USC gets fresh start tonight vs. Wildcats
Exactly six weeks ago, I wrote a column that my editors headlined “First game couldn’t arrive sooner for USC.” It was Aug. 29, the day of the Trojans’ season opener against Hawai’i. The gist, more or less, was this: “This is a team, a fan base and a program all too eager for a fresh start.” Football was back. Last season was over. And everyone was ready for it.
It might be only six weeks later, but let me just say: This is a team, a fan base and a program all too eager for a fresh start once again.
“It feels like a whole new team,” sophomore defensive lineman Leonard Williams said. “It feels like we’re just coming into a new season right now.”
And that is exactly what this seems like. In a strange way, tonight’s game feels more like a “first game” than even the actual first game did. Interim head coach Ed Orgeron even referred to tonight’s matchup as “our first game together,” despite the fact that this is exactly the same group of players and assistant coaches that toiled through the first five games.
“We’re treating everything now as if we’re 0-0,” redshirt junior cornerback Josh Shaw said on Monday. “It’s definitely a fresh start. There’s a lot of new energy around here. Everyone’s excited and we just can’t wait for Thursday.”
Apart from Shaw stealing my “fresh start” line, they key word there is “energy.” That and “fun” have become the two buzzwords to describe the Orgeron regime at USC, thanks in no small part to the coach himself.
“I think [the team is] in a really good place,” Orgeron said. “Just walking into the meeting room, I can feel the energy. They’re smiling, they’re loving practice, they’re practicing very hard. I want them to fight, and compete, and play with energy, and have fun playing the game.”
There you go, “energy” and “fun,” just two words apart. Now here’s Williams again:
“[Coach] is really just trying to have everyone come together as a team,” Williams said. “Just come out with a lot of energy, and make sure everybody’s having fun. And by him doing that, people actually want to come out here, and have fun and compete.”
Energy! Fun! Fun again! And you know what: It’s true. There is a vibe around the USC football program that is very different than in years past. To call it a Pete Carroll-era swagger would be too much, but there is a sort of enthusiastic confidence that emanates from the players and the staff.
Here are just a few quips from players on the new vibe at practices.
Williams: “Coach O brings a lot of energy to the table. Since day one [of] practice, he’s told us he just wants a lot of energy, no holding back. Just come out, compete and have fun — that’s what he wants us to do.”
Shaw: “We love it. [Orgeron] brings a lot of energy and we feed off him. The practice has been different, our meetings have been different. Everything as far as energy is up about 10 times.”
Redshirt junior defensive lineman George Uko: “He brings more nastiness to the team. You’ve seen it with the defensive line [which Orgeron coached before being promoted], we’re some of the nastier players on the team. And I think he’s brings that mentality along to the whole team.”
And finally, redshirt sophomore quarterback Cody Kessler: “I feel a lot more focused in the sense that you want to be perfect on every play. You don’t want to mess up because you don’t want Coach O yelling at you. Obviously when you get new leadership on the team, there’s gonna be a different attitude — but I like our mindset. I like where our team is at and I like where everyone’s head is at.”
All of them say more or less the same thing, and they all genuinely feel that. It’s impossible not to. This is, save for one man, the exact same team. It’s probably actually a lesser team than before, with junior wide receiver Marqise Lee and senior defensive lineman Morgan Breslin likely out tonight. But there’s no denying it: This team is different.
In practices led by former head coach Lane Kiffin toward the end of last year, players often looked like they were just going through the motions (sort of like the games — imagine that). The media did not get to see any Kiffin-led practices this season, but it’s fair to assume they weren’t much different.
Under Kiffin, the gist of his practice report was execution: how the day went from a strictly schematic perspective, which made sense coming from an Xs and Os-type coach. But under Orgeron, it’s all about the vibe and mentality of the team.
Case in point: Orgeron’s decision to eliminate the yellow non-contact jerseys that quarterbacks wore. Quarterbacks wearing non-contact jerseys in practice is not a Lane Kiffin thing. It’s a football thing, done with every NFL team and at almost every college in the nation, as well as a good bit of high schools. But that’s just Coach O for you.
“Our colors, the last time I checked, were cardinal and gold,” Orgeron said. “We wear cardinal jerseys and we wear white jerseys. Those are our colors; one team, one heartbeat.”
The Trojans are truly becoming a team under Orgeron. They were in title before, but now they appear to be in spirit, too.
“That’s what’s awesome about Coach O, that he can take something as little as the color of your jersey and make it a team thing,” Kessler said. “He said, ‘You guys weren’t the same color as the rest of the offense, and you have to be the same team and the same color because you’re all one unit.’ To get you pumped up about a jersey color is extremely cool.”
That might sound mundane and frankly stupid to care about, but truthfully those little things matter. Last night, instead of arriving at the hotel in the afternoon, heading into meetings all evening, and then slogging through more meetings all day today, Orgeron took the team to a movie.
“I don’t know what [movie],” Orgeron said on Tuesday. “I’m gonna be on the bus [there], that’s all I know.”
With a night game, Orgeron figured the team might as well take advantage of the extra time earlier in the day, instead of sitting around in the hotel with nothing to do, as was the case before the Washington State game.
“Hopefully we’re energized and ready to play for a late game,” explained Orgeron.
In my column six weeks ago, I said this about Orgeron: “You would be hard-pressed to find a member of the football program, athletic department, or even the Trojan Family, with more ‘Trojan Spirit’ than the man they call Coach O.”
That still rings true. Even before he took charge, Orgeron was the vocal leader of the USC coaching staff, and quite frankly the team as a whole. Nowhere was this more apparent than when he led the Trojans down the tunnel before every game at the Coliseum, something he has no plans to change.
“I’ve done that for years here,” Orgeron said. “It’s really an honor to go down the tunnel. The tradition — to look up on the walls, all the great players there. To hear the cleats go ‘click, clack,’ everyone’s buckled up, all the big guys. I really enjoy it.”
It’s the same players, and the same coaches, in more or less the same roles. But it’s a different team, and it feels like a whole new season starts tonight.
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