USC's retooled, refashioned defense makes a statement in spring game

Earlier this week, senior linebacker Eric Gentry revealed that USC's defensive players have taken up the routine of doing 116 "reps of everything" after their standard workouts.

"That's I guess where we was ranked [defensively] last year. I won't ever forget that number just because we're doing 116 after," he said. "But we're holding everybody accountable."

Saturday was the first opportunity for USC's retooled, refashioned and, yes, highly motivated defense to showcase itself publicly as the Trojans held their spring game in the Coliseum.

And they certainly gave everyone watching reason to believe that a lot has indeed already changed within that unit.

The Trojans compiled four interceptions -- picking the ball off on three straight series at one point -- and added a fifth turnover later when walk-on defensive end Garrett Pomerantz snatched a backward pitch out of the air.

Transfer addition DeCarlos Nicholson, spotlight true freshman Marcelles Williams, emerging redshirt junior Prophet Brown and redshirt freshman Maliki Crawford provided the picks, with Brown taking his 100-plus yards back for a touchdown as the defense cruised to a 43-28 victory with an adjusted scoring system that staked the unit to 24 points with further points earned for turnovers, fourth down stops, the defensive touchdown, etc.

"That's the standard -- that's what we've got to do as a defense is take the ball away, create turnovers, give the ball back to the offense," safety Kamari Ramsey said. “But shoot, today it was the offense we were taking the ball away from. That's the standard, though."

RELATED: Watch Lincoln Riley's postgame press conference | Watch USC's players discuss the spring game | Share your thoughts on our Trojan Talk board

Ramsey would know -- he played for new defensive coordinator D'Anton Lynn at UCLA last year when Lynn turned a struggling Bruins defense into the No. 10-ranked unit in the country in terms of yards allowed per game.

Meanwhile, veteran defensive end Jamil Muhammad has his own perspective on things, having played on that 116th-ranked USC defense a year ago and now seeing what the Trojans are building with a new defensive staff and scheme.

"It's definitely a night and day feeling for sure," Muhammad said. "And we know there's a lot more work to be done, and I say it for myself but I'm sure I can speak for everybody else, but it's almost like today wasn't good enough because we're hungry. We're hungry for more. We're hungry for Sept. 1 for sure."

Head coach Lincoln Riley was asked what the spring game -- certainly just a small sample size and a long way away from a Big Ten Saturday in the fall -- showed about the identity he's hoping to build on that side of the ball.

"Good defenses make things tough on offenses, good defenses prey on offensive mistakes and they did that," he said. "You take the, I think, four interceptions, and three of them were not honestly horrible decisions. It was a couple of bad throws, a couple of just competitive plays, but that’s what happens. Average defenses maybe only get two of those and you gotta take advantage of it and our guys obviously did a tremendous job with that today.

"So it’s been fun to see the progression there. Excited about what we’re doing at all three levels and obviously very excited about the way these guys are being developed right now."

More telling than the stats were some of the comments from the players afterward -- on both sides of the ball.

Especially from quarterback Miller Moss, who completed 16 of 21 passes for 133 yards, 1 TD and 2 INT while having his second pick deflected on a well-placed pass to Kyron Hudson in the end zone that landed in Brown's hands for the 100-yard defensive touchdown.

"They make you earn it this year, and I think it makes us better as an offense," Moss said. "The biggest kind of area I've noticed it in is going back and watching our install cut-ups offensively, and obviously watching them in practice against the defense in the previous years and there were definitely things that were largely open that are not now largely open, for lack of a better word.

"So it definitely makes us a lot better offensively. I'm excited to kind of see how that feels now going into other defenses having gone against a really solid scheme throughout spring and then also fall camp."

Brown, who didn't have much of a role in past years before delivering a breakout performance in the Holiday Bowl while carrying that momentum through the spring, also shared some notable perspective on how things are different this year.

"It's completely different," he said. "We've brought in a lot of new players as well. It's not just all scheme. So I feel like the players are really buying in and stepping up and playing for one another, and we're being put in position to make these plays and have the freedom to go out there and play fast. That's really important, especially in the secondary. ...

"I feel like we're on one page. If I'm at corner, I have faith Kamari’s going to be on the back end and that's going to allow me to play confident and maybe jump on the route or maybe be more aggressive. When it's like that, it's really fun to play defense, rather than you having to worry about giving up the big play or giving up something. It's like, you're able to go out there and be free and play."

While the offense scuffled -- all three QBs threw interceptions -- Riley didn't seem concerned about that side of the ball, especially in regard to Moss, whom he affirmed is clearly ahead of UNLV transfer Jayden Maiava as QB1 so far.

Moss' first pick came on an ill-advised pass into a crowd that Williams made a quick play on. That was the only bad decision he made, Riley said. Moss' second pick, as aforementioned, came on a quick slant on target to Hudson in the end zone that cornerback Jacobe Covington appeared to help break up from behind as it popped into the hands of Brown nearby.

"He made one bad decision today, and the one play, I mean, he threw a good ball and it's part of playing football. So no, shoot, he'll probably grade out pretty darn high for the day," Riley said. "We don't want the one bad one, but when you play enough snaps it's going to happen from time to time. … It's just part of playing the position. But he's been awesome.

"We're going to go back and certainly evaluate the whole thing. He's certainly ahead right now. There's no -- there's not a question about that. Now, Jayden is improving rapidly as he learns it and I think is going to continue to provide great competition in the room. I've been really pleased with the way Jake [Jensen] has handled the snaps that we've given him. We're in a position right now where we don't have to decide a starter, but if we played today it would certainly be Miller."

Maiava was impressive while completing 15 of 17 passes for 172 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT.

His interception came on a pass he tried to loft down the sideline while underestimating the lengthy range of Nicholson, who snagged it out of the air before it could reach its target. Maiava's only other incompletion was a well-placed 50/50 ball in the end zone to Duce Robinson that safety Christian Pierce was able to wrestle away for a breakup.

"He’s done good. Kind of like a lot of the new guys, he came out of the blocks really strong, had a little bit of a lull in the middle of it and I thought finished the spring really strong. I thought he did a good job today," Riley said. "Threw some good balls, I thought he settled in a little bit. The interception wasn’t really a bad decision; it just was the wrong kind of throw in that moment and DeCarlos made a great play on it. But he’s getting better -- it’s just a climb for him right now. He’s a hard worker, he’s a talented kid, he gets every day, you can just see the wires connecting a little bit more and we’re excited about the room."

It was already 33-0 on the adjusted scoring system in favor of the defense before the offense got on the board with a 17-yard touchdown pass from Maiava to Makai Lemon on a back-shoulder fade.

Freshman running back Bryan Jackson punched in two short touchdown runs, and redshirt freshman running back A'Marion Peterson scored on a 6-yard run to end the game.

"I thought we operated really well as a whole," Moss said. "We've just got to eliminate some of those mental mistakes and obviously a couple bad bounces, but I felt the offense operated as a whole really well and really efficiently. Just gotta cut down on mistakes, but this is what that time is for. And I'm excited about the direction of our offense as a whole.

"It's also good to see the defense be opportunistic and make plays and capitalize when we don't do our job to the best of our ability."

Passing

Miller Moss: 16/21 for 133 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT

Jayden Maiava: 15/17 for 172 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT (2 rushes for 10 yards)

Jake Jensen: 6/8 for 91 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT

Rushing

A'Marion Peterson: 9 carries for 41 yards and a TD

Woody Marks: 4 carries for 29 yards

Quinten Joyner: 1 carry for 16 yards

Bryan Jackson: 10 carries for 13 yards and a TD

Receiving

Makai Lemon: 6 catches for 52 yards and a TD

Duce Robinson: 4 catches for 56 yards

Zachariah Branch: 4 catches for 40 yards

Xavier Jordan: 4 catches for 39 yards

A'Marion Peterson: 4 catches for 17 yards

Ja'Kobi Lane: 3 catches for 36 yards

Jason Richardson: 3 catches for 33 yards

Joey Olsen: 3 catches for 25 yards

Josiah Zamora: 2 catches for 51 yards

Woody Marks: 2 catches for 28 yards

Kyron Hudson: 1 catch for 16 yards

Bryan Jackson: 1 catch for 3 yards, 1 TD

Interceptions

DeCarlos Nicholson, Marcelles Williams, Prophet Brown and Maliki Crawford

Sacks

Deijon Laffitte

Tackles for Loss

Deijon Laffite, Anthony Beavers, Prophet Brown

*Hard to evaluate tackle stats as the defense was limited to "thud" -- touch football -- for much of the game, with some full-tackle periods mixed in.