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Todd Orlando calls it the “dark place.”It's where any great defense must take itself if it wants to come out the other side as winners, as champions.

Coaches -- football coaches especially -- love phrases like this, metaphors, ways to add weight or meaning to simple edicts. Sometimes it comes across as forced or contrived, but, well, this one coming from this coach just works.

Orlando, USC's new defensive coordinator, is nothing if not intense. He has a presence about him -- even just sitting in a classroom in front of a dozen or so reporters, as he did Tuesday for the first time since his hiring -- and he wants his defense to have a presence on the field. A physical presence, an aggressive presence, hopefully even an intimidating presence.

And for that to happen, he said, his Trojans must first seek out the darkness.

"There’s a big difference between wins 10 and 11, then you start talking about 13, 14. There’s some dark, dark valleys in that thing. You have to go in there and see what it’s all about. If you’re never in those places that are really, really tough then you’re never going to know how to go through them. We’re going to go through that," Orlando said. "That’s not lip service. It’s not. … That’s part of the toll. You'd rather find out on Saturday than find out vs. Alabama."

By Saturday he means the Trojans' first padded practice in a week and half. He doesn't seem quite as excited for the first two practices to come Tuesday and Thursday that must be non-contact, per NCAA rules.

"They’ve got a practice on Tuesday which is non-padded, which is to me …,” he said, needing no words to convey his feelings on the matter. "The second one is non-padded, which to me is the same thing. Then we find out what we can do on Saturday. That’s when we play actual American football."

RELATED: Watch video and read transcripts from all the assistant coach press conferences Tuesday

Look, there's winning the press conference and winning the biggest games in the fall, and this fan base is understandably hesistant to celebrate the former after not being able to celebrate enough of the latter the last couple seasons.

But USC could not have hired a defensive coordinator -- and a defensive staff, for that matter -- that believes more ardently in correcting one of the fans' most consistent criticisms relating to overall defensive mindset and the physicality demanded in practice.

"We’re going to practice physical, I can promise you that," Orlando reiterated.

Meanwhile, his new defensive line coach Vic So'oto, whom USC hired away from Virginia, has his own buzz word and decree -- violent.

"There's a standard of doing things and every day it's got to be to that standard and you've got to hold your players to that standard. And so the whole idea of having violent practices and physical practices, it's not mine. It's just the way that I've known football from pushing the limit, and every day's going to take you to that dark point that Orlando talks a lot about," So'oto said during his turn with the local media Tuesday. "And then we're going to see who can stay there. Really, that's where the championships are."

Does it sound like these guys are on the same page?

"We're all kind of cut from the same cloth. We [believe] in playing football a certain way," So'oto said.

As Orlando put it, he has a defensive staff full of "alpha dogs."

"And we all kind of get along, too. That's probably the biggest part of it. We’re all aggressive, type-A personalities, and I’ve got no problem with that. I want as many people in there that are competitive, but they’re all very genuine, like big-hearted guys," Orlando said. "That’s unique when you get a whole room full of those people that are really good at their jobs but are humble enough to be able to work with each other."

Near the end of So'oto's media session, after it had been well established that he was every bit Orlando's match on the intensity scale, the new defensive line coach was asked what exactly being "violent" on the field means to him.

"Define violence for my guys? I think you'll see it, and hear it and feel it -- the oohs, the ahhs, those type of things. But then the violent mindset of anytime I put my hands on somebody he goes backwards," So'oto said. "Anytime, whatever it is. Out on the practice field, anytime you put your hands on somebody [he] goes backwards. ... This is what the game is. The forward pass wasn't invented until years after football was, so it's kind of the roots of this game is violent, physical front play with a ball and someone to go tackle him. So I feel like with this Air Raid and playing in space, the true roots of this game, the only thing that's left, is defensive line, offensive line, violent football up front.

"Whether the guy has the ball or not, if he fakes that he's got it he's going to the ground. And if he's a sliver of a grass inside the lines, he's going to get hit. And if he's up off the ground, he's going to get hit. That's the type of football that I've been raised on, the type of football that I know this place has played and the type of football that when you enter the Coliseum has to happen over and over and over again for it to go back to where it was."

Again, if these guys didn't emanate the ethos they preach, one might think they were reading from a handbook of things the USC fan base wants to hear.

Whether it manifests on the field and whether this defensive staff can truly change the culture within the unit and get the results it intends is yet to be seen.

But there is compelling evidence in the track record of this staff.

Start with Orlando, who has been a defensive coordinator at Connecticut, Florida International, Utah State, Houston and most recently at Texas the last three years.

Orlando's defenses have had an identity of being aggressive up front, stifling against the run and adept at forcing turnovers. (His final season at Texas is an acknowledged exception, which we'll address later.)

Between 2013 and 2018, his defenses ranked in the top 28 nationally in rush defense every season, including ranking 8th in 2013 at Utah State (106.8 rushing yards allowed per game), 8th in 2015 at Houston (108.9), 4th in 2016 at Houston (100.2) and 8th in 2017 at Texas (106.9). (USC was 72nd last season in that category, allowing 162.31 rushing yards per game, and 67th the year before.)

Orlando has routinely produced defenses that ranked in the top 20 nationally in turnovers forced -- 11th in 2010 at UConn (31 turnovers forced), tied for 10th in 2013 at Utah State (30), tied for 11th in 2014 at Utah State (30), 1st nationally in 2015 at Houston (35) and tied for 16th in 2017 at Texas (26). (USC tied for 84th last season with 16 turnovers forced and ranked 127th in 2018 with just 10).

And while his Texas defenses never ranked higher than tied for 38th in sacks (in 2017, with 31), his Houston defense was tied for 17th in 2016 (39 sacks) and T-19th in 2015 (36) and his Utah State defense ranked third nationally in 2014 (50). (USC was a respectable 28th last year with 35 sacks and 49th the year before).

Orlando's first addition to his staff upon being hired at USC was Craig Naivar, who coached safeties for him at both Houston and Texas, and will be key to installing his defense here.

"This will be the sixth year in this package. Craig, I think when he got announced here, probably not a household name, but he’s as good as there is in the country, I can tell you that," Orlando said.

Meanwhile, new cornerbacks coach Donte Williams helped Oregon's defense rank second nationally with 20 interceptions last year and tied for 11th in 2018 with 17 picks.

And then there's what So'oto did at Virginia.

The Cavaliers tied for 7th nationally in sacks last fall (46), while setting the tone defensively up front during a 9-win season that included an Orange Bowl appearance and another major step forward in head coach Bronco Mendenhall's rebuild there.

"You look at Virginia, we were 2-10 four years ago and we go to the Orange Bowl, and leaving there the strongest unit on the team was the defensive line. And it wasn't guys that were the big -- it wasn't the Caleb Tremblay's, it wasn't the Jay Tufele's, Marlon [Tuipulotu], it wasn't those guys. It was just guys that bought in," So'oto said, rattling off the names of some defensive linemen he inherits here. "As far as size and who it is, it's more so a mindset, because everybody in this room can be violent and physical if they wanted to and run through a guy's face and [get] the quarterback. It's just guys having to do it over and over and over and over and over again getting to that place. That's why it's so important these practices coming up."

Again, it's not so much the first two spring practices Orlando is looking forward to -- it's that third one when the pads come on for the first time.

"The Saturday practice, when we’re knocking the living heck out of each other, that’s when we’ll find out what we’re all about," he said. "To me it's easy to go out there and everything is peaceful and non-chaotic. I want to create chaos and see if these guys can respond to it. And if it’s not great at the end of the day, you’re getting better. You’re going to that dark place where all the championships are at, and all the hard wins are going to be at. You've got to live in there. You’re going to get knocked around, but get back up. Throw yourself back in there, throw punches and be active. But that’s training.

"That’s what we're going to have to do, and that’s going to take some time. Lets make strides at it during spring. ... Let's get bigger, faster and stronger during the summer time and then let's see what type of ball club we have."

Orlando's defense has commonly been referred to as a 3-3-5 scheme, but he made clear Tuesday that he's flexible and plans to adjust to his Trojans personnel by mixing in more four-down fronts.

USC's base defense last season included two defensive ends and two defensive tackles up front, though the Trojans would often sub out one of the defensive ends for a pass-rushing outside linebacker. In general, though, they operated with two linebackers and five defensive backs.

"It’s multiple. We’ll go 3-down [front] or 4-down. It's been this way for about eight or nine years. From our kids’ standpoint, they’ve been more accustomed to more of a four-down structure so we’re going to do both. We’ve installed the four-down stuff and we've installed the three-down stuff," Orlando said. "... But it’s gonna be multiple. It always has been for the last eight years. You can date this thing back to when I was at Utah State and then work itself through Houston and Texas. Some things have been modified just because we had to do them. ...

"Everything is done in a manner based on personnel. In an ideal world, you’d like to see it 50-50 down the line from 4-down to 3-down. Some of the places, we just had to do what we had to do. But we're going to stay consistent with this because some of the guys, especially the older guys that we have on the edge, that's the part that I really, really like about this. There's some things that we have in this package that they have done in the past, which makes the transitional period a little bit easier for those guys, so we're keeping that in the back of our mind. But we're going to be multiple."

Orlando added that the Trojans' veteran players "have really accepted me from Day 1. I think they're excited about this whole thing."

The key will be how quickly the returning Trojans take on the identity of this new staff and adapt to the changes.

Orlando's track record suggests that can indeed all happen in short order.

At Utah State, Orlando took over a defense in 2013 that was already successful, having ranked 14th nationally in total defense (322.1 yards per game) the previous season. Under Orlando, the unit remained stout, ranking 12th (330.9) in 2013 before dropping to 31st in 2014 (356.1).

In his first year at Houston, 2015, the defense actually dropped from 20th the previous season (343.4) to 53rd (383.6) before surging up to 13th nationally in 2016 (319.6), but some of the underlying stats (like the aforementioned sack total) were strong in his first year there as well.

Most impressively, in Orlando's first season at Texas in 2017 as he followed head coach Tom Herman from Houston, the Longhorns improved from 94th to 41st in total defense (365.6 YPG), and from 89th to 29th in scoring defense (21.2 PPG).

"A lot of the times, you see some improvements just based on mentality too, the way the training is -- I think more than it is actually the scheme. I’ll be real with you," Orlando said. "We come in and it’s like, this is the way we’re going to be fundamental, we’re going to be technical and we’re going to run as hard as we can at somebody and try to blast them. Just try to keep it that simple to kids, and as we go on it's multiple enough to confuse some [opponents] or at the end of the day make somebody on the offensive side of the football really have to work hard."

It does need to be noted that Orlando is here not only because USC needed a fresh start on defense, but because his former boss -- Herman -- decided he needed one as well (despite previously calling Orlando the "best defensive coordinator in the country.")

Orlando was a casualty of a dramatic staff makeover at Texas as both coordinators were let go after the Longhorns regressed to a 7-5 regular season last fall.

Orlando's defenses also regressed over his time in Austin, Texas. After that strong debut season, the Longhorns then ranked 67th in total defense in 2018 (392.8 YPG) and 97th (431.5) last season. It should be noted that Texas was beset by injuries in 2019. According to a Nov. 4 report by BurntOrangeNation.com, by that point of the fall eight key defensive contributors (including five opening game starters) had missed nearly a third of the combined games.

That was also only the second year in Orlando's career his defenses have allowed more than 400 yards per game, and overall in his 15 seasons as a defensive coordinator his units have given up an average of 356.5 yards per game. USC allowed 408.5 YPG last season under Clancy Pendergast -- the most ever in program history -- and 388.0 the year before.

But as for Texas' defensive regression, Orlando addressed it Tuesday.

"I look back at it, and I say to myself, everything that [happened] at Texas was things that we knew were happening, even before they were happening. It was all addressed. Sometimes you get into situations where stuff just happens where you lose some marquee guys, and you have to try and mix and match as much as you can," he said. "Like I said beforehand, if you sit there and you've made critical, critical mistakes, I think that's always something where it's hard to bounce back from. But at no point did I sit there [and think that]. Last year's group at Texas in terms of the staff was as sharp as it could be, so all that stuff has been talked through."

Naivar, who served as Texas' interim defensive coordinator in a dominant 38-10 Alamo Bowl win over Utah after Orlando had already been fired, had a briefer response when asked about the Longhorns' struggles last year overall.

"I'm not there anymore. I'm a USC Trojan. So that's in the past," he said.

If there is one more critique to make about Orlando's defenses, it's that the seeming tradeoff for their aggressiveness and success against the run and in creating sacks and havoc in the backfield has been a susceptible pass defense. His units have ranked 99th or worse nationally against the pass in five of the last eight seasons, including all three years at Texas.

Williams, the new cornerbacks coach, was asked about that and what is required of the secondary in this defense and he brushed aside the stats.

"We’re multiple, NFL-type defense. We’re going to be attacking. ... As far as giving up whatever you say in passing yards, that was the past. I don’t know what happened in the past. I’m not really worried about that; I’m worried about what we’re going to do here to get better every day," he said.

Indeed, that was the collective sentiment from USC's new defensive coaches Tuesday. They believe the Trojans are equipped with plenty enough talent to be successful on that side of the ball this fall, and whatever contributed to the struggles the last two years, well, that's not their focus.

After all, the point is the change everything from the results to the culture, so there's really no need to be looking backward.

"Last year is last year, I wasn't here, but we've talked a lot about our expectations this year and going forward," So'oto said. "I watched a lot of the defense, a lot of the guys and just there's so much potential in my room to have an amazing year. I've been preaching to them over and over the difference between reality and potential is a lot of hard work, trust and violence on the football field. That is the difference. So taking to that place again day in and day out I think will pay dividends in the fall."

Ah, yes, the dark place.

Again, football coaches by nature can be prone to bluster and buzz words and nebulous notions that apply to whatever theme they're trying to enforce. It's part of the job, and the difference between the ones who succeed and those who don't is whether they can turn platitudes into performance, symbolism into substance.

That will be proved out over time, but say this for USC's new defensive staff, it sure doesn't seem like an act. The feedback on Orlando has been that he's full energy and intensity all the time and never relents, and it was palpable that he'd just as soon prefer to skip right to that first padded practice on Saturday so he can truly get to work on implenting what he wants this defense to become.

"If you want to be a good fighter, you've got to get in fights. You know what I’m saying? So you've got to practice that way. So that's going to start on Saturday," he said, again obscuring the fact that USC must go through two non-padded practices before that one.

"... To be an elite ballclub, you just don't come in and punch in and punch out and roll your helmet out there and say 'Be scared of us.' You train in that manner."

It all sounds good to USC fans — now they’ll wait and see if it comes to fruition.