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New USC defensive coordinator Todd Orlando made it clear he was far more interested in the Trojans' third practice Saturday than either the first two, as the NCAA mandates that the first two must not be in full pads.

But he nonetheless found a way to channel is boundless energy during his first practice with the program Wednesday.

"I thought the guy who gave the best juice today was Coach Orlando, I'm going to tell you. He was absolutely all over the place," head coach Clay Helton said afterward. "I think my favorite play was when Bru [McCoy] came down and scored down here, he ran about 60 yards to come high-five him and hug him after the touchdown. That's the type of guy he is. He coaches as hard as the kids are practicing and loves the game."

But the question followers of the program have is will all this talk of physical practices -- "violent," in the terminology of new defensive line coach Vic So'oto -- truly manifest into a different intensity on the practice field for the Trojans once they put on the pads.

Helton was asked that question a couple different ways Wednesday. The first being whether all this emphasis on those aforementioned buzzwords will reflect a true difference in approach.

"We get the opportunity of eight tackle practices [out of 15]. That's the NCAA rule, we're going to use all eight live tackle opportunities as long as we're staying healthy. We need that with a bunch of young players. That is a great opportunity for us to get better, so we'll use all eight," Helton said. "We have to have two helmet practices to start off by NCAA rule. We will be full pads on Saturday, and we will tackle I think it's about 37 percent of the practices -- as much as you're allowed. Most of the team segments you see will be live tackling."

Later, another reporter asked Helton if he personally felt the team needed to be more physical in practice.

"The biggest thing, you look back to last year, we want to get better as a tackling football team," he said. "It's something we're healthy right now with a lot of numbers, we're missing a couple guys -- as long as we can keep these numbers we're going to tackle as often as we can. We want that physicality, we want that violence and that's what you'll see this spring."

In the meantime, while there was no tackling Wednesday, the one-on-one passing periods were particularly lively with sophomore cornerback Chris Steele consistently jawing wide receivers (even his friend Bru McCoy), a couple of other young wide receivers getting into it briefly with each other, and some absolute mauling by defensive backs on red zone drills with no refs present to throw a flag.

Actually, one of the more notable sequences involved true freshman receiver Gary Bryant Jr. very clearly getting interfered with in about every way possible by redshirt freshman safety Kaulana Makaula with no acknowledgement of anything being afoul, only to then come back moments later and beat Chase Williams into the end zone for a nice touchdown catch.

Bryant, McCoy and fellow redshirt freshman Kyle Ford got considerable action with veteran wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown sitting out this spring due to injury and Drake London still with the basketball team.

The first glimpse of those young highly-rated wideouts was among the highlights of the first day, along with some insight into how Orlando's defense might prefer to utilize its personnel and a potential answer to the Trojans' left tackle void.

We break it all down here, including a full spring injury report that is so long it required its own post, which can be read here.

Also check out: QB Kedon Slovis gives encouraging update on his throwing elbow | WATCH: Video interviews with Clay Helton and USC players

Meanwhile, it was also the first chance to talk to USC's defensive players about the staff overhaul and the influx of "juice" -- as Helton and others have put it -- from Orlando, safeties coach Craig Naivar, defensive line coach Vic So'oto and cornerbacks coach Donte Williams.

"The biggest thing with them is intensity, energy. That's all they bring -- it's nonstop energy," safety Isaiah Pola-Mao said. "So when we get on the field, it's like there's always juice, they're always trying to hype us up."

Fellow safety Talanoa Hufanga said he could tell that just from the initial phone call with Orlando.

"Definitely the phone call, for sure. You could hear it through the mic -- they was all up in it and they're ready to go," he said.

Said sophomore defensive end/outside linebacker Drake Jackson: "I love them. I like the intensity, I like the humor that they got. You can tell that they're coming in and they want to do different and they want to have a change with us. That's what I'm really about -- I want to win."

They'll truly get the chance to enforce the mentality and standard they want to see on the practice field come Saturday.