in four years.
“The recent cut has been a setback for Rosen’s chances of continuing his NFL career. He was signed off the Tampa Bay Buccaneers practice squad in December by the 49ers and was with the team for nine months, only to be beaten out by Nate Sudfeld for the team’s No. 3 quarterback job…”
cbssports.com
Glad the jackass has been cut again. So much for him making the 9 teams that didn’t draft him pay. He must be an awful teammate, a real cancer in the locker room. No surprise he is a bruin, just like Trevor Bauer.
Well hopefully for him he invested his NFL money wisely to launch his after football life. Good luck to him. Just goes to show, you can be the most amazing guy in High School but who knows where you end up.
Five-star Rosen never needed the money anyway. My understanding is his family has always been bucks up (some always said Rosen lacked drive). The fact that he managed to get drafted as high as #10 (and the 4th QB taken) is a great example of evaluation weirdness and at times, total inaccuracy and fantasy.
For instance, both Rivals and Scout ranked Rosen as literally the best QB in his class (he enrolled at UCLA in 2015). Rivals also ranked him as the best overall recruit, period. Oooooops!
How do you grade a strength & conditioning coach?– by how many injuries the players under his wing get hurt?… I would not go to an SC game without the mandatory mask rule. And even at that, I will find a seat where I am at least 20 feet away from anybody (6-feet is not enough). And of course this season there will be few Trojans attending the games, so the good-seat pickins’ should be an easy go…. All this worry about Slovis getting hurt due to an inoffensive line is out of line. The quarterback position requires that an… Read more »
Continue to live your life in fear, LJ. Masks don’t help you at all.
LA County has ordered that everyone attending outdoor events where more than 5,000 people are in attendence must wear masks regardless of vaccine status.
The questions are: do coaches and players need to wear masks? Do the fans in the suites have to wear masks? Will this affect the attendence? Will any drop off in attendence be blamed on that instead of Clay Helton?
I decided this season to imaginary bet. My imaginary pot will be $20,000. I am going to bet the SC -San Jose game for $1,000 and take San Jose State to cover (16 1/2 points is the spread). I am also going to bet UCLA for two games at $1,000 each. I will take UCLA and give up 10 points to Hawaii and then take UCLA and get 4 1/2 points against LSU. I think the SC – San Jose game is easy money, but perhaps Clay will surprise me this year. I am betting early because I expect the… Read more »
This sounds like a fun idea! Would you mind if I copy your idea and make it a contest here on the blog and I will put up some prize money to make it interesting?
I’ll take the Trojans and lay the points. I’ll also take LSU over UCLA and lay the points. ✌
Makes Saturday more fun. Let’s see how it goes. You like people taking positions. This certainly does that.
John, Sounds like fun.
CLEM plays only one ranked team during the entire reg season (based on the pre-season polls) and that’s GA in their opener on Sept. 4, 4:30 PT, at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, NC.
I sure would love to see JT Daniels beat those guys.
And the game will feature 2 So Cal QBs that should have been USC guys for the duration.
I don’t have an issue at all with who is playing QB at USC, or his backups.
You can only keep so many superior QBs on your team, and I would say USC already has two of those on the team, maybe three. That breed of player just doesn’t like to sit on the bench behind another star, not anywhere. They come to play, usually immediately.
USC football has a lot of problems, but QB isn’t one of them.
https://youtu.be/xPvftOCA-9I Allen, I just found this radio clip from 2006. The rant is epic. We need this guy Valenti to watch the Clay Helton Trojans and offer his thoughts.
This could have been a report from any of the fall practices for the past 4-5 years. Line questions, injuries, Clay keeping guys out of practice, blah blah blah. Only change is coaches made them go 11 on 11 and dud away with the 7 on 7 stuff. Why go 7V7 on a full pad day anyway? Can Mike Bohn just stick Clay in a role within the athletic department until his contract is up? I would honestly take no head coach and let coordinators run the show for the rest of the year over Clay.
Still thinking 11-1 with 9-3 being realistic? I am still at 6-6. It appears Rock has moved from 7-5 to 6-6. Did you notice that the new tackles could not contain our DL pass rush? Notice the coaches are saying we must pass protect better. The proper statement from a competent staff would be: we are going to pass protect better and here is how and why!. Instead we get Clay making bizarre statements (we need to pass protect) and McGuire follows the party line. I still fear for Kedon. I cannot see how he does not get rocked at… Read more »
Yes, I’m still in that 9-3 or 10-2 camp. I’m always optimistic and drink the kool aid. We would have to have everything go wrong to be 6-6. We would have to be 90’s bad, and there is still too much talent to have that happen. But Clay is magic, he can certainly bring us down a whole bunch of notches.
It will be an interesting season.