Game Preview: No. 13 LSU vs No. 23 USC || The Victory Podcast with Keely Eure & Cody Kessler

[Music] welcome to another episode of the victory podcast driven by Audi I'm your host keor joined by my co-host and former USC quarterback Cody Kessler Cody it is officially game week which means it's a preview episode for us we are previewing number 13 LSU taking on the number 23 ranked USC I'm so excited I the preview and recap episodes are kind of our bread and butter so I'm glad to get back into it yeah it feels surreal too that it's actually game week and we're recording this on Friday right now so this is as we would call it the day before the day before true but we are two days away from USC football kicking off in Las Vegas against LSU Tigers I'm so excited this is going to be a great preview episode it was funny too when I was doing my prep the last couple of days it felt weird like I haven't done it in 8 n months since the Holiday Bowl in December so it felt crazy to be doing game prep again and it's exciting too because it's such a big first game like we're going to be the only game on TV on Sunday the entire country is going to be watching but that's the type of stage that you want when you come to USC and it's going to be awesome it's big 10 versus SEC it's kind of everything you want an opening weekend of of USC football also just a PSA Cody has been so amped for this episode that last night he says he thinks he knows LSU better than USC at this point you you did your research sir I'm I'm very proud of you well when you it's kind of like that as a quarterback too when you're playing when you're an offensive player or or defense vice versa you study the opponent you almost know them better than your own game plan because you have to know what they're doing every single play you have to know different looks different schemes different things they're going to do and it's especially hard when it's the first game of the year right and I talked to Lincoln about this on Trojans live asked him how difficult is it to prepare for an opponent that you haven't seen on tape yet right and you can watch Blake Baker from Missouri which I did or you can watch you know the LSU's offense from a year ago but they have a new quarterback so it's so difficult in today's era of college football with so many transfer players to really know what the roster is going to look like and know what to expect on the first game and it's going to be a huge game of of halftime or in-game adjustment so that you can know what their game plan is going to be and then you plan accordingly well like Cody said we are recording on a Friday that is my fault apologies for that I needed to Bunker kind of threw you under the bus there no I I threw myself under the bus I had to Bunker down and get the uh Eric Henderson feature piece out uh we were playing which was phenomenal too if you haven't watched it thank you please watch it not for my sake but just because he has an incredible story and it was just an honor to tell he's an incredible human being so please watch it uh YouTube Twitter Instagram wherever you can find it please watch it um but we were going to record on Thursday but then like I said I had to hunker down and so we were recording on Friday and hopefully this episode will be out within hours of us recording it on Friday night so yeah apologies this won't happen again it was just a unique uh I was drowning in work situation but well I'll say this too to have your back a little bit it is week one that it's it's I'm the same way now too that I've signed on for every offensive analyst I was kind of planning my week I'm it's Trojans live and then especially with a Sunday game like everything seems crammed just wait till next week yeah then we play Sunday and then right after that we have to do a a recap episode and then Trojan's live right after that and then it's like okay Tuesday's a little break and then for you yeah I get you know a little break and then Wednesday it's straight into podcast and then here we go we got a home game with Trojan's tailgate show so I I think everyone will understand a little bit that it's week one and and kind of throwing everything together but yeah hopefully it's it'll be out by tonight and then if it's not then everybody can yell at Key and blame key that's fine that's fine but thank you for your patience regardless uh just a couple reminders before we jump into it be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcast if you ever want to get your voice heard you can look out for a tweet or a question box either on Twitter or Instagram our socials are Victory pod USC and just a reminder that the LSU USC game is presented by Invesco QQQ the official ETF partner of the USC Trojans all righty Cody we got to talk about this LSU team I know you like to start with coaches who's their head coach yeah we're going to start with head coach Brian Kelly which I'm sure a lot of Trojan fans recognize that name Kelly was a head coach at Notre Dame from 2010 to 2021 I faced Kelly personally three years while I was here at USC very good very respected head coach he's been at LSU for two years now going into his third season he's 20- seven as a head coach of LSU and last year they went 10 and three two 10- win Seasons back to back though so he has got things turned around there at LSU and last year he also produced a Heisman winning quarterback in Jaden Dan Daniels now if you look at the offensive side of the ball this is where it's one of those co-offensive coordinators again and they haven't had a first game so who's going to be exactly calling the plays I think is still yet to be seen But if you listen to their press conferences it sounds like Joe Sloan is going to be the one calling the plays he was promoted from quarterback coach last year he was the offensive coordinator at Louisiana Tech from 2019 to 2021 the other offensive coordinator or cooc is Cortez hton he was promoted from pass game coordinator he was a wide receiver coach last year Sloan is the only one of the two with previous offensive coordinator experience and if you wonder why I'm saying there's two guys that were promoted that's because they're offensive coordinator from last year that led the number one offense in the entire country Mike Den Brock is now at Notre Dame so that's a change to be to to note but we'll also talk about Den Brock a little bit later this season when we play the Fighting Irish now moving over to the defensive side of the ball their defensive coordinator is Blake Baker this is his first year at LSU he has eight years of defensive coordinator experience so a very respected DC in the college football World he's been at he was a DC at Louisiana Tech from 2014 to 2018 and then he was at Miami as our defens coordinator from 2019 to 2020 but most recently he was at missou in the SEC the last two years so familiar with LSU but last year Missouri was a team that won 11 games and they finished in the top 10 in the final AP poll of the Season his defense at Missouri they'll finish in the top 25 in scoring defense only allowing 20 points per game but it's a little bit of a homecoming as well for Baker he's familiar with the LSU program he was a linebacker coach there in 2021 before he left have to go to Missouri now before we get into the details of LSU's offense I just want to go over like the main storyline and we've heard it a lot we talked about it on trons live but basically LSU coming into this game is the Bayou USC if you will they have a very similar storyline to what USC has this year they are replacing a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback and they are debuting a new defense with a new defensive coordinator it's really interesting that you know this game was scheduled years and years in advance and here we are with similar stories yeah and not even those two it beyond that right so you have both coaches going into their third year right coming from different programs then you have um like you mentioned two quarterbacks leaving so Caleb Williams won the Heisman in 2022 last year Jaden Daniels won the Heisman both went one and two in the draft now they both replace their defensive coordinators have new top 25 defensive coordinators coming in for the first year on top of that you have two quarterbacks who aren't transfer quarterbacks who waited their turn yeah a good point when two transfer quarterbacks came in and took the starting job for them they had to sit behind they both go out last year and and and dominate in the bowl games Win MVPs and then you're going into this season both top 25 opponents and first year starting quarterback so it's crazy it's almost as if the script writers knew what they were doing when they made this schedule going into this year but yeah it's it's literally us on paper and two defenses that were both in the bottom half of bottom third of college football from a year ago that have big expectations to make that turnaround this year so it's a crazy storyline it's everything you want in the first week of the year and it's a great matchup and I can't wait to get into it all righty well let's get into LSU's offense as you just mentioned they are replacing Jaden Daniels how do they do that what are you expecting for this season yeah I'm going to start with their stats from 2023 and again I've talked about number one offense in the country but those things are going to change because not only their offensive coordinator lead they lost 90% of their production I'll explain why in a second but and I compared USC from a year ago as well so number one scoring offense in the country 45 points per game USC was number three okay number three passing offense in the country USC was number five they were ranked 11th in run offense last year this is where we can be better we were 992 in the country we have to improve we've talked about before we've had those 800 900 yard rushers but we need to be more balanced on offense this year and that's going to come up again late or uh stay tuned for the keys of the game and then uh they had the number one total offense in the country they averaged 543 yards per game USC finished 10th in that category now this is when you have a new defensive coordinator the best test that you can ask for right we want to know a lot about Lynn's defense so we want to go out there and see what they can do going up against the number one offense from a year ago but there's a caveat with that and I say that because this new this offense for LSU is going to look completely different than it did a year ago LSU loses Jaden Daniels who was our starting quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner they lose Malik neighbors and they lose Brian Thomas Jr you may think okay that's only three guys can't be that big of a difference well that was their entire offense year ago Jaden Daniels had 3,800 passing yards 40 touchdowns 135 carries 1,134 yards on the ground 10 more touchdowns rushing but then when you look at neighbors and Thomas Jr combined neighbors had 15500 yards and 14 receiving touchdowns and Thomas Jr had 1100 yards and 17 touchdown receptions so those guys combined I mean I know those passes are going to those guys so you can't really combine but that's over 80 touchdowns between Daniels neighbors and Thomas Jor and then you look at the Run game I mean obviously I just said Daniels had 1100 yards he was their leading rusher by far their next leading rusher was Logan Diggs with 653 and he's now transferred to ol Miss so it is a completely revamped offense this year it's going to be not the OC is gone but there's going to be so many new players but LSU is like USC right it's kind of that next guy waiting in line Robert Woods leaves and then you have marle coming next so uh we'll get into those key players in a second but yes it's going to be a new look offense for LSU but they hired their offensive coordinator within the same system so it's going to be the same there and Garrett NM showed some promise so far when he's got into game so they're still going to be efficient just not quite what they were a year ago I mean we have questions about this as well but my first question is if you're Danton Lynn how do you even for this are you just piecing together tape and hoping it is cohesive like yeah I mean well the best part for the off now the defense for LSU is going to be completely different right you're going to have you have new defense coordinator that's expected but when you have when you hire two guys within with with you know uh hton and Sloan both of them have been in the system for a couple years now so they they're even though Den Brock's gone they're going to keep up what they've been doing they're not going to change their entire offense it's going to be a new play caller sure but Personnel but then yeah but then you change Personnel Jaden Daniels is is a completely different quarterback than Garrett NM NM is a very good player and we'll get into that in a second but then you lose Malik neighbors and you also lose Brian Thomas Jr how do you replace those guys well there's a couple guys that can replace that so I don't think it's going to be too different it's going to be similar to last year for us in the bowl game right you you lose Caleb Williams who does AB and C great but then you bring in Miller Moss within the same scheme that does X Y and Z so it's going to be similar Concepts it's just going to be a little bit different like you said in Personnel but how you attack opposing defense because you don't have J Daniel and you don't have Caleb Williams but you have two guys and they wouldn't be the starting quarterbacks if they didn't fit the scheme that was already in place right or they wouldn't have committed here and I know Miller got here before Lincoln but he wouldn't have stayed if he didn't think I could be successful yeah with my play callor so it's the same at LSU that's why I think they hired within Brian Kelly has produced some very good quarterbacks over the years I think they're going to kind of pick up where they left off are they going to be the number one offense from a year ago in the country that we saw in 2023 I don't know yet obviously we're going to learn a lot about that on Sunday but yeah it's it's difficult and that's why Lincoln kind of answered the question at is as hard it is for us to prepare for opponent it's just as hard for them yeah to know our personnel as well so it's kind of a chess match if you will of of even playing field but it's still yeah it's going to be difficult and D or D ly's gonna have his hands full come Sunday well it's also just kind of this new era of college football with the transfer portal this is kind of going to be week one every year right I mean granted there's different factors about different coordinators changing and whatnot but it feels like every year we've had this kind of similar storyline of like what are we actually going to see well it's funny too and it kind of reminds me of the NFL because of free agency and how much things change from year to year and how much you know how different teams look but it was always funny when you go into the first game of the year you're not just watching LSU tape right right now they're breaking down Missouri tape for our offense watching their defense right they're watching Blake Baker at Missouri they're watching LSU from a year ago sure but they're also watching probably other guys that one of their leading receivers just came from Liberty right they're watching his tape at Liberty they're watching different tape of of guys that transferred in same thing they're doing for us I guarantee you Brian Kelly and his offense and Sloan are watching e masarus Arnold and Arnold and then they're watching Kamari Ramsey from UCLA so it's tough you're not just watching your opponent's game film like you will week two three or four when you get more into it and you know their personnel you're watching so many different teams and so many different players trying to scout for week one and again you may go into this game plan or or this week with a game plan that's going to have to change in the first 10 plays because they're doing something you haven't expected so it's a bit of a guessing match going into this first game but as tough it is for us it's just as tough for them so that kind of evens the playing field out so let's get into the key play players on llc's offense but before we do I just want to clarify what a red dot guy is it is a term we use here on the preview shows but if you're new to the preview show Cody uh let them know what that means yeah and overall before I I talk about the Red Dot is that's normally how the preview goes if you're a first time listener we go coaching staff so you're familiar with with where they came from and what kind of their scheme is or what they like to do then we go stats from a year ago or current stats and who their leaders are and then we get into the key players like key just mentioned and we talk probably five or six key players each time but there's normally one or two red dot guys and what a red dot guy is is I hate to say their best player on the field because that's not always a case I guess it's a player that can disrupt your game plan right priority yeah it's someone that it's an Aaron Donald type player to where as an offense I'm going to put a red dot the laser pointer in film room knowing this guy can disrupt our entire game plan it's on the offensive side of the ball a Tyreek Hill right you can shut down their run game you can shut down Jaylen Wadd but if Tyreek goes for 200 yards and three touchdowns which he which he's done before doesn't matter you have no chance to win that football game it's a Caleb Williams it's a Jaden Daniels if you will from a year ago it's a bear Alexander for us someone that can disrupt the middle of the field so those are the red dock guys guys that if we don't game plan to them accordingly they can destroy our entire game plan TJ watt is another guy that comes to mind hey we can have a great pass game in plan and we can do a lot of things well but if he has four or five sacks off the edge and now our quarterback's rattled and he can't get in a rhythm your entire game plan is disrupted right so those are the Red Dot guys and the first one I have is quarterback Garrett nesm again he's only played in three games or or a very small sample size to watch him from and he's gotten a couple other games but I think he is going to be a very effective quarterback this year not only in the SEC but in the entire country uh against Wisconsin last year in the bowl game 31 of 45 400 yards passing and three touchdowns now when you watch his film yes he's different than Jan and Daniels he's not going to run around he's not going to rush for 1100 yards this year but he can hurt you on the Run he's he's a lot more mobile I think than people have scouted him from before and he looked good in the Wisconsin game so my notes were great footwork and pocket present which is huge because of how good his offensive line is yes does a great job there solid arm strength looked very comfortable in the pocket and he has great vision and accuracy he's not a quarterback that gets off schedule and what I mean by that is he's going to take a three-step drop hitch up and fire a hole shot on the outside or fire a bender over cover two he's going to know where your holes are in the defense and he's going to be on time consistently and that's very important because there's a lot of arguments when it comes to quarterbacks is how strong is his arm it doesn't matter if your timeing on and you can get the ball there when it needs to be and throw it a half second earli or whatever it may be and he wasn't afraid to take the Deep shot they had a couple deep throws there two of his three touchdowns were were great over theh shoulder passes in the back of the end zone so he's a very good quarterback and what we have seen from him he has played well and he played against Georgia in 2022 which is the number one team in the country went out and through for 300 yards and two touchdowns so someone that that we're going to have to to game plan for and he's my first red dock guy now a couple guys to to to look at as well is wide receiver CJ Daniels this was the transfer from Liberty okay I just talked about a couple of minutes ago he had 2,000 receiving yards in his career he has 21 touchdowns it's going to be his first year at LSU but a very experienced veteran on the offensive side of the ball now my second Red Dot guy is wide receiver kyen Lacy yep he is in my opinion when you watch his film that next LSU receiver if you will that okay you know when you have the odells and the Jarvis landre and the Malik Neighbors from a year ago Brian Thomas Jr obviously he's got to earn it I'm not putting him there yet but in my opinion I think he's going to be that Breakout receiver for him so he is my second Red Dot guy 62 215 lb senior he has 1500 yards and 17 touchdowns in his career in 2023 behind neighbors and Thomas Jr was a little bit overshadow had 600 yards and seven touchdowns but he's an efficient route Runner very good with the ball in his hands and he's a big player can make those contested catches but he's dangerous as well when he gets the balls his hand at 62 and 215 pounds you don't expect him to be as Shifty and quick as he is but he's an all-around good receiver okay uh the other guy that's still I don't know if you have an update on I don't sorry okay so as of right now what's coming out from LSU is their next wide receiver Chris Hilton Jr again another guy that can step up into that playmaker role he's questionable to play on Sunday is the last I've seen and I checked this morning I haven't seen anything saying he's going to play yet but he is a very talented athlete probably one of the fastest players in the entire country as well so he's one of those guys that can take the top off of the defense whether we're playing manto man on the outside or a one high look if you're a corner you've got to give him that cushion and know hey I'm going to be physical at the point of attack but I've got to run I cannot let him beat Me Over the Top If he plays in his career he has 22 receptions 415 yards and three touchdowns another area where USC struggled from a year ago covering a tight end right I guess the last two years we've struggled at covering those playmaking pass catching tight ends LSU has a better one in the entire country or one of the best ones in the entire country in Mason Taylor 65 255 pound Jr has 74 receptions 762 yards and four touchdowns he's dealt with a couple injuries over the last year or so look good as a freshman last year had an ankle injury that that was kind of nagging him for the entire year but coach uh OC Joe Sloan came out and said he's probably the best Titan in the country now obviously you're going to back your guys but but if he's not he's not far off he's up there so he's going to be a great challenge for our safeties and our nickel Defenders on Sunday running backs I have an or I think it's either going to be Josh Williams or Caleb Jackson I expect Williams to get the start he's the senior but sophomore Caleb Jackson looked great in the bowl game so either one of those guys in there are going to be good and the reason I say that is because we have a first ever on the victory podcast in the history we have a position group entire position group as a red dot player or players if you will okay I saw this on your notes and I thought I was like this the first time we' even mentioned the offensive line we did we did Utah we had a offense and defensive player who was the same player okay on both sides of the ball I think it was viak was his name I'm sorry if I'm wrong but now we have a new first and that's why I said with either Jackson or Williams and they're I think they're going to be efficient because of our next Red Dot group is LSU's offensive line and in my opinion they are probably the best offensive line best complete offensive line in college football right now at the moment this is going to be a great test for our defensive front especially going into the Big 10 this year which is a run heavy conference we're going to see offensive lines that look similar to this but you have the best tackle duo in the entire country with Will Campbell and emry Jones I think are both going to be first round picks Campbell probably a top five pick if he can stay healthy this year wow probably the best tackle in the entire country maybe best offense line in the entire country and then you have two guards miles Frasier now Frasier was on the injury report I think last week okay so I got an update on while you were talking I Googled it the Thursday update from Brian Kelly is that uh Frasier is good to go okay so he's cleared yes and uh Chris Hilton is still probable or questionable I should say he's in progression and we're hopeful that he can be ready to play but he's making good progress that the quote that was the last thing I saw so that's what I was about to say I Frasier I expect to play but but Hilton Jr was still questionable as of this morning as well so we'll see on that but yeah Frasier probably if it wasn't for uh uh emry Jones and Will Campbell probably their best offensive lineman that's how good Fraser is probably the best offens lineman in a lot of on a lot of teams in the country but you have two very good tackles and that's why I say it's an entire group and then the other guy opposite of him is Garrett delinger who is again probably a top five guard in the entire country as well so it is unbelievable just how many dominant players The Experience they have on that offensive line there's not one weak spot when you look at it from the center out and again I think one of the better guard Duos in the entire country and no argument the best tackle duo in the entire country so this is going to be our biggest challenge and you know how exciting is it that it comes in week one for dant ly front seven yeah I have so many questions based off of that well first off um we know that the game is one and lost in the trenches this is the debut for Danton lind's defense how from your perspective Cody are you going to analyze this defense knowing that this offensive line is one of the top in the nation yeah it's it's so the biggest thing for me is for D Lynn this week is to challenge your defensive line and what I mean by that is it it has to be hey we're game planning around you guys and that's why I call this offensive line a red dot if we don't stop the run if we get pushed around up front if we can't get to the quarterback LSU was top five or top 10 in the country last year in explosive plays and a big part of that is because of how good their offensive line if we can't penetrate their offensive line if we can't get pressure on nme it's going to be a long night right so if I'm D Lyn I'm coming out and saying I'm calling Kobe Pepe I'm calling Gavin I'm calling bear I'm calling all these guys into my office and I'm saying hey this game is one or loss this week because of you guys up front yes Nate Clifton and some of the guys in the exterior Anthony Lucas and jam muhamad can help themselves by getting to the quarterback but the interior of this offensive line that bully ball as you like to call it up front this is the this is where the game's going to be won and it's the true definition of like you said games are won or loss in the trenches yeah this this game this matchup is 100% that but that's what you want right we saw games last year where we got frustrated against Cal because we're just giving up gaping holes on the a a gap B Gap C Gap outside contain all of it we're giving up big time run plays explosive plays in The Run game giving up 250 or 300 yards in the first half on the ground giving up huge run plays to Utah that really kind of turned that game around having mismatch nightmares just so many things were going wrong to where if you want to compete at high level college football against a 13 Rak opponent that has a a phenomenal offensive line and good Playmakers behind it you've got to be able to get those things fixed and that's why you go out and hire a guy like dant Lyn but I can't wait to see how this front seven plays and I can't wait to see or hear about what Lynn says even postgame after because it's going to go successful I feel optimistic but postgame kind of what that message was to his defensive front and how they attack this game plan so something we've talked a lot about on this show is how quote unquote funky Lyn's defense is just meaning pre- snap post Snap what you're looking at is there a way where if you can't outmuscle their offensive line you least confuse them about their responsibilities yeah and that's where our advantage is going to be and I hate to say that though because I really believe not that say that USC can't I'm just saying like is this another Ace in your pocket or option 100% I mean I played with and you're not discrediting anybody because I've played with a guy named Joe Thomas who was probably the best left tackle in the history of the NFL who was each week even when it was guys like TJ wat phenomenal JJ wat at the time you know these trell Suggs when we played Baltimore it was all right Joe's got him you know I'm not worried about it who on the left side of the field they've got him and that's what you have when you have two good tackles LSU has that now is that to say I don't have faith in brilin Shelby and Anthony Lucas and Jal Muhammad absolutely not but it's going to be a long night for those guys both but you have to make it a long night for those tackles as well right you have to go and be a a master of your craft this week work on three or four different moves right it's not just going to be a bull rush or a swim move every time work on a spin move work on an inside out move so many different things that can confuse him and then taking it a step further like you said identification nightmares right that's what Lynn is so good at and and the word funky we've used so many times confuse Garrett nesme right and it's going to be tough because he's not it's not like he's a true freshman making his first start right he started a couple games but he's along the lines of Miller been in college for a couple years he understands the backup role he's been in this offense for a while so he's not going to be confused by a lot he did a good job in against Wisconsin of pre- snap identification and not really allowing that much pressure but when you have a smart physical dominant offensive line in front of you it makes it a lot easier how do we gain an advantage I'm with you on that I mean move Nate inside move you know bring in four DNS at once put Anthony Lucas brayan Shelby Nate Clifton and Jal muhammd all in on a third and passing situation and then also bring Easton masarus Arnold as well and get some pressure on nus me back there but it's going to be difficult and that's why I say we have to be able to stop the run we can't get moved around I mean they're going to have three four yard gains right we're going to take that there's going to be some 10 15 yard plays we'll take that but we have to limit that bully ball to where we're giving up gaping holes in the Run game and we're letting nme sit back there for three four five seconds because like I said he's not going to run like Daniels but he does a good job of throwing on the run if needed and if he moves outside the pocket he can still be comfortable we just have to collapse that pocket and make it tough on him all night long now we have questions that are relevant to this section so I'm just going to bring some up So Cal Manny said is it important for our defense to try and stop the run or the pass how would you game plan for their offense which you kind of just got into but curious your thoughts there Cody yeah I'm going to say I mean both obviously is the easy answer but I if I had to pick one of the two I'm going to say stop the run because it's tough and and that's again kind of looking forward to to what we need to do on offense but it's tough when you don't have a balanced attack right when you put all that pressure on Garrett nme who yeah he's experienced and he played well in the bowl game and he played well against Georgia in 2022 this is still like Miller his first year as a starting quarterback right now those other guys are gone you're not coming in as a backup with hey I got to win this game and then the starters back or you know I got this bowl game and then I get the offseason this is week one you got a 12we season including hopefully a a a sec or Big 10 championship and then into the playoffs as well you've got to know I've got to perform week in and week out so there's a lot more pressure than just coming in for one game and being the hero but the BG thing for if we can the and we can dominate up front with Alexander and and Gavin and Kobe Pepe GNA be a big game for Kobe Pepe as well guys like that and we can really just take out the middle of the field for them in the Run game it's going to do a lot to their confidence right for LSU because they came in if you listen to Will Anderson on I'm sorry Will Campbell on his interview lately and I don't know if you saw it bear kind of tweeted back at him have you seen that it's something about a fist fight right or running talking about a fist F fist fight and how physical are and dominant they're going to be and Bear quote tweeted it and put like kind of like I think the the horns Emoji or whatever like the the Mad Emoji so it's it's going to be a great match up so keep your eyes on that but if you can come in as a defensive front and really take that confidence way not allow them to run the football you start questioning yourself as an offensive line and that's something you have to be able to do offensive lineman love running the football r that love that pulling around the corner power game kicking out the outside Defender moving up to the second level and pancaking a linebacker that is where you build confidence up front especially with the new offensive line if we can take their will away and not allow them to to be efficient in the Run game I think that's going to give us a better Advantage for the night so Rama wanted to know how does LSU prepare for USC's defense when they have no film of the current players in this new scheme are you just looking at UCLA tape at in that sense yeah 100% I mean that's what we're doing watching Baker from Missouri now they're watching Lynn from UCLA a year ago um but the the beauty of it is is and that's what Lincoln said is as difficult it is for us and I just kind of alluded that a second ago it's just as tough for them right that's why it's even playing field and it it makes it to where it's more of a cat and mouse game of all right we're going to come out with this game plan and we're going to kind of test the waters kind of dip our toes in a little bit see what they're going to do oh wait you know and I've always feel like week one of the Season you have especially with a new defensive coordinator and in today's era of college football with all these new faces you have multiple directions you can go with a game plan instead of hey it's now week four or week three we've seen Michigan on tape twice or three times we know what we're going to come in to do we know what what one high beaters or two High beaters we're going to need to be efficient in this game plan or you know where we can take advantage in the Run game when it's the first game of the year we might have guard tackle pulling we might have a couple more you know plays going this way you might have a power Run game or you might have a man Zone scheme up front as well which you normally don't do for every game but there there's probably going to be a longer you know you normally have your first 15 it's probably first 30 this week of plays you want to run through until you figure out what their game plan is then you come back on the sideline and Lincoln Riley's one of the best in the country at halftime adjustments or end-game adjustments so I feel still comfortable there but now we're going to see what Lin can do is saying hey this is what LSU their game plan is going to be on offense This Is How They prepared for us this how we prepared for them and now we got to make those ingame adjustments and it's going to be fascinating because now they have more tools to do to do so in helmet communication and tablets on the sideline so now oh they got tablets too yeah okay so they've got wow all right it's NFL now I mean it's it's yeah so for those you who don't know I'm assuming it's the same too and and what Key's talking about is those you know the you've seen the funny ones where you see Roger slam it or the guy slam it or the guys watch it on the sideline um but those tablets that they use they're only freeze frame photos so it's not actually watching film on the sideline it's I think a second before the ball snapped and then it's two seconds into the play so you get two you get a a back view of pre- snap and then 3 second post Snap and then you get a side view of of pre- snap and then 3 second or two or 3 second post Snap as well so but that's going to be huge that that's cuz how helpful is that for you it's it's unbelievable how helpful that is because you can see when I was here and our offense coordinator was up in the booth the booth or if it was hton or or shark shark was on the sideline and called a lot of those plays but he's coaching the entire game as well so you'd go talk to your OC whoever was calling the plays it was so difficult to not really because you know you can you've game planned throughout the week but it's so much more difficult to kind of listen to what they're saying and trying to see the vision in your head instead of looking at a at because you can draw on those things as well say hey this guy's coming down this guy's doing this they're bringing pressure from this side when you see this look it makes it so much more easier when we got to the NFL to be able to to make those ingame adjustments because you have those t so I didn't know that's huge and also that's a great point the the inh helmet communication is going to help when we get up there pre- snap have a play called you know hut hut fake a signal or fake a Cadence and then Lincoln can say hey this is what they're doing Miller let's get to this play so it's going to be again it's going to be the definition of of a chess match it's going to be an even playing field and that's what you want in college football I'm excited okay any other thoughts about LC's offense or are we ready to move to their defense no I got to I need to catch my breath if if you can't tell I'm I'm excited well this is it's my bread and butter I feel like I love breaking Gam film down I love watching players scouting players kind of that's what I did for my entire life playing football this is why you're so good at the preview podcast anyways okay so yeah moving on I'm good all righty well before we get into LSU's defense just want to give a thanks to Audi what you expect from an SUV is a range of sizes to fit your lifestyle expectations matter but exceeding them matters more the Audi family of SUVs progress you can feel and also troan fans celebrate every USC win and enjoy the Sweet Taste of Victory with a free donut and Ralphs the day after the win download your digital coupon from the Ralph's app to score your free donut at any Los Angeles area Ralph's store sorry you are at OC boy so I'm down I'm down I'm further south so I don't get the free dut maybe I'll stick around maybe you're coming up on Monday for the Pod what what was it when is it's the day after the game boom boom there you go so this will be the only week I can do it but yes yeah anyways Ralph's fresh for everyone fight on that's coming up later that's always my my queue for Ralph's but so true this podcast for for a while now Cody I'm prompting you the LSU events what do we expect or what should we expect again so I'm going to go over the 2023 stats but new defensive coordinator but I'm doing it this time because I'm going to compare USC as well right we talked about how evenly matched they are I have more stats to back that up right and it's kind it's crazy just when you look at the two teams I know we got into that but all right so in 2023 LSU's Defense number 81 in scoring defense right USC was 121 a little bit worse uh LSU's passing defense was ranked 118th in the country we were 10 third they had the 87th rank run defense in the country we were 119 and they were 108 in Total Defense they gave up over 400 yards a game which we did as well and we were ranked 119th and then this was a big one for LSU where they really struggled they were 117 out of 131 schools on third down defense and USC was 109 so all of that is a recipe for both teams obviously to go out and find new defensive coordinators so LSU fires Even's coordinator Matt house they go out get Blake Baker from Missouri a little bit more of a background about Baker and kind of getting to know who he is one thing I'll say about him and it's evident at Missouri it's evident in what we've seen in Camp listening to to Joe Sloan their offensive coordinator talk about it he is going to bring pressure he will Blitz the entire night long it will it will come from everywhere right he'll bring a safety from this side a corner from this side corner pressures we struggled with a little bit last year okay running backs have to have those antennas up and be ready but he is going to pressure all night long and he does a great job of game planning and scheming against you and bringing these pressures and getting home they did a great job last year at Missouri finished 11th in the country at sacks uh under Baker with 39 on the year they had the number 25 ranked scoring Defense number 34 in Total Defense and they played well against LSU they played well against I think it was Alabama had a very good offense last year and they did a good job of shutting them down or slowing them down okay this Missouri team was very good a year ago now when you have a defense that likes to bring a lot of pressure and that likes to Blitz a lot of the times you're susceptible to giving up explosive plays they did just that Baker's defense as good as they were at getting home and being successful on those pressure plays they were also on the bottom third in the country of giving up plays in over 10 and 20 yards right so they struggled it's it's kind of that high risk High reward or or you know uh High reward how do I say I know what you're trying to say high risk High reward yeah I guess the right way to say it type of Defense to where we're going to bring the same pressure we're going to bring cover zero on third medium and it may work this time but the next time you're going to hit us for a 30 yard gain right so it's that kind of Hit and Miss but they were so good at doing it a year ago at Missouri that was having a full two years under their belt of knowing the scheme so will they be as aggressive this week against USC obviously time will tell because there's a lot of new players new faces and they're learning each other's scheme and they also talked about listening to Baker I think it was about a week and a half ago at fall Camp saying we're doing a good job of making those big plays but we're lacking the consistency right and we have to be able to understand the scheme and understand communication I'm sure we're having the same here at USC with ly so again it's very similar but a very good defensive coordinator and Blake Baker and you've got to be ready for pressure all night long interesting okay now obviously this is a USC offensive line that is coming together in a new starting five I thought about it this week and I didn't I don't know why I didn't think about it earlier this is kind of a disadvantage for Jonah Manheim because he's not starting at Center first game in a friendly environment he's in a neutral site so the communication between Jonah and Miller is going to have to be on par yeah and that's my that's my biggest point I think or biggest takeaway for our offense this week is we need to be phenomenal exceptional whatever the biggest word you can use in pre- snap communication because you have to identify as funky as we are here at USC with Dan Lyn now Baker does a great job of doing that and he'll do it out of a basef front what I mean is when you get in third down you bring in nickel package or when we go three or four wide you'll bring in those nickel packages and think okay where's my my my antenna where's my radar at okay I know they can bring a safety or a strong strong safety in a Sam linebacker I know they'll bring a corner pressure sometimes from the left but he'll do it out of Bas fronts to where you think all right this is an easy Bas look we're just running guard tackle pull we're going to keep it simple they'll bring a free safety from the weak side that you may not have seen all night that you're not ready for so you have to be ready at all times overc communicate right and this is a great point the biggest game of the year probably with communication for Miller and Jonah and oh yeah by the way it's happening week one so yeah and there's going to be other games obviously yeah and we're and we're on a neutral site in Vegas and and hopefully our Trojan fans travel well and it's not too loud but yeah it's going to be crazy and I get to talk to to coach Luke heward later uh tonight for for an interview and I'm going to ask him that same question you know how is that progression been between Miller and Jonah because it's going to be so important this week with their pre- snap communication but I got full faith in the guys it's not like I said it's the same as nire it's not like Miller is a freshman quarterback making his first start you know a younger guy not used to college football atmosphere and it's not like Jonah monheim isn't one of us one of if not the smartest offense alignment we have so they're both very cere I have full faith there but there's going to be some and that's okay and you're going to see some pressures that you didn't game plan for but that's why you get off to the sideline you look at the tablet you understand it you pick it up make those iname adjustments and you keep rolling but yeah that's a great point this is going to be a huge week for Jonah and Miller all righty key players who should we look out for on LSU's defense yeah the first one and I think their best player on defense they're my biggest red dot guy if you will I have two this week for LSU is linebacker Harold Perkins Jr right so he's 61 225 pound junor if you're a college football fan I'm sure you've heard the name before he's been a very good player over the last two years led the team a year ago with five and a half sacks 13 sacks total over his first two years six Force fumbles as well in the last two years now it's interesting with Perkins though because when you watch his game film from last year he moved positions right so he was an edge rusher as a freshman smaller guy for an edge rusher but so explosive off the line so quick does a great job of getting those swim moves under those bigger tackles that are a little bit slower off the line but then going into this last season they moved him to middle linebacker right so he played more on the interior of the defense now they'll move him around still play him off the edge but his new home was that interior middle linebacker position he lost production a little bit right and that was a big argument and concern from the LSU fan base was why are we moving Perkins around right so then you go out and hire Blake Baker right you're hoping to get Perkins back into that freshman year production level that he was at well Baker comes in and says hey I'm going to keep him at middle linebacker still now yes we will move him around you'll see him off the edge at times but he's one of those guys and I say that because he's one of those guys where you need to know he's at where he's at at all times r number four yeah a red dot guy exactly if you will but how they use him is going to be interesting and this is another Personnel question when you have a new defensive coordinator a player that's as effective probably one of the better defenders in the SEC but they haven't played together yet with Baker and Perkins how's he going to use him on his defense now he did say he will be a middle linebacker because that's where they think he's going to play in the NFL 61 225 pounds doesn't scream Edge rusher in the league if you will but I think we're going to see him in the middle of the defense consistently throughout the night but he's again another guy it's going to move around I think they're going to bring him they're going to pressure him a lot especially with how Baker's M MO is I know this is kind of a moot point because their previous DC is not there anymore but if he had the production he had his freshman year what motivates him to move him solely that NFL projection I think that's 100% and because and baker said it he said it great in his press conference with with you know because they were frustrated they said hey we're he's at middle linebacker again what the heck you know we brought you here to get Baker back to that same production at Edge well baker said look and and I will I got to give Perkins credit as well he he came out in the interview and said I'm starting to get comfortable in the spot last year for me I wasn't comfortable Baker's done an amazing job of explaining to me my role as a middle linebacker right they lost all three linebackers they had from a year ago or three top linebackers obviously Perkin and Perkins and uh uh Penn are still here but they lost to other linebackers to the NFL draft so Perkins understood hey look I've got to be that guy now that leader that middle linebacker of our defense I've got to step up and embrace this role last year I was learning it a bit I wasn't fully confident kind of like we talked about with Mason Cobb and and you know kind of finding that new role from for him and Lind defense it's kind of the same for Perkins and I expect him to have a ton of production hopefully not on Sunday but a ton of production this year but yeah he's my first Red Dot guy and and an athlete in Wiscon in the game against Wisconsin he had a rushing touchdown as well so he came in came in on on offense and had a carry for for a rushing touchdown but love that yeah he's the first guy I'm looking at now my second Red Dot guy is safety major Burns and he what a name yeah major Burns is cool but he again Perkins is my first Red Dot guy when it comes to playmaker ability Burns may be the most important Red Dot guy and what I mean by that is He's listed as a safety he plays safety but you're going to see him down playing nickel ail Arnold thinkk ail AR a little bit a very good player to cover out of the back field but he led the team in tackles last year 93 tackles from that safety position so they're going to put him in the Box slot but they're also going to allow him to play in the box and then work with your tight end work with your slot player he does very good in coverage out of pick six uh last year against Missouri to win the football game to seal the deal so wow very good player youve got to know where he's at at all times he has great instincts when the ball is in the air and again like I said a phenomenal tackler uh a tackler of the football so yeah those are my two guys veteran guy too right veteran yeah he's a senior 62 200 lb senior so those are my two guy he's one of the only safeties too I've seen with he he wears like the cowboy collar not the big one okay you know what I'm talking about the cowboy caller where the the old school linebackers the the uh well you said not not the big ones and it's just it's like the donut type looking one if you know what cowboy colors are my old school football players out there you know what I'm are you looking it up yes you'll know what I'm talking about it's a little it's a black one that that is I haven't seen a safety wearing is what I'm saying it's a little throwback no no I I knew what you were saying but then you said not a big one so I didn't know if that was like a different version well that that alone that him wearing that tells me that I'm not surprised he's the leading tackler on that team because he loves to come down and be physical but so yeah those are my two red dot guys now other guys to look at these are Playmakers on the defensive side of the ball and and it's not to say that if you're not a red dot guy these guys can't make big plays in the game or be their defensive MVP or offensive MVP if you will these are just the Red Dot guys are the guys that I know going into a game plan if I'm coaching I've got to know where these guys at at all times or they're going to disrupt our game plan now some of the other players that can be impact players for LSU's defense defensive end to Shawn wack 65 260 pound sophomore festar recruit from a year ago I think he only played I think 70 or 80 snaps last season but he showed some promise when he did play now they've lost some guys on the outside so he's going to be a premier pass rusher on that defense going to be a big challenge for Elijah pagee and Mason Murphy all night long and then another defensive end they have that's very good is bradden Swinson 64 250 PB senior he's a transfer from Oregon played a lot of football in his career played well last year he's a leader on this defense so they've got two very good pass rushers not quite as effective as Burns and Perkins are but two guys that we have to key on all night now they're probably non Red Dot most important player of the night is our defensive tackle Jacobian Gilroy right so he's a 63 320 lb senior he is extremely important to this defense and the reason I say that and Blake baker their defensive coordinator came out and said said this as well and Perkins reiterated it they are so inexperienced on the interior of their defensive line right outside of Gilroy okay they they don't have a proven player not even a playmaker but a proven rotational player on the interior their defensive line just guys that haven't played a lot of college football don't have a ton of experience so Gilroy is going to be so important again 62 320 pounds he's that Antoine was that be Alexander type he's not going to blow up your stat sheet but he's going to be so important for stopping them interior of that offensive line so it's going to be a great challenge for Jonah monheim but outside of Gilroy they are very I don't to say weak but very susceptible to Big Time plays on the interior of their defense right so I would expect some downhill inside runs maybe to start off this game and take advantage of that and then two other guys to keep an eye on linebacker Greg pin the third I mentioned a couple minutes ago he's a senior he's a leader 167 tackles over the last two years was a second leading tackler from last year with 89 and then a guy that's a true freshman from last year is now going into his sophomore season that has stood out in Camp only four games from last year that he I think he started four played in a couple more not a ton of film but he has been lighting it up in Camp when you read about their progression is quarterback Ashton stamps I just mentioned he's a sophore 6' 190 lbs having a great camp and a couple other Corners to keep an eye on are PJ Woodland and Junior Jer brown brown is a transfer from Ohio State and then also Sage Ryan another guy who's interesting because he played Safety last year has experience on this team but now he's made that switch to Corner this off seon and so Jaylen Smith situation yeah exactly it's another the comparison another comparison but that's what I think is and Ryan before I move on or get too far ahead is he's a guy that I think could possibly be that starter opposite of stamps okay but we have no idea right we we and you know we saw our depth chart comes out and you know the starters are Jaylen Smith and jacobe kington at corner and you maybe thought you know Smith might have been starting at nickel and then you have greedy Vance there now who's a transfer so it's is I think it's going to be the same with LSU and the interesting part about that secondary rotation for them is okay we may see who that first group is but when you get to that second third drive or nickel or dime packages how's that rotation going to look so I'm excited it's going to be a lot of in-game adjustments I think that's been the biggest Point we've made this this episode is got to have those halftime and in-game adjustments but yeah very good LSU defense this year as opposed to last year I think they're going to be able to take that next step under defensive coordinator Blake Baker on the whole how would you rate the experience that they have and obviously it's they have no experience with this new DC but younger versus older what's the mix here yeah I think they're a lot more experienced with guys that have been there right so Perkins is going into his third year never transferred right he's been there consistently Gilroy a senior you got Swinson's a senior yeah you transfer from Oregon but you've got older guys on this defense and I think the biggest part for them and it's like us right it's it's college football it's a transfer portal it's a new era you're going to have guys that come in that are first year players that have to make an impact but it's so important to have those staple guys that have been here and it's weird to say like a guy that comes to mind is Eric Gentry right but then you forget he transferred from Arizona State I guess I'm saying guys that have been here for multiple years so Perkins is that guy for them Gilroy a senior another guy from them Greg pin third another senior on this stens so there are a lot of older guys even Ashton STS who's I think going to be their better cover Corner this year played as a true freshman now going into his second year so that experience is very important but it's also so difficult because you know we've talked about before you want to build those guys up how you develop players but in today's era of college football you have to have transfer guys to continue to compete you got to be able to answer needs that you have right away instead of waiting for a freshman to get here to hopefully fill that spot now you can go out and get a junior or senior but yeah I think I still am always going to stick with to your initial question I think it's more important to have players that have been here and have that experience that can help out those newcomers but you've got to have a good core group of guys that have been in the system for a while so this is me just being curious you know when I look at Lynn's defense I feel like the Advantage is what we talked about like you can't necessarily understand what they're doing pre and post Snap but the way you describe this LSU defense it seems like they have similar themes to they're going to confuse you a bit or you're not sure where the blitz is coming from does that mean though in like in the inverse that because this LSU offense has been going against this L LSU defense all Camp long that maybe that advantage that I initially was expecting with Lynn is less of Advantage I know I know that's complicated but it's good question it's a good point yes and no yes because you love and I love third down practices right and even when I was here with Monty kein or or you know different defens Justin Willcox when he was here you know you love uh pinegrass was Clancy pinr was phenomenal at confusing looks he did such a great job at those different defensive looks and knowing where pressure is going to come from but you're always going to have that package in your defense and 90% of the time it's on third down right third and passing situations is when those fun looks come up but it's tough when you go against Baker who does it out of a base front right and when you watch ly's defense from a year ago yes they'll show you some different looks but Baker's MO is I don't care if it's Bas if it's third down if it's nickel if it's dime we are going to Blitz we're going to confuse you we're going to bring pressure from every which way you have no idea what's going to happen all night long and that's going to be our advantage but when you pick up those defenses or defensive looks and when you have our defense going against Lyn all the time or you know I hate to say the opposite but it is true LSU going against Baker all the time when you pick up those funky looks or those crazy different pressures that's where you give up those explosive plays so it's a disadvantage if you don't pick it up or you don't build confidence in Camp but if Miller or or Garrett nus are in Camp going hey safety's coming move the line here hey remike to 54 bring the and you're picking it up and throwing home run shots over that your confidence is going to be through the roof if you are going through camp and you're struggling and the defense is winning a lot yeah then you're going to go into this game like we're struggling with our own funky looks how are we going to handle USC or how are we going to handle LSU so it's a great question and that's the ends and outs of camp that people don't really think about as you prepare of hey we're not just going into this game week I'm taking everything from the last two and a half three weeks of camp or even last couple months of Spring ball and that's going into my confidence into the season right it doesn't just start on Sunday when the first on kickoff right it's it's been the entire offseason prep that's a great question and hopefully my answer is it's been a great mix of both right hopefully Miller's been dicing up our defense and picking up the looks and hopefully they've been having some great plays on them as well so we're prepared for an LSU opponent well if it gives USC fans any confidence when I talked to Miller Moss at media day at Big 10 media day he was talking about how Lynn has made him a better quarterback just because it tests you all the time and so at least he he has experience in that realm so we'll see how that shows up on Sunday absolutely and that's why the really good teams in the country the michigans the the Alabama the Ohio States of the world are so good because and we say it it's a cliche saying but iron sharpens iron when you have a top five top 10 defense and a top five top 10 offense yeah you got to think they're going against each other every day in the off season now when you get in the game weeks it's obviously scout team but everything you prepared leading up to that game is going against the number one defense in the country the number five or 10 whatever it is throughout the entire offseason Right Lynn had the number 10 rank defense last year and the number two run defense in the country we're facing that every day in practice right and that's what you want Missouri the same thing last year under Baker had the top 25 defense LSU is going against that every day in practice so it gets you ready for the season that's why you see those teams that have both dominant dominant offense dominant defense winning conference championships and playing in the playoffs year in and year out Roma wanted to know if you were USC's OC or Lincoln Riley in this case how would you attack LSU's defense would you have a balance offense or would you go heavy on the pass yeah I'm not to jump ahead to our keys of the game Rama Great question we're about to get to that in a second but I I think a balanced attack is most important I really do we have to be able to and I'm going to sound like a broken record because for those you don't know when we do the keys of the game that gets posted on the USC website so it might sound a little bit of repetitive but it's a great question and I'm I can't help myself so I've got to talk about it but when you have a balanced attack especially with a younger quarterback I say younger a first year starting quarterback right same with nire is is they played before their experience but when you have that pressure of going into a first full season as a starter as qb1 you're not looking over your shoulder anymore or looking ahead of you if someone you know waiting in line it helps so much when you have great players around you but you have a dominant Run game as a quarterback because when you have a balanced attack it forces the defense to play to both right they can't just sit in coverage the entire night and know hey you're going to throw the throw the ball all night we're going to take away flat curls we're going to take away the Deep shots we're going to take away the middle of the field we're just going to sit in coverage and drop eight all night or hey we know you're going to throw it all night we're going to Blitz the house and force you to throw a quick game and get the ball out and not get into a rhythm so when you have a balanced attack and you can run the football you're going to force him to bring a safety into the box right leave one less player in coverage you're going to force them to have to play a little bit tighter to the line of scrimmage the play action is going to bring those linebackers up make it a little more difficult so in my opinion you have to have a balanced attack on offense but there's also situational football right if we hope we don't knock on wood go down by two scores or three scores early on you know don't abandon the run but it's going to have to be more 7030 past a run so situations matter but overall I would love to see a balanced attack get Woody marks going get Quinton Jo going get Brian Jackson and and and am Marian Peterson let the four deep as well get in there get some different plays show them different looks and and you know really build that confidence with our offensive line in the Run game and you have to think for Miller a guy like Woody marks must be so valuable especially in a game like this just because he has so much experience and if you're having your first start as qb1 and you have a a center who's first time at Center as well it must be a comfort blanket to have someone with as many reps as what he marks yeah and as you were saying that I I just flash back to my sophomore year right my first year as a starting quarterback I was fortunate enough to have a guy named Silas red yeah who was next to me experienced college football player transferred from Penn State a very good uh uh running back but it was just nice to have that veteran presence next to you in the back field it kind of made your job a little bit easier and it took a little bit of that pressure off knowing that you have an experienced player in there that's going to help you in pass protection know his Blitz pickups but he's also going to get you some extra yards on the ground what makes your life a little bit easier all righty well we're finally going to get to see USC play some football on Sunday and I'm curious how they can get the job done in Vegas it's time for the USC Pharmacy prescription to win keys to the game first key a balanced attack on offense yeah let's take some of that pressure off of Miller Moss who's making only his second Collegiate start and let's get Woody marks going early and often out of the back field and look I'm fine too with some quick short passes to marks or even zachari branch which are basically extended handoffs but we must have a balanced attack throughout the night on offense and finally a strong Run game early on will build some confidence and chemistry with this new look offensive line the second key to the game is for the defense high energy great effort and overc communicate yeah this is the first game ever under new defensive coordinator Danton Lynn and it's normal that there may be some mental mistakes early on but we can eliminate some of that by making sure we obnoxiously communicate pre- snap to make sure everyone is on the same page look overall I just want to see a ton of energy and a ton of effort on defense if we're going to make some mistakes just make sure that we're making them 110% and finally I've said it before and I'll say it again tackle tackle tackle our biggest area of improvement on defense this year is eliminating missed tackles and that starts on Sunday night and the final key to the game eliminate the explosive plays from LSU's offense by winning at the line of scrimmage LSU has one of if not the best offensive lines in the entire country both their tackles Will Campbell and Emery Jones will most likely be first round draft picks with Campbell potentially being a top five pick if he stays healthy this is a huge matchup for our front seven going up against this LSU offensive line we have to get pressure on nus the entire night and not allow him to sit back there and get comfortable going through progression we also cannot be moved around easily up front and give up explosive plays in The Run game look LSU was fifth in the country in explosive plays a year ago and a big part of that was because of their offensive line we need to change the narrative Sunday night and the best way to do that is to be dominant up front on defense all righty let's get into some questions before we do just want to give a thanks to Audi fol matters listen closely the Audi QA Ron's cabin is serenely quiet so you can focus on other things like having tomorrow's technology today the new fully electric Audi QA etron how we get there matters and at Ralphs everyone wins when it comes to saving big because when you order online through the Ralphs app you get the same great prices deals and rewards on pickup or delivery that you do in store so no matter how you shop you always say big at rals Ralphs fresh for everyone Cody Kessler fight on boom that's how you do I could see in the mirror this is behind the scenes Emily that was a perfect camera switch right there when I said fight on look at that Emily's back again our producer producer Emily beautiful production right there also shout out to Richard Rodriguez who helps us behind the scenes yeah Rich does everything yeah he does no no not not for us I'm saying for for USC in general Hees USC staple he's been on the video team since Pete Carol was here he did all the cool he did all the cool things like all the hype videos that got everyone so excited during the like the Carol year so anyway shouts to Rich yeah um we have a question from rioo who says Cody can you talk about what it's like playing in a neutral site and how that potentially affects players did you have to prepare any differently can I have a little fun fact sorry yeah go ahead when USC played in the Cotton Bowl two years ago I thought it was really interesting how uh Riley made a point to the team during one of the practices he was like so many teams who play at this field get caught watching themselves on the giant screen okay so is is that at Cowboy stadium yes the cotton ball yes have you okay if I'm that's I'm going topic here I did a I played there before in the NFL when I was in Jacksonville but I went there the first time for like when you get done in college and you kind of have that time between the draft and and the end of your college career they do like these you know those TV shows where they have like accuracy Challenge and stuff yes yes yes I did one of those at Cowboy stadium with that humongous and they played Madden on the Jumbotron while we were waiting for the production to start but yeah it is unbelievable there but that kind of leads into my answer a lot of distractions a lot of outside factors things that you're not used to seeing in the Coliseum and yeah it can be in a way game right where it's okay I know what it's going to be like going to play at LSU we're going to play you know at Michigan this year you know what to prepare for when you're playing at a neutral site a you don't really know what the crowd noise is going to be like because it's you know both teams are kind of home and both teams are kind of away but also the travel involved and it's different than bowl games right so bowl games you travel you go like a week before it's a long process you have time to accommodate you go to all these dinners and these welcome might practice on the field and you well yeah or we we yeah it depends we we practice at a couple high schools I think before too and then when we went to Notre Dame we practice at a high school okay because we'd go an extra day early but when you play a neutral sight game the only one I can go back to is the Pack 12 Championship I played in my senior year is you just have to treat it as an away game and I think that's the best way you don't want to go in there thinking all right we're going to have the advantage we the home team no even though it's a West Coast you know in Vegas I think LSU is going to travel very well but you have to go in treating it that there's going to be crowd noise it's going to be tough you're going be able to hear yourself if you take that approach then you won't be surprised by anything and then if it feels like a home game great it's a pleasant surprise but yeah I think I think you have to approach it as an away game not necessarily as a Bull game and treat it as if we're going to LSU right now in Death Valley and it's going to be loud and we've got to go silent Cadence and all these different communication things yeah I think that'll give you the chance for the best outcome Bush push 55 said Cody what are the inherent advantages or disadvantages in having a coach called a defense from the field versus in the booth and if you didn't know in USC's Game notes this week they announce where the coaches will be during the game interestingly one coach one assistant coach will be in the booth and that's quarterback's coach Luke hu everyone else down on the field yeah first of all I love that name you got Bush push and you got 55 which is we've commented it on it before I we've heard it before the ultra USC name it really is um but and bus push is talking specifically defense obviously I never played defense so I'll just kind of talk about an offensive coordinator position coach on the field or not and the differences of that for me I loved having my coach on the field right and for those you who don't know in between Series right if you're on offense you come off the field you'll come talk as a unit first of all normally and sometimes you'll go straight to position but normally you come talk as a unit right everyone kind of sit down and you see on the sideline on on film Productions on games on the TV copies they'll talk on the side then you split up to your position group right o line will go over here quarterbacks everyone kind of has a designated area and then you'll go talk to your position coach or your offensive coordinator I've been a part of both and you see that red phone where you you know one on the sideline where you kind of talk to your coach up in the booth I'm a lot more of a fan sitting because although the tablets are new but I'm more of a fan sitting down with our coach because we would have a whiteboard and you can kind of talk through that so when I was here I had both coach go to a booth and a coach on the sideline so I don't know the disadvantage and advantages because you can relay messages right the coaches are always on the headset but I hated the phone talk and getting quick points out and then you hang it up you're like oh shoot can you call back or you know I've got one more question or before this drive you don't really get to talk to him besides those quick little phone interactions so I think having the coach on the sideline is very important I love that now obviously Luke her is a quarterback coach so you know I would love to have him on the field if I was playing but you have Lincoln riy you have Josh Henson both your OC and your head coach who calls the plays right there with you you can talk to at all times but yeah I think it's I don't really know Advantage disadvantage I think it depends on the player but for me I felt like it was more of an advantage to have my position coach or OC right there next to me on the field to talk you know in between possessions I wonder if this is a a sign of how much Lynn trusts his G and qc's because they will be in the booth yeah so well so you're job in the booth is people don't understand how important that job is right cuz you on field level it's difficult sometimes to see exactly what all 11 are doing so if you're on offense all your offensive coaches are obviously watching your players but they're more specifically watching defense right what coverage were they in what pressure was that what look are they getting to on Third and medium on Third and long your coaches up in the booth that is their entire job right is to watch their defense to go through hey and you mark you chart plays you go through it and then in between series they'll get on the or deing series get on the headset and whoever's in the booth if it's a ga say hey Danton last time on third and fourth they came out in 11 personnel and ran double crossers or they came out and you know went Max protection play action you know so they have those notes for you and they remember two plays ago what they did and you're reiterating that to your coach on the field so it's the games within the games like we talked about before like football's a game but there's games on third Downs there are games on second and short first play of the dve like there's so many different games within the actual game that it's a ton of moving parts and it's not I know there's a lot of other sports that are difficult but in my opinion it's one of the most difficult Sports especially the higher up you get to just stay on the same page all the time and game plan against opponents but yeah it's it's I love that they're all on the field but yeah that's going to be a huge job but you have guys like Taylor Mays who's in my opinion knows one of the best safeties ever play the game who knows college football very well Luke Huard for the offense is going to do a great job of being able to dissect the defense and watch them from up there so yeah I think it's just kind of works between different coaching staff of figuring out you know what you're most comfortable with Texas treas said this is a big game for the entire team however all eyes will be on the defense Lincoln Riley and Jen Cohen brought in an All-Star coaching staff but it won't matter if the players don't jail and play with a purpose with each other do you agree the defense needs to be violent he says yeah I love that that last part right there and I fully agree we need to be violent we need to be able to tackle to wrap up to not allow LSU to run through arm tackles and be physical and that starts with the mindset that you have on defense and we went out and got a championship caliber staff in my opinion I've said it before and I'll say it again I really feel like we have hired a perfect staff on the defensive side of the ball we've talked about we've got to find the players to fit those roles for Lynn to be successful here at USC and I feel like we've really done that right and I have more and more confidence the more we go from Spring ball to fall Camp into the season listening to the players in the interviews you know talking about how far ahead they feel they are from you know day one of fall Camp to now you know getting really comfortable and acclimated in Lyn's scheme now yes there's going to be some mental mistakes especially in the first game of the year I don't care if you've been in the system for 10 years or you're a brand new head coach there's going to be some mental errors right especially when it's the first game National Television only game on Sunday but it's the biggest thing for me is how fast can we learn from those mistakes and and not make the same ones over and over right that's going to be the biggest point of improvement and I think that's going to allow the team to really gel on the field right you can come together in Spring and fall camp and and you know game prep week but the the time that you really come together as a team in Jael like they said in the question are on Saturdays on Sundays when all that Blood Sweat and Tears in the offseason really pays off and you come together as a team and you make big time plays and you rally to the football so I'm excited to watch it I really am that's my most exciting thing to watch on Sunday is how this uh defense plays under Dan Lynn well it's interesting you asked that because our next question is from Trojan dad who said what are the main things you want to see out of this team in the first game fight on son fight on that's my dad yeah Trojan dad fight on um so my first thing I'll go with defense I just said there is rallying to the football yeah great you know let's get back to turnovers let's do all these things well but my biggest thing I guess 1 a1b and they work together is stopping the run and Tackle right I think every USC fan will agree with me that we have to improve from our missed tackles a year ago and that starts on Sunday and then the offensive side of the ball we kind of said in our Kea game just a balanced attack right don't put too much pressure on Miller don't put too much pressure on this offensive line don't put too much pressure on wood he marks let all of them play together even the the other running backs coming in now if we're rolling on offense with McKai lemon and Duce Robinson and Zachariah branch and the list goes on and on Kobe lane and then you know Kyon Hudson all those guys sure I'm fine with a little bit more of a pass heavy offense but we can abandon the run I want us to be balanced and I think that's going to be great and build that confidence for the entire offense if we can keep a balanced attack Gustavo says hello key and Cody hello Gustavo nice to see you asking questions again he said I'm going to be supporting our trens in Vegas this weekend and I had a quick question for Cody what are the some of what are some of the things you focus on when watching a game live in the stands compared to watching it at home good question I don't you know for me you hate watching it from the field yeah well I'll say for me he complains to me yeah we do so after Trojan's tailgate show I'll go watch like the first quarter with you and Emily and and and some of the other interns and then I'm like all right I'm out I'm going to the the up in the club area yeah but well it's just tough to see everything but for me I I'll say this now that I'm done playing I try to enjoy the game okay during when I'm watching it live because I know when I go home and study for the podcast or Trojan's tailgate show or Trojan's live and all that I'm going to watch film like I'm playing still so that's when I get serious and kind of lock in or I have my wife record every game ever so I can watch all of them or go look at other stuff um but when I watch it live I try to enjoy it now it's still tough to do because I'm a DI hard Trojan fan through and through so I get a little frustrated along with the rest of the fans well the funny when things don't go right or you know OV excited when things go well you still read everything you're like open open guy open like you're like oh yeah no doubt well that'll never change I'll watch football as a former player forever and a lot of fans watch it as coaches or former High School on my iPad and my film study and all that that's when I kind of go back into player mode or or you know analyst mode but yeah it's tough though it's tough to do that I watch a game and sometimes all right they're in You Know cover three what are they doing here okay because I practice too a little bit for wanting to get in the booth maybe in the future as well so but yeah try to enjoy it on watching it live try to do the same and then when you re rewatch it or get it on on you know film or um record it at home then you can get a little bit more analytical what are you focusing on that's what he wanted to know I think it depends I mean I I when I'm watching offense I watch the quarterback the whole time you know obviously I'll look at see what they're doing defensively and then my eyes go to the quarterback and then when I'm watching our defense I still watch the opposing quarterback because that's just what I played so it's natural but yeah I try to watch everything but my focal point is more so on whatever quarterback's on the field and how they're going through reads and their you know pocket awareness and all that that makes sense fighting on MC said which fans fill up Allegiance Stadium I mean I'd love to say USC but from what I've heard s like LSU is it sounds like LSU has bought a lot of tickets so and they're going to be traveling pretty heavy so I hope we do the same you know obviously it's closer to California than it is Louisiana but who knows I mean I'm excited either way yeah either way it's not going to be like I said treated as an away away game but it won't be an actual full away game so we have that Advantage but I'm hoping we see more Cardinal and gold than we do see uh purple and yellow you can report back on Monday we'll keep you posted yeah you'll be there okay we got a couple questions about this topic Joe and Warren wanted to know what are your thoughts opinions on the week toe captains good/bad culture change question mark Warren said what's the deal with weekly captains for each game now I tweeted this during Lincoln's presser and within like five minutes so many people on the internet were like I hate this oh my gosh which is what the internet does I know but I wasn't expecting that much of a reaction yeah I'm I'm torn with this because I've I've been a part of both and what I mean by that is is I've been on teams to where you have I guess not both both in the sense of week toe captains but I've been on a team where you have your core four captains I guess if you will maybe five and then you have voted on captains each week which is normally interesting which normally was like a scout team captain which was cool for some of the Scout players who are so important so I think when I was here was Sark we did that to where it was like okay these are the four captains or five captains and then each week a scout team player got to go out for the coin toss as well as a scout captain or a special teams player who's normally not a captain I don't know I mean I don't I don't really I'm not too opinionative on I don't know if it's going to be a bad thing I think it gives guys an opportunity to kind of work towards that Captain role still or prove their leadership to the team throughout the entire year and not just because it is a big thing right some guys don't care about it some guys are like whatever I'm going to you know I'll be fine either way but some guys do take pride in that you know I want to be a captain of this team I want my peers to see me as such or my coaches to see me as such and now you have weekly opportunities to do that I think that's going to put a little bit more motivation into this team of proving week in and week out that I can be a captain and I want to earn that role or how many times can I earn that Captain role throughout the year and maybe some guys that they want to step up or take more of a leadership role it doesn't kind of you know discredit them or disprove them from you know earning that still throughout the entire year honestly I think that this is really interesting in the context of everything we've heard since the Holiday Bowl because the Holiday Bowl is when we first heard the players who were playing in this game wanted to be here and really cared yeah that's like the sentiment that came out of the game and then we hear from in Spring and in Fall Camp there were these extra efforts to to you know have Team chemistry to know different players on and off the field they talked about how you know they'd have a DB with an offensive lineman like hanging out like there was definitely a concerted effort it sounds like this season to improve team chemistry and really make sure that these guys are bonded so when adversity hits that they will be able to respond to it in a proper way or however Riley wants them to and so I think this is interesting because clearly this is something that I I believe it's Riley's call he was like I I made this call because apparently this is what they did for the bow which makes sense because their captains were different like the Personnel was different true um but I just think it's interesting looking from our perspective into this team and this team culture of there something apparently needed to be changed culture-wise yeah and and I mean obviously Lin and Riley thinks it's going to be the right decision for this team I'm sure the players feel the same way and and you know I think I understand I guess the confusion from the fans because this is not a common thing to see normally you have your core captains but I will say and kind of going back to what I just said is it was a battle each week for who is going to win that honorary Captain role right and and I really remember guys on Scout team taking that extra step or working a little bit harder because they wanted to be the ones walking out in the field with the captains even though they may not play because they were Scout team players or they were special team players that played a couple plays you know a game but you felt that extra sense of urgency to say hey I'm going to work a little bit harder this week cuz I want to be a captain I want to show my team that I deserve to be out there in the coin toss and walking out and leading this team so I love it I think it's going to be a great thing we'll see I guess time will tell with how it works I'm sure there's going to be some reoccurring captains week in and week out but or did he say if it's going to be if it's going to change or it's game to game so I mean but it's GNA you can't can you get it multiple times I guess is my question I guess I think so yeah so I'm I would assume there's going to be some reoccurring captains but or like it'll settle in at a certain part of the season I mean maybe yeah and it stays consistent but but I like it I think it's cool I think it motivates guys even more to go being a leader on this football team throughout the year yeah for sure all righty final question of the day comes from Trojan mom she says played in a neutral sight game in the Vegas Bowl are there any comparisons to what Miller Moss might feel yeah I wouldn't say you can really compare the two just because the bowl game that we played in was was similar to the Holiday Bowl last year right had nine wins so it wasn't terrible but the season came up a little bit short of expectations that was a year too when it was multiple head coaches kind of that crazy year of of the the Ed oon run all of that but it was just when you play in a blll game you want to be able to win that game to build some confidence going into the offseason but this is completely different right and and the only comparison I guess is playing in Vegas and it's also a neutral site but this is the first game of the year right this is going to set the tempo for the entire season so you have to go out there you know locked in you know you've got 11 more games after this hopefully more if you go to a conference Championship and then ultimately to the playoffs but overall you've got to treat this game as hey it's the first one of the year we've got a lot more focus on this don't look ahead to the Big 10 don't look ahead to next week coming back home in the Coliseum lock in on this game and go out there and and be dominant and hopefully the Trojans Come Away with the victory all right I said that was our final question and truthy told that was not oh but oh yeah what what where our uh Instagram questions key you you want to tell everybody who wrote questions took the time out of their day to write questions on Instagram for the victory pod uh since I'm not allowed to do them anymore because we have too many what uh go ahead I'll let you take it away where are the Instagram questions well I didn't realize that they go away within 24 hours and when we pushed the Pod I didn't screenshot them so I apologize to everyone who had Instagram questions Cody already roasted me enough if I'm just saying right now if I was doing the Instagram questions everyone this would not happen so you know I apologize that my co-host over here who does has nothing no responsibilities throughout the entire week all she has to worry about is Instagram questions yeah could not find out how to retreat them they did disappear though I did I he checked he tried I looked at well I would have screenshotted them right when they came in because you know I'm a great great question answer I guess I don't know what I'm saying anyways I'm just messing around for those of you who don't know our humor I'm giving key hard time she has a ton of other things she does but I got fired from doing Cody's two minute four minute six minute 8 minute drill you did yes because we would the episodes were going too long too long and then this is karma because now you lost the answerr question not okay anyway we do have score predictions though we do and I totally forgot about it but oh here we go am I supposed to go first okay so for those you don't know this is the last thing we'll do we do score predictions for every game right and then whoever's the closest home and away or the difference of the two whoever's the closest wins each week key is 2-0 over the last two years well my complaint because I'm too competitive and I don't want her to win again is she would always make me go first on the predictions and then you would be somewhat similar to mine just because it was like you played it you played it like a guessing game like what's the show The Price is Right I would be like hey you know 800 800 and you'd be like 8001 dang it and then you would win then you should have said 8001 I know I should have okay you have I will say though she has gotten two each year I got whether you're going off a mine or just compl random got exact game score one game each year okay all right so am I going first again no cuz you complained so much good that's complaining worked so complain people it works all right you go first uh this popped into my head when we were doing keys to the game I'm going to go 2321 USC okay cool I went a little I think it's going to be a little bit more of a shootout I don't it could be a low-scoring game I don't think it will be I like in my mind once that happened I was like I think it's going to be higher but I feel like I need to honor my gut feel so that's what I'm doing it could be though like we mentioned both new offenses new look I mean it it's your score guess is as good as mine I'm going a little bit higher than I'm going 3831 USC and okay P off the victory I love that we both agree that USC is winning though so we'll take that I guess the Vegas the odds and all that don't agree with us but hey here here at the victory pod we're always we're always fighting on I don't know I just I have a good feeling I know I sound crazy CU my friends have told me that but like I I have a good feeling and if I had gone after you you would have inspired me to say 42 38 so yeah no if I would went 30 yeah you is that what you would have went with the same m see and then I would have been it would have been like it would have been like 43 here the thing here's the thing to 36 change the the the probability of it happening yeah but the pro the thing is is we go different so if like if they well I guess they'd have to score less than huh yeah like just pick the right answer basically is what I'm saying just pick the right score I picked two so I'm better all right I know you guys are probably tired of us ranting about that now so we're done we're going to keep it tally though if you guys want to guess your score predictions too when we post the episode we have people predict at the bottom before uh the game so cool as well we can keep your t or you can keep your Tally from home but with that being said I everything my outro up everything everything's done it is US justed football game week two days away hopefully this episode gets out tonight if not we have and I love I love that we have we're going to be the only game on TV the entire country is going to be watching everything you want when you come here to USC I'm just excited I know our guys are going to be ready Lincoln R's going to have this team ready to go D L's going to have this defense flying around I'm excited we're going to be calling the Trojan tailgate show pregame as well so make sure you tune in and watch that or listen however you get that other than that I'm done USC football's back baby fight on love you guys I'm excited for for a great year honestly I'm so excited for some football I feel like we've talked so much this offseason and rightfully so but they get it gets to a point where it's like I I need to see something you do so much with prep and talking about you forget like I forgot this I'm like oh yeah I get to sit down and actually watch the game this week like I get to watch football I know we're going to be working but like still or you will I'll be probably D I'll be driving home from ESP and LA but other than that it's it's and I won't be watching my car don't worry but like we get to actually watch football now and and and it's you build up the entire offseason whether you're a player a fan it's just it's the best time of the year I know now it's fall and everything's happening it's awesome so yeah I'm done I've already said it fight on hopefully we talk to you guys on Monday or yeah we're going to do the recap episode as well and we're talking about a troen victory all righty that's going to wrap it up for our preview episode of USC versus LSU we'll be back like Cody said with a recap episode so stay tuned for that that's going to wrap it up that's Cody I'm key we'll see youall next time