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Everything Donte Williams said about USC's focus, late practice, his tweet

Interim coach Donte Williams spoke with reporters Thursday morning, a day after his USC football team appeared very much not on the same page, with some players coming out on time for practice Wednesday, some choosing to remain in the locker room, some then returning from the field to the locker room before the team eventually started practice about 40 minutes late.

There was no media interviews planned for Wednesday's practice to begin with, so Williams' regular Thursday morning Zoom call with reporters was the first chance to ask about what happened, where this team's focus is and what he meant with his cryptic tweet that came out just hours after that whole ordeal.

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"The biggest thing about the postponement, some guys had went out, we just wanted to make that, you know, as a whole, as a group, we all were having the same message and on the same page, and there’s no doubt in my mind that we are," Williams said. "Sometimes, if you just have one person that’s slightly off, that’s one too many. So just wanted to make sure that everyone in the whole building is all preaching the same message, which we are. Which we are. Looking forward, as you see, everyone was out there for practice. Everyone was ready to go. We did the right things yesterday to make sure we continue to succeed and get ready for Thursday. ...

"They went out right when I got done talking. The meeting was energetic and the guys went to training and they was out there. Because it had got a little later I had kind of told them like helmets only and yet they still came out there with shoulder pads. So that shows you where this team's mindset's at."

USC is having to play an extra week in this lost season due to rescheduling its mid-November trip to Cal to this weekend after Cal was unable to play that original date because of COVID issues.

Both teams are 4-7 and ineligible for any postseason consideration.

It's been a long season especially for these Trojans, and the toll seems to have worn on the team not just physically but mentally. But Williams disputed whether there was any disagreement among players about playing this game.

"No. I think it was more of a disagreement of making sure some of the stuff that we were doing all the way around. Just making sure we were all on the same page and making sure everyone was ready to go," he said. "We have a lot of guys dinged up. We have a lot of guys hurt. Sometimes when guys are dinged up or hurt, it’s hard to push forward in that last football game. Especially when it sucks because of the win-loss record that you don’t get to coach in a bowl game. It’s a lot of guys on our team that are physically hurt. It’s a lot of guys that – there’s a difference between getting injured and hurt.

"Some guys are able to push through. Some guys, you’re not. Just making sure that those guys are fully ready to go and in their minds, it’s not just them showing up on gameday and being ready to play, but also practice, making sure they’re taking mental reps."

He reiterated later on that he did not believe there was any concern about players' focus for the game.

He did acknowledge the meeting wasn't planned, which was clear as some players did come out on time for practice while others did not.

"No, it wasn't planned, but at the same time when you get on third-and-three, the play you call almost sometimes isn't planned neither. I mean, it's how you're able to deal with the moving parts is how successful you'll become," he said. "... It was not planned. It became planned once I planned it. Credit to the guys, we went in there and we talked for a second and we came out to practice and we did what we needed to do to get ready."

As for his tweet about character and culture ...

"It's to right now. This is adversity. We have a lot of guys that are injured, a lot of guys that are hurt," Williams said. "Like I say, all those people I named in the beginning, everybody talks about the players and the full-time assistants but the operational recruiting, the strength department, all those people, they don't know what their future holds after Saturday, right? So it's making sure that no one is looking to what's going to happen after Saturday. I need everybody focused on what's going to happen on Saturday and that's making sure we go out there and put our best foot forward and play winning football. So that's about right now, this is adversity. Because nobody knows what their future holds for them."

**Read Donte Williams' full comments Thursday morning here**

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