Maybe they felt the finality of spring practice approaching. Maybe they were fed up.

USC has walked the fine line between competition and chaos for the past few weeks and finally fell on the wrong side Saturday. A brief but ugly scuffle broke out between WR Michael Pittman and DB Briton Allen that resulted in everyone doing up-downs and Coach Clay Helton airing them out.

"Dumb-ass decisions!" he repeated.

He reminded that those were not only penalties but ejections, which cost the whole team. Thus, he's gotten in the habit of stopping practice this spring on those occasions when personal fouls were committed and punished everyone. Discipline is obviously a major concern for this team moving forward and clearly has been a sticking point for Helton this year.

"That was probably the best learning lesson that we could possibly have in camp," Helton said afterward. "Are we going to be a team that cares more about wins? Or are we going to be a team that cares more about perception? ...

“It's OK to have emotion but have intelligent emotion."