USC coach Clay Helton indicated Thursday that starting center Brett Neilon is likely to miss the Trojans' game at Arizona on Saturday due to the sprained ankle that forced him out in the second half last week.

Helton called Neilon "highly doubtful," adding, "We’ll know more today. They’ll test it a little bit, but I would list him as doubtful right now."

Fortunately, that's the one position on the offensive line with the most experienced replacement in redshirt sophomore Justin Dedich, who made two starts there last season and played the final 21 snaps Saturday, finishing as USC's fourth-highest-graded offensive player, per PFF.

He allowed zero pressures while playing on the most important and pivotal drives of the game, so there would seem to be no concern with Neilon missing some time.

"If you remember Justin coming out of high school, I think he was ranked the No. 1 center in the country. More than capable and more than skillful," Helton said. "Typical of USC, you have multiple good players at that position that provides competition, raises the levels and standards of everybody. ... There’s no doubt in our mind that we won’t skip a beat. He just happens to be a year younger than Brett, and they were in a fierce competition that Brett won out. But he didn’t sulk. He didn’t pout, feel sorry for himself. Just kept on training and improving and preparing for his opportunity, and here it is against Arizona as a starter."

Neilon won that competition over Dedich entering last season (and really during that spring). Dedich has also gotten work at guard in practices and -- along with fellow redshirt sophomore Liam Douglass -- is perhaps the Trojans' most trusted overall offensive line reserve.

"He’s been one of the not only great teammates but great leaders of our team, even in a backup position," Helton said. "He’s been that for us. Usually your center is the rock of your offensive line. We just happen to have two bowling ball rocks that look like twin brothers. Between Brett and Justin, you’re basically getting twins out there. Proud of Justin. He’s been looking forward to this opportunity, and he’ll do a great job."

Helton also confirmed that senior defensive tackle Brandon Pili will remain out following finger surgery last week.

Helton has been asked this a few times now, but with USC heading into Arizona as 14-point favorites and needing to seize any opportunity to make a strong national impression in this truncated season, the topic of style points came up again Thursday morning.

"Yes, when you get a total of seven games, yes, you want to see an upward trend, that's what every coach would like to see and you want to produce a resume that's as strong as humanly possible, so yeah, you'd love to be able to distance yourself," he said. "The No. 1 thing is to win, that's No. 1, finding ways to win, and No. 2, if you can win convincingly that always helps the resume."

Helton said the staff's emphasis to the offense on Wednesday was third-down effectiveness. He reiterated that he hopes to see the Trojans maintain the pace they played at last week, when they totaled 95 offensive plays, and to do that they have to be better on third-down conversions after going just 7 of 19 vs. Arizona State.

"We were not where our standard normally is for that opening ballgame. Made a lot of yards, had to go for it on fourth a bunch to continue to get drives moving. But our big point of emphasis and we worked it all day yesterday was third downs and hopefully being able to be more successful than we were in Game 1, and then you stressed the other part is keeping the ball," he said. "I know our offense is always going to be able to move the ball. That's been something with our playmakers we've been able to do. It's really about not getting stopped via turnover, via third down or via penalty."

Conversely, the Trojans are expecting significant tempo from Arizona and view that as the toughest facet of this matchup for the defense.

"This will be the fastest tempo team that we play all year, to be able to handle the tempo. We really didn't get that in Game 1. It was a no-huddle offense, but a little bit slower pace. This is going to be a higher pace. And I am hoping the biggest improvement we see is on the perimeter," Helton said. "We gave up some explosive plays on the perimeter, whether it was quarterback-designed runs, which I don't think we'll see in this game, but we did get hit on the RPO for a big play when Talanoa [Hufanga] jumped inside on one instead of holding the force out there and bending it back into Zay [Isaiah Pola-Mao]. So just the fundamentals and the discipline of us doing our job out on the perimeter, especially that's a huge part of their offense is the RPO game. They don't have a running quarterback, per se, but he is elite when it comes to the RPO game outside."

In the context of an already challenging season nationwide for college football programs trying to avoid game cancellations as the pandemic spikes again, going on the road is a further obstacle.

Helton detailed some of the protocols that are in place for the Trojans as they make the trip to Tucson, Ariz.

"One, you go from a 110-man unit down to 74. We are getting the biggest plane you could possibly imagine. You don’t have boosters. You don’t have administration. You don’t have student managers. You only have the necessary, essential elements to go on this trip. You’re talking 74 players, as well as staff and operational assistants to make the trip," he said. "It’s a big enough plane where we’re spacing between seats, to space out obviously. We’re going to have our masks on the entire time. When we get to Arizona, just like we have here, our kids love it -- they get their own bedroom. So they’re not positioned with anybody else. They have their own room. We don’t do team meals anymore. We haven’t done that since the beginning of this thing. Meals are eaten in their room, since that’s one of the leading causes of the spread right now, congregating while you’re eating.

"And we’re on a schedule that gets us in a little bit later. We won’t get into the hotel until night. We can literally get them to the hotel, get them to their rooms, get their meals, and they lay down for the night. We get up, eat breakfast, come down and we’re gone."

Arizona is allowing families of players from both teams to attend the game, which is not an opportunity afforded to Trojans' parents in the Coliseum this season, so there could be a good support group in the stands for the players.