Five Takeaways: Scrimmage thoughts, more Zion Branch praise, LB health, etc

Riley noted that the Trojans' younger players got a lot of needed snaps in the team's second preseason scrimmage Saturday, while singling out a few standouts from the day.

“Miller really scrimmaged well at the quarterback position. He had a really strong scrimmage. Both of the young backs, Quinten [Joyner] and A’Marion [Peterson], had some really nice plays in the scrimmage. Thought they really showed up," Riley said. "Defensively, I mean, Tackett [Curtis] continues to show up a lot, without a doubt. I thought we had some really good pressure on the defensive front, Jamil [Muhammad] and a few of those guys doing a really nice job. There was a lot, it was a cleaner scrimmage on both sides.

"There was a lot of good work. It just looked a lot cleaner than the first scrimmage, which it should, right? Guys are making progress, and we got a chance to rep a lot more young guys and they needed that. Yeah, very competitive, very back and forth. Kind of the opposite of the first scrimmage. Offense started a little faster this scrimmage, and then the defense closed well the other scrimmage. The other scrimmage was kind of the opposite."

No surprises with any of those names.

It seems likely Joyner, the four-star freshman running back from Texas, gets some opportunity in the backfield this year with the speed and home run ability he brings to the position. We projected him as the No. 3 back at the moment, that it's a fluid competition and it will be interesting to see if any veteran preference is given to redshirt senior Darwin Barlow -- behind the top two of MarShawn Lloyd and Austin Jones, of course.

Muhammad, the transfer from Georgia State, is clearly going to have a major role. It looked like he was battling with Anthony Lucas all camp for the top spot at rush end, but then Lucas was working with the defensive linemen at defensive end Monday and there were comments to indicate that might be where he ends up (more on that later). If so, look for Muhammad to play a ton -- he has by all accounts been a consistent force in the pass rush this preseason.

Moss is the trusted backup quarterback who has been steady throughout.

And then Curtis has been the star freshman of camp, and if the health at linebacker remains an issue (more on that next), then he could be playing a prominent role in the season opener next week.

"He’s been available every practice and he practices really, really, really, really hard. Those are this strengths," Riley said. "He doesn’t hesitate and he goes and he still – listen, he’s still young. He makes mistakes. There are things, though, that you can fix and you see the progress every day because it’s important to the kid because he does work hard and you never, like you never have to coach that with him. Sometimes other younger guys, you’re coaching the mentality along with the scheme along with the technique and it’s all this on them once. Tackett’s one of those kids, we’re having to coach the scheme, we’re having to coach the technique, but the mentality and effort stuff, we don’t have to say nothing to him.

"You don’t have to motivate that dude at all. He’s going to walk out here ready to practice every single day. So when they can take that off your plate and you can zero in on those other things, you’re going to progress quickly and he’s done that."