How Pro Football Focus graded the USC defense vs. Stanford

**Every week, TrojanSports.com will share the grades that Pro Football Focus assigns to each individual player from the recent game. PFF tracks snap counts for every player and grades each guy on each play based on a range of criteria, factoring in decision-making and other aspects other than just the outcome of the play.**

RELATED: See how Pro Football Focus graded the USC offense vs. Stanford

Asked if anything had surprised him in USC's 45-20 win over Stanford on Saturday night, coach Clay Helton first mentioned the depth along the defensive line.

It wasn't a true surprise as USC had also rotated heavily in the season opener, but the Trojans stuck with that plan against a ranked Pac-12 team and the coaches again seemed pleased with the results.

"I'm really enjoying how the substitution of our defensive line [is working]. I think we played eight different guys last night and you saw some guys making some plays for us," Helton said. "... It's nice to really watch those guys feed off each other."

Defensive tackle Jay Tufele (on the field for 45 out of 70 snaps) was the highest-graded USC defensive player by Pro Football Focus at 79.5, followed by DE Caleb Tremblay (14 snaps/77.0) and DT Marlon Tuipulotu (36 snaps/75.0).

DE Drake Jackson (55 snaps), DE Christian Rector (51), DE Connor Murphy (27), DT Brandon Pili (19), DT Nick Figueroa (10) and OLB Hunter Echols (22) -- who plays up on the line when he's in the game while often subbing in for one of the DEs -- rounded out the rotation up front. (Rector, who played the most snaps on the DL last week, came off with a minor ankle injury late Saturday).

"Myself, coach Clancy [Pendergast], we trust any of those eight guys going out there. We have no issues whatsoever putting them in," USC defensive line coach Chad Kauha'aha'a said. "... We're rotating, we're playing defensive line by committee and so when the 2s come in, they shouldn't miss a beat."

Said Murphy: "It's super effective, keep your legs fresh, tire out the offensive linemen when they can't necessarily rotate like us -- it's huge."

Tufele and Murphy each had a sack and Echols and Tremblay notched a half sack each. Tufele also had a clutch run stuff on fourth-and-1 midway through the fourth quarter to keep all the momentum with the Trojans.

Tufele has delivered on lofty expectations so far this fall, but Tuipulotu was the highest-graded USC defensive player in the opener and has probably been the steadiest force up front for the Trojans overall.

"Marlon's a stud. I absolutely love Marlon Tuipulotu," Kauha'aha'a said. "The kid does everything right, he works hard, he keeps his mouth shut and he just goes forward. He is by far, I don't want to say the biggest surprise, but he is a guy I lean on a lot."

Kauha'aha'a, in his first year on staff, explained last week how he's always preferred to have an aggressive rotation with his defensive linemen, and Pendergast said it was an area he felt the Trojans had to improve coming off last season.

First, Kauha'aha'a said, he emphasized to his linemen that they weren't nearly as strong as they needed to be and challenged them to make gains in the offseason program.

One guy he feels has grown as much as any since he took over the unit -- and not just in terms of what he's doing physically -- is Murphy, the 6-foot-7 redshirt junior who notched his first career sack Saturday night.

"[He's] being more serious about the game, putting more time into his craft," Kauha'aha'a said. "... I know he has an opportunity to help us and it showed tonight."

Said Murphy: "I waited four years for that. I haven't felt one of those since high school so finally got in there. It was a lot of fun. I forgot how much fun it was being in there."

Meanwhile, one of the newcomers already seeing action is Figueroa, the JUCO addition who played 21 snaps in the opener (getting extra run when Tufele was out tending to a hand injury) and then 10 against Stanford. He acknowledged the level of play has been adjustment from the JUCO ranks, but he says he's feeding off the confidence the coaches are showing him.

"It's a huge step up. I knew it was going to happen and I'm glad it happened my first game. It's given me some confidence out on the practice field to know that I'm gaining the trust of my coaches and I'm gaining trust in myself," Figueroa said.

Kauha'aha'a felt the pass rush and a halftime adjustment were key to USC shutting out Stanford in the second half, after allowing 20 points in the first 22 minutes. Overall, he felt the rush defense was sound (Stanford totaled 98 rushing yards), but that the Trojans weren't being aggressive enough in the first half.

"There was probably one big run that popped in the middle, someone lost their gap … but other than that we felt comfortable with controlling the run. So going into the second half, myself, coach [Johnny] Nansen, let's let these guys pin their ears back and go," Kauha'aha'a said. "Coach Nansen did a nice job of making a little bit of an adjustment on one of our twist games, which really opened up for us and it got the guys off the edge collapsing that pocket a little more."