Know Your Foe: USC vs. LSU Preview

you found it your home for the best content on your favorite team the fighting tigers of LSU do us a favor subscribe to the channel leave your comments below and be sure smash that [Music] like Ryan Abraham USC foot.com has the honors to give us a little Peak behind the curtain with the Trojans Ryan it's a pleasure man thanks for joining us again how are you I'm doing all right I can't believe it uh almost here we just a couple days away from taking off the college football season for most of the country we had some weak zero games last year but just long off season so I'm really excited for football now yeah it's um there look there's a lot of teams in college football that are open with real Duds thankfully for LSU in USC we had a lot you this is a hell of an entree you know to to warm us up throughout the offseason um if I ask you to gauge sort of the temperature of the program right now coming off would has to be considered a disappointing year last year given the expectation and the resource um where where is the the 10,000 foot view of USC football today you know it's getting a little better than it certainly was at the end of last season I think the whole season USC fans were upset at the defensive performance they weren't really fan of Alex Grinch and wanted Lincoln riy fire him after year one he didn't get fire until you know 10 games in and it was a little too late at that point and losing five or last six the recruiting wasn't going that well they just weren't like on top of things nil wise there was a lot of negativity around but I think they they got some momentum back going into the bowl game and seeing Miller moth throw six touchdown passes and feeling like the future of the program there's some brightness there and when he hired Danon Lyn and brought in a whole new defensive staff a bunch of guys that were maybe overqualified for the positions that they got hired for at UFC um I think people's fart you know felt a lot better about where the direction was going of course first of putting what we see on Sunday uh in Las Vegas but I think the fan base started to buy into to okay looks like this can turn things around if they go out and give up you know 55 points or something the desert it's gon to go right back but I think right now it's they're feeling a little bit better about the way things could go and you know having a good showing on Sunday would go a long way to keeping that going I would wholeheartedly endorse LSU scoring 55 on Sunday in Allegiance same I would love hey um LSU and SC we've talked about it so much the teams are so similar from your perspective where do you have the bigger question is it what does this new look defense look like or what what is the offense going to be without Caleb Williams it's more on the defensive side I think the biggest question is probably what they're going to do on the offensive line because they they love Jonah monheim but go from left tackle the center that's a big move and uh they love Elijah paage who's going to be the new left tackle but he's a you know freshman and then so there's some questions there and there's not as much depth I think on the defensive side just because they perform so poor early the last few years you know what is this group going to look like but there you know there's a lot of quiet confidence but when you're talking to the players and the coaches I don't think they have the the depth that they would like on the defensive line especially in the middle there but there's there's enough guys there we saw Denon Lynn turn UCLA from a really bad defense into like the number two defense against the run last year in just one season so I think that's where a lot of the the optimism is but where you want to see the real changes um you know Lincoln Ry just had great offenses every time he's you know whatever quarterback he's rolled out there they've had a great offense so I think for me it's more on the defensive side just seeing how much they can they'll improve but how much they can improve I think will determine how far this team goes this year he's Ryan Abraham uscfootball.com taking a look at the Trojans I want to dig a Little Deeper there on the USC defensive line because if we're looking through from an LSU perspective it would seem the biggest mismatch that favors LSU of course LSU's offensive line against that us defensive front s can you just give us a little bit of a thumbnail dive deeper into that defensive front and what that LSU offensive line is up against yeah they don't really have a true nose tackle but bar Alexander who transferred in from Georgia was you know hit a sack in the national championship game against TCU uh he's kind of G to be the center piece of that he you know he potentially was was going to go in the portal and end up sticking at USC so he's kind of like what he's the guy that really needs to perform to make that line go and they brought in some transfers but they didn't get I think just like LSU they tried to get some of the bigname defensive tackles and those mostly went to the the nil Superstars like the Oregons and the miamis of the world but you know they bring in uh Gavin um Meyer from Wyoming who was more rotational guy but they really like what he's done so far in Camp and Nate Clifton from SEC country he comes over from Vanderbilt put on about 20 pounds he's going to play inside as well they'll rotate a bunch of guys on the edge jam mohamd with pretty productive at least in the early part of last year a guy like brayan Shelby is a sophomore who they have a lot of high hopes for so I think it's going to be a lot of rotation you'll probably see a lot of different guys kind of coming in and out but the main one it's gonna you know focus on bear Alexander and trying to keep him healthy I think you know from the interior spot maybe you're not getting a lot of numbers but he really has to be a disruptor because it's a very Stout LSU uh offensive line maybe they can exploit a little bit at the center spot where they's been questions and that that would be bar Alexander J but he's going to be for me he's the key for the whole defensive line what about in the secondary Ryan that that seems to be where as I you know read the tea leaves SC seems to be most excited about the talent on on the back end how does that matchup go with a a really talented LSU receiver Corp yeah you know they brought in Doug Bel who is the defensive coordinator at Houston and they've recruited that position well it's just one of those California positions where you can there hasn't been a drop off like maybe as some of the linemen and I think they liked where they were but they still brought in a bunch of guys that can be very productive achil Arnold is going to be one of the team captains for this game coming over uh from or Oregon State to Carlos Nicholson comes in uh from Mississippi State he can play a big part grey Vance has played LSU twice he was at Florida State uh the last couple years and they brought him in late really didn't need him he might end up being their starting nickel so I think they had a really core good core group of guys already and then they brought in a bunch of transfers as well so there's a ton of depth I think that's where probably the deepest position on the team and I'm not sure which you know which group is going to go out there if they're going to move guys around depending on the you know the down and distance and everything but they have a lot of options in the secondary they feel I think they feel a lot better than they have the last few years what would be an acceptable performance Sunday night for the USC defense I that's a good question like numbers wise I I think a lot of it's eye test like you just don't want to get pushed around I mean if you go back to USC playing Washington Michael penck threw the ball all over the field Washington ran all over USC last year late in the season it was like that's not even a running team um but I think you want to see them just look like they know what they're doing they you know last year they would be looking at wristbands as the ball was being snapped not Shing what's going on really just being able to play Fast And if you give up some points and or big plays whatever that's fine I but you want to see them look like they know what they're doing guys are just running around to the football if you force some turnovers or make some big tackles I think that's a big thing and I I think just tackling not having like 15 missed tackles like they would have in games like that I mean I don't want to put like a number on it you it could be a low-scoring game a high scoring game but you just want to see a product on the field they like that looked what they look like in the Holiday Bowl even without dland running it looked more like a competent defense and I think that's really what you want to see if you're a USC fan got a couple more minutes here with Ryan Abraham from uscfootball.com owner publisher over there um if you want to give him a follow let's let's flip it over to the offensive side um we know the story lines around Miller Moss replacing Caleb Williams but where where is the strength of that offensive unit so I would go with the uh the wide receiver core and especially um the there are four true sophomores that all came in in the same uh recruiting class and usually they don't hit on a bunch of guys like that but all four of them have the potential to be super stars like people know about Zachariah Branch because he's also working you know special teams and can return kicks for scores and things like that but you know two really big receivers Duce Robinson is 66 and jacobe Lane is 65 66 range you know both big guys huge catch radiuses and they can make contested catches and uh be really athletic out there and then maai lemon comes in as well in that class and he came in with Malachai Nelson a former Five Star Quarterback they came it together and Nelson's now at boy state but those four guys I think everyone's really excited about that they played well all of them zachar BR didn't do much in the Holiday Bowl but the rest of those three guys all did and you kind of pair them with some veteran transfers that they have brought in but that's the core of this group and I think Miller Moss trying to find those guys like he did you know he had six t passes in the Hol ball a lot of them went to those guys I think that's where the strength is going to be if USC wins this game that group of wide receivers probably had to have a big game for that to happen is there any trepidation around around Miller Moss taking the Reigns you know he's been very like well liked by the players and I think the the coaching staff as well Lincoln Ry could have gone out and brought in a veteran quarterback and I you know um you know like Ohio state did and other programs did uh but I think what moth did in the holiday bow showed Riley enough okay he's capable of running this offense and producing the kind of output that that he's used to I mean Miller M will be the sixth starting quarterback that Lincoln Riley's had as head coach of the previous five four of them were Heisman finalists and the other one you know was drafted in CER Rattler and he was replaced by a Heisman winner so he's had a really good pedigree with quarterbacks and the fact that he didn't go out he brought in a younger quarterback uh andj mava from UNLV that could be more of a future guy I think that just showed he had a lot of confidence in what mooss could do maybe it's confidence what he can do I don't know but he hasn't had any Duds yet at quarterback so if mosa is he would be the first one um we seldom talk about the third phase but the third phase the last two years for LSU a lot of times has been uh an exercise INF futility if not an altogether challenge um uh where is SC if if you think about special teams if it's if it's field position and punting the return game play kicking if it comes down to a goal H how confident should uh Lincoln Riley be yeah they I think very similar to LSU they've struggled I think on the special team side um you know they they probably lost that cot ball the two lane because of a special teams Gap where you're taking a kickoff at the two yard line or whatever so I feel like he's tried to address it uh in the offseason they bring in a long snaper they're G to put on scholarship Hank pepper to kind of fix up the problems they had there Michael Lance was the kicker at Georgia Southern they brought him in even though they their incumbent is still there but there's been a competition it looks like Lance is going to win the job I think they've put more resources into special teams trying to make it better they weren't very good at putting kickoffs into the end zone and you know gave up a bunch of return so I think they've tried to address it like I'm sure like LSU has as well but it has been an issue and you know we we've seen LSU struggle in the first game with some some bad special teams plays I think that could be a big determining Factor you know but I think at least on the USC side they really tried to address some of the problems that they had uh last year Dennis ly would hit some tough field goals but he missed a lot of them between like 30 to 40 range which you got to get those so they're hoping Michael L can fix that and uh you know not having snapping issues and go for with that but it's definitely been an issue the last couple years it's something they've worked on last thing if there's a aside from scoring 55 points if there's a blueprint for for SC if it goes completely a as Lincoln Riley would have it go to script how does that look Sunday night I think just being able to get some stops on the defensive side not uh you know giving up third and Longs and and missed tackles and a lot of busted coverages it just keeping the you don't have so much pressure on the offense that they have to score every time they touch the ball giving a Young quarterback like Miller M some leeway to be able to hand the ball off more and you know maybe it's third and five and you try to run the ball and you don't force them to to to throw something and pick up a first down great otherwise pun uh and then give him an opportunity to find those young wide receivers so I think it starts on the defensive side where you're just so many games you just felt like Caleb Williams knew he had to score every single time he touched the ball that's a lot of pressure I think for for Lincoln Riley if you just don't put that pressure on the offense and let them kind of Click they'll score some points but it's a lot easier to when maybe you're up by a touchdown or you feel like the defense can get a stop versus okay we have to score every time or we're going to lose this game Ryan Abraham uscfootball.com check it out you want to cover the Trojans uh get the latest as we inch closer to kickoff get it there uscfootball.com Ryan we appreciate it man thanks so much for the time oh thanks for having me see you guys in Vegas hey thanks so much for watching please leave your comments I love to interact and be sure to hit the red subscribe button [Music] below you [Music] [Applause] with you [Music]