Clay Helton says offense will have 'more personnel groupings' vs. Stanford

For USC fans still bemoaning the offense's lackluster debut last week, one reason for optimism that things might open up a bit more for the Trojans on Saturday is the return of sophomore wide receiver Gary Bryant Jr.

After missing most of the preseason with a hamstring injury and sitting out the first game following a "health and safety protocols" setback, Bryant looked impressive this week in practice and all signs point toward him having a significant role vs. Stanford.

"With Gary, it opens up more personnel groupings, definitely. I’ll tell you, Gary has had an unbelievable week of work, so I think you’ll see him not only offensively, but you’ll see him in some special teams situations. We love him with the ball in his hands," coach Clay Helton said. "We have some specific packages for him to be able to get on the field as well as contribute in a major way.

"We’re carrying more personnel groupings in this game -- not to dive into the specifics -- but we’re healthier out at the position right now, and being able to get a Gary back is important."

Aside from star Drake London's heavy workload, there was only one other pass targeted for a wide receiver in the second half last week vs. San Jose State (an incompletion to Tahj Washington), while three went to tight ends and one to a running back. So considering that, yeah, Bryant's return does indeed seem important for the Trojans.

While Bryant had just 7 catches for 51 yards as a freshman last year, USC really only had one truly established wide receiver in London to open the season, while Washington (4 catches for 56 yards and a TD) and Bryant (a top 50 national prospect in the 2020 recruiting class) projected as the most likely 2A/2B receivers.

Washington is speedy and will no doubt make some plays downfield this season, but his greater strength is in his yards-after-catch abilities in the short and intermediate passing game. Bryant, who just glides down the field with long strides, could be the true field-stretching threat the Trojans need to complement London (who, of course, can do a little bit of everything).

We wrote in-depth on Bryant on Tuesday, including his thoughts looking ahead to his season debut.

As for Helton's comments Thursday morning in his Zoom call with reporters, the most interesting takeaway was his intimation that USC will open the playbook a little further after its tight end-heavy, 12-personnel look in the win over San Jose State, a game in which the offense found the end zone only once in the first 58 minutes while heading into the fourth quarter with a tenuous six-point lead.

"I look forward to watching this week as we kind of increase the personnel packages and be able to hopefully throw off Stanford a little bit by being able to dive in and out of things that we think are effective," he said.

That said, Helton said that 12 personnel package will be somethin the Trojans utilize all season when it makes sense. He added that he felt that particular look "vanilla'd that defense out from a blitz standpoint -- it really kept them in a four-down, four-man rush mode."

"Yeah, if you saw yesterday, Jake actually practiced yesterday, felt good, made it through the entire practice so I think we came out good there. Nick just did conditioning. We are going to put him through some individual drills today and see where the reality of that shoulder. I think he's more of a game-time decision. I think Jake will be ready to go from what I saw yesterday."

"Go back and look at the formations, even the touchdown catch that [tight end Erik Krommenhoek] has, it's out of a 10 personnel spread look. So even though we're in 12 personnel, we were not in very much 12 personnel looks," Helton said. "We had the ability to use EK attached while another tight end was flexed. We had both guys flexed. Sometimes we had both guys attached. So it makes it hard on defenses when you look up and you have guys that can be either big targets at wide receiver positions or being attached. Do you look at it as, wow, is this a passing personnel group or is this a running personnel group? And to be honest with you, it really creates a great sense of balance.

"Now, each game plan is different based on the tendencies of what we see from another defense. And I thought Graham did a wonderful job last week of doing something that we felt really vanilla'd their defense out. ... So not to give away game plan this week, but it is something that we'll continue to carry, 12 personnel, I think in each and every game. To the latitude of will it be 50 snaps? I don't know that, but it is something that will carry."

Reporters don't have access to practice on Thursday and instead talk with Helton over Zoom in the morning, so there are no notes to dispense from Howard Jones Field.

Helton did further confirm that veteran defensive tackle Jake Lichtenstein (mild AC sprain in shoulder), who played more than half the snaps last week while rotating in, "will be ready to go."

Interestingly, though, Helton indicated that starting defensive end Nick Figueroa remains a "game-time decision."

After practice Wednesday, defensive line coach Vic So'oto made clear that he fully expected Figueroa to play and have a major role. There doesn't appear to have been any setback, so it's probably worth trusting So'oto's confident assessment.

...

Helton continued to remain coy about the absence of running back Kenan Christon this week.

In past week, Helton has used "health and safety protocols" as a cover for players who are out with COVID. It's unclear if he's changed his tact on that or if Christon is missing for another reason. Again, his father told TrojanSports.com on Tuesday that everything was fine and the running back should be back with the team later this week.

For now, it remains a mystery.

"Right now, like I said the other day, he’s unable to be with team activities. That’s still status quo right now," Helton said.

...

Whether Christon is active or not, it doesn't sound like there's any plan to get him involved in the offense as long as Keaontay Ingram and Vavae Malepeai remain healthy.

Neither Christon nor freshman Brandon Campbell played any offensive snaps Saturday (while fellow running back Darwin Barlow was out with a hamstring injury).

"We’ll come into each and every game really leaning on two guys for the bulk of the gameplan," Helton reiterated Thursday. "Last week, you look up and it was really Keaontay and Vavae that held that down. We want to be able to get those guys in the flow, and I thought we did a really good job last week being able to get those guys 6-7-8 reps at a time until they got tired, and then we put a fresh back in. We’re really focusing on mostly having two guys.

"There may be a third if a guy gets dinged that we put in. But right now, those two guys did a really nice job last week. They’re both healthy. They’re both fresh. I think we’ll get Darwin back this week. He looked good yesterday. He can come into play and be able to help us, but to get those guys in the flow, where both of them had anywhere from 17-19 touches apiece, that’s a good day. You’re going to get 40 touches probably -- if we had 80 plays, a perfect game would be 40 touches by the running backs, 40 touches by the skill players. We were right in that balance last week, and that gave each kid an adequate number of touches to really get going. I thought that was one of the reasons we were effective."