During USC's first scrimmage of fall camp Saturday, freshman quarterback Jaxson Dart drove the headlines with his three late touchdown tosses that accounted for the offense's only scoring of the day.
As the Trojans returned to the practice field Monday, fellow freshman QB Miller Moss promptly responded with his own highlight reel while producing three od the biggest throws of the afternoon and continuing to at least keep pressure on Dart in the competition for the No. 2 QB job.
"That's kind of why we wanted to get these guys more kind of live fire. We felt that they had done a lot of nice things earlier in the camp with just a nice world -- 7-on-7, 1-on-1 world, very accurate passers. But a lot of things change when bullets start flying in," USC coach Clay Helton said. "Coming out of Saturday's scrimmage, our evaluation was we really needed to put those young quarterbacks in and prepare them even more -- and it's good for Kedon [Slovis] too -- to be prepared for live action when you have to step up and make that same throw that was really easy in 7-on-7 and 1-on-1.
"So it was good to see Miller react. He was off and on on Saturday, got challenged, then stepped back today and made some nice plays. Him and Jaxson are really competing well."
On the first series that we saw Moss (media missed about 5 minutes of action while being relocated from the sideline to the top of the aquatics center), he stepped up in the pocket and delivered a precise rope to Kyle Ford for about a 55-yard touchdown. Ford and cornerback Prophet Brown had a little bumping near the end of the deep route, and that's contact that Ford is going to win against most DBs (as long as it doesn't draw a flag) as it helped create a little space for him.
Moss' second big throw came as he was rolling right and found tight end Michael Trigg wide open in space. It looked like Trigg took it the rest of the way in for a 40-ish-yard touchdown, but they weren't going full tackling in such situations and it was on the far end of the field, so it’s hard to say what the outcome would have been under game circumstances. Still, an on-the-money pass on the move for Moss, and a big play for the freshman tight end.
"I saw Michael Trigg make a phenomenal play today, and I walked up to him, I said, 'We need to learn the plays as fast as humanly possible,'" Helton said. "He has an advanced body and an advanced skill set, and he's learning the playbook as fast as he can."
And for his third big play downfield, Moss hit tight end Lake McRee for a pass that went about 25 yards in the air. McRee had gotten behind the defense with outside linebacker Hunter Echols the nearest defender about 10 yards behind him as Moss again delivered an accurate strike.
Slovis, meanwhile, also had one of the highlights of the day early on with a beautiful deep ball that dropped in right over the shoulder of John Jackson III down the sideline for about a 50-yard strike, with Jayden Williams in coverage.
On the defensive side, meanwhile, the standout was junior outside linebacker Drake Jackson.
Jackson, who was not active for the scrimmage Saturday, was still in shorts along with full shoulder pads and helmet during his fifth practice back after a late start to camp, but he switched into high gear for one sequence of consistent pressure in the backfield, going against both Andrew Vorhees and Jonah Monheim.
We were watching the other side of the field when we noticed Jackson very quickly all alone in the backfield on one play, so we then honed in on the rest of his matchup with Monheim, who was at right tackle. Jackson gave Monheim a quick stutter-step and juke and came flying around the edge unimpeded for the kind of pass rush move that makes the junior one of the most high-upside defensive players in the conference.
"Drake Jackson with fresh legs is a dangerous thing," Helton said. "Really nice to have him back. You can see how valuable he is. We really wanted, coming out of the scrimmage, to put ourselves in more live pass rush. So we dropped the 7-on-7 today and the skel, wanted our quarterbacks to get a little bit more live fire and see them with the bullets flying, having to make full-speed decisions. It gave us a great opportunity also to work our pass rush fundamentals and Drake took full advantage of that on both sides. It’s great having him back out. Obviously, he’s one of the best players in the country and somebody we’re going to count on."
There were many more notes, significant injury updates, news on OT Casey Collier's extended absence and more highlights below. Also, watch 3 minutes of video of the offensive line working pass protection against the safeties.
