Whether it's to complicate Oregon State's defensive preparations this week or rather to conceal the severity of freshman Jaxson Dart's knee injury, neither USC interim head coach Donte Williams nor offensive coordinator Graham Harrell were willing to provide any substantial answers about the plan at the position.
Kedon Slovis practiced in full Tuesday after being knocked out of the Trojans' 45-14 win at Washington State on the first series Saturday. Dart, who finished that game while passing for 391 yards, 4 touchdowns and 2 interceptions and sparking talk from his head coach of a "quarterback battle," was not at practice at all.
In a back-and-forth volley with reporters, Williams won decisively in batting away every question about Dart's status until there were no more attempts and his post-practice media session wrapped up in just a little more than 2 minutes.
"Right now he wasn't here today. Today was pretty much Kedon and Miller [Moss] and I'm happy to talk about those two," Williams responded to the first question.
He was then asked if there had been any tests done on Dart, who took a hit to his right knee in the second quarter but played the rest of the game wearing a brace of some sort.
"Test results? No test results. He just wasn't here today right now so he's dealing with a couple things," he said.
Given Dart's absence, Williams was later asked if that is a sign that Slovis will start this week.
"Shoot, I hope he's here tomorrow, so we'll see. He just wasn't here today," Williams said.
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That Dart didn't practice Tuesday was no surprise. Williams had said on the Trojans Live radio show Monday night that "we're going to hold him out a little bit for precautionary reasons and he'll be day-to-day."
That he wasn't even at practice, while other injured players like wide receiver Drake London (who watched from the sideline but wore a hat all day rather than a helmet) and defensive end Nick Figueroa were, was more of the surprise.
So too was Williams' caginess about the situation, but that's perhaps only because former coach Clay Helton was rather candid and open in discussing injury matters. Many college football coaches are not, and it's certainly Williams' prerogative to take a different tact. It just lends to some added mystery at the moment.
"I think we just got to play whoever gives us the best chance to be successful, and that’s always the goal, no matter what the position or the situation. So that's always kind of our approach," Harrell said. "I think [Slovis] understands that too, and I think he’d tell you the same thing. That’s the beautiful thing about sports and football specifically is you’re always competing. You’re competing to win football games, you’re competing to earn playing time, whatever the case may be. I don’t think that’s ever been a question."
Harrell offered more words than Williams but not any more clarity, sticking to the game plan of revealing nothing about the situation.
Asked when Dart would have to start practicing for Harrell to feel comfortable playing him this week, the OC smiled and said "Whenever he’s up to it, I guess."
Asked if Dart's absence is a sign that Slovis is likely the starter, Harrell stuck to the same beat.
"We’ll find out on Saturday, I guess," he said.
Is it not his decision?
"It’s always a competition and we’ll see who plays on Saturday," he said.
Slovis, meanwhile, added some further perspective on what happened to him after that big sack to end the Trojans' opening series Saturday, as he was tended to on the field by trainers and later checked out in the medical tent before watching the rest of the game from the sideline.
"I don't know, I just tried to get up and my neck felt super weak. And then tried to get back and play but just didn't feel confident throwing it with range of motion, so tried to make the best decision we could at that point," he said.
After that, however, Slovis too had his talking point and was sticking to it.
"[Practice has] been good, just trying to get myself ready to play for Saturday as best I can and trying to help my teammates as much as possible," he said.
It's no doubt been a strange week for Slovis, of course. He's been the Trojans' starting quarterback for two-plus seasons now, doing a very good to at-times elite job in the role, and all of a sudden after his two redshirt freshmen offensive tackles leave him exposed to a demolishing sack and his backup lights it up in his stead, his coach is talking about a quarterback competition and fans are weighing in on both sides of the debate.
"I'm not really focused so much on that. I'm excited for him, he had a great game, and honestly it's what we expect. He's a great player, great quarterback. He showed that all fall camp and I'm excited for him and what he's done for our team," Slovis said.
As for what Williams' message has been to him about the status of the position ...
"You can ask him about that, but again I'm just out here to get myself ready for Saturday," Slovis reiterated.
His time with reporters ended soon thereafter with another question and another "just trying to get ready for Saturday."
It remains the storyline of the week and beyond, if Dart's knee injury is not serious, which is up for interpretation at this point.
But the QB questions were as much a creation by Williams as anyone with him endorsing the need for a QB "battle" or "competition" and initially saying Sunday that they could delay a decision on a starter until the end of the week, leading into this home game against Oregon State.
So the questions will keep coming when Williams talks to reporters again Thursday morning -- whether he cares to engage with them or not.
