In this edition of Instant Analysis, USCFootball.com reporters Jack Smith and Chris Treviño discuss news and notes from USC’s Tuesday practice of Colorado week.
Jack and Chris first talk about the weather and then expert fashion (they accidentally wore the same shirt).
The two begin the serious analysis by talking about Lincoln Riley’s comments regarding Colorado and its first-year head coach Deion Sanders. Riley praised Sanders as one of the best players to ever play football and said that while he has never met the Colorado head coach, he shares a mutual respect. Riley said that Sanders deserves credit for the early results he has gotten in Boulder and even noted that he sees similarities to the 2022 USC team.
Riley and multiple players also spoke on the team’s mindset playing a hyped team like Colorado that has played multiple chippy games this year. The consistent message was that the team wants to play on their own terms and won’t get sucked into any trash talk that may occur.
Riley also talked about the Trojans’ rotating linebackers corps and was specifically asked about Raesjon Davis. The USC head coach said that Davis will be a big factor for the team and urged reporters to just wait and see.
Chris and Jack wrap up by talking about notes from linebacker Mason Cobb and defensive coordinator Alex Grinch who used a variety of baseball analogies to explain his perspective on the defense’s performance against ASU.
19 Comments
Colorado is really the first test for defense. 🤞
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We had one Linebacker that played but didn't make a play.
Up close and personal! Like it. May your camera die more often.
So many people trying to push their own narrative about this team and their defense while ignoring the fact that the team is getting better every game. 3rd in the country in sacks, forced fumbles, first in the conference in QB pressure. Ohhh yeah and we’re still undefeated. FTFO!
The defense operates best with Mason Cobb in there? Based on what? He's played 2 games in this defense and they were easily the 2 worst games the defense has played this season, giving up 28 points each time to bad teams.
I honestly don’t even think Riley realizes who is and isn’t out there on defense
Thank you gents for reporting on the LB situation as the rotation and what comes out of the coaches mouth don’t jive. We will see what happens next.
No disrespect to CU (this time), but I think we're in for a rout. "Hostile environment" can only take you far when you just don't have the horses in this match….
As a TMB alum it's really cool to hear the band practicing in the background! ✌️
Subbed for twinzies
Thank you guys! Fight On!
LR and AG are doing a great job pissing off Mater Dei past and future players. I'm sure it's not intentional, but the optics are horrible.
USC is 4-0 over teams that are a combined 3-14. We have about a 5-6% of making the CFP. Colorado will be angry. Our defense is ranked 70th nationally. Trouble is brewing.
Lol all you pessimistic fans must be so miserable 😂😂😂😂
Neither the head coach nor the defensive coordinator directly addressed why Raesjon Davis or Shane Lee didn’t play. My thoughts are the DC wanted to give some of the previously injured guys more run to get them back into game shape. But it was clear that Mason Cobb wasn’t 100 percent. Additionally, if the other linebackers have been playing well, the coach should continue rotating linebackers. But this goes to what I’ve said about coach Grinch: he doesn’t always seem to have a good feel for the game or how his players are playing that day. Cobb wasn’t himself and should have played limited snaps. Gentry’s ankle is probably not fully healed and that’s not hard to diagnose. We know what he looks like when fully healthy. We’ll see how things play out moving forward but as a player I would be totally frustrated if I didn’t play last week. These situations are what lead some players to transfer. And you can’t tell me that Raesjon Davis isn’t playing better than Tackett Curtis. So why is he playing more snaps than Raesjon? This whole rotation at linebacker is a head scratcher.
Isn’t it Grinch that decides who plays, grinch does have his favorites.
Time to clean it up and scale back the silliness, Treviño. Other than that, thanks guys.
Mason "1 tackle vs ASU" Cobb is butt cheeks.
We get Raejon and Shane play or revolt! DC at times give head scratching calls