Graham Harrell reveals obstacles USC OL went through leading up to game

USC center Brett Neilon tweeted a message out after the game Sunday night to remind everyone that it had been two weeks of unusual obstacles for the Trojans offensive line.

"Faced a ton of adversity these past two weeks. If only some of [you] guys knew. ... Proud of this team," he wrote.

"If they only knew," USC director of player development Gavin Morris chimed in to that thread.

"MAN! If only," right tackle Jalen McKenzie added in a retweet.

Well, offensive coordinator Graham Harrell provided some more clarity as to exactly what the unit went through leading up to USC's 38-23 win over Washington State on Sunday, as he revealed that the only offensive lineman who played in the game who was available in the week leading up to it was freshman Courtland Ford, who made his first start at left guard.

The Trojans' OL had been at the center of the team's COVID-19 setbacks, which forced the cancellation of the Colorado game the previous week, and even by game time Sunday the unit was still without three players -- starting left guard Andrew Vorhees and backups Justin Dedich and Liam Douglass.

Head coach Clay Helton had been asked a similar question after the game and did not provide a direct answer or any details, but Harrell was more forthcoming when asked how much the offensive line had been able to work together in practice last week.

"None. None, to be honest with you," Harrell said. "We didn't have any of our offensive linemen until Saturday and they showed up and did a helluva job final practice. So those guys really did a nice job. The only guy that played in practice was Courtland so the rest of those guys came out of a hotel on Saturday afternoon and showed up and played on Sunday, and like I said, I think it's a credit to them they were still able to play at the level they played at."

Ford saw his first collegiate action in making the start at left guard and fellow true freshman Jonah Monheim played 36 of 53 snaps at right guard after starter Liam Jimmons injured his elbow.

But even Ford didn't really get any team reps during practice during the week.

"To be honest, we didn't practice with the offensive line. He just got to go over there in what we call the playpen over there on the turf. He stayed in his playpen and we stayed on the grass basically, but it was an interesting week of practice," Harrell said. "I think our skill guys really did a great job. Because we didn't have our offensive line we weren't really able to do team periods, so the team periods just became 7-on-7, almost walkthroughs. But they did a great job of when we went against our defense understanding this is our time when we've got to be great and we have to do a really good job of practicing at a really high level. And I think our skill guys did a great job of that, when we did 7-on-7 against our defense, when we did one-on-ones, the intensity level picked up because that was going to be our only chance to kind of get full-speed reps of what we were working on that week. ...

"They kept Casey [Collier] and Courtland over there in the playpen and did continued individual [work] and walked through some blitzes and stuff like that the best that they could to prepare mentally to go play without getting a ton of physical reps. Like I said, it's a tough task, but I think the guys that were out there, the linemen that were out there approached it really well. ... With the current circumstances there's going to be some adversity that you face and there's going to be some situations that aren't ideal, but you've got to try to make the most of them and that's what we tried to do."

Certainly, there were some ramifications of not being able to work together as a unit, or not being at full strength.

Quarterback Kedon Slovis was sacked 3 times and hurried on 6 other occasions, while the Trojans weren't able to get anything going in the running game (16 carries for 25 yards).

That said, Slovis completed 18 straight passes at one point, threw for 5 touchdowns in the first half as USC built a 35-0 lead and the Trojans never lost control of the game.

"That's a talented group with a lot of experience. Obviously, you can't replace reps, you can't replace seeing things and working and passing things off together. You're missing that by not having them on the practice field, but the thing about it is, the way that our systems built, we have rules and if you just go out there and follow your rules and do your job, you still give yourselves a chance to be successful," Harrell said. "And that's what those guys did. And like I said, it's a credit to them and a credit to their talent and their experience that for two weeks they have to be locked up because of contact tracing, they can still come out and perform at such a high level."