Defense prepares to face a freshman quarterback

USC’s defense looked excited Monday, as they prepare to “rattle” freshman quarterback Jake Browning. But no player more so than fellow freshman  and friend, Cameron Smith.

“I definitely will see him after the game just to say congrats, wondering how he’s doing,” Smith said after practice. “I’ve watched a couple of games. He’s doing a great job so far. So I’ll talk to him and wish him luck.”

Smith played Browning, the quarterback for nearby Folsom High School, his junior and senior year at Granite Bay High School. But it’s hard to fathom that the players ever imagined they would be facing each other this soon in their college careers and possibly have consequential impacts on the outcome of the game.

“You hope for that. You hope to see him do well. But seeing him like this is going to be cool,” Smith said. “He’s a great player who really works hard, and I’m excited to see what he does in the future.”

Both Granite Bay products have made remarkable accomplishments as true freshmen at their universities. Smith leads the Trojan defense in tackles, and Browning is the first freshman quarterback to ever start a season for the University of Washington. Though Smith admitted that making the transition from high school might be especially hard for a quarterback, he believes that what he’s seen from Browning already will make him a successful player in the future.

“He has the arm strength and the accuracy to reach everywhere,” Smith said. When asked if he has any particular insight into stopping Browning, Smith added, “We’ll need to get into his head and get him rattled a little bit. But, he’s a great player. He’s not going to move around to move, but he is going to get the ball out quick.”

Head coach Sarkisian, who coached Washington for five years, also knows Browning from his play at Folsom High School.

“I like Jake a lot. I recruited him when I was up there, and Jake has got a good feel for the game,” Sarkisian said. “He’s a tough kid. He is heady. He’s played a lot of football in high school. So, he’s gotten better from week to week to week. He’s going to be a heck of a player in our conference.”

Browning has thrown five touchdowns and four interceptions this season. defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox said that setting edges, striking blocks, finishing tackles and getting a lot of bodies by the ball as things the defense is working on being more consistent in. The Trojans’ defense is coming off a clinical performance against Arizona State forcing four turnovers for 28 points and three sacks. They’re looking to bring similar pressure Thursday night in hopes of making the Washington freshman quarterback uncomfortable.

“We definitely want to rattle his cage as Coach Sark mentioned to us earlier [to] make him nervous,” linebacker Jabari Ruffin said. “We realized that he has a lack of experience on this level, and I’ll do the most I can to make him uncomfortable back there and disrupt their offense.”

Ruffin said that his leg feels more comfortable each day after being sidelined all last season after tearing left knee ligaments in 2014 fall camp. He said, “I can feel myself making the progression, be it trusting my leg or getting into the rhythm I missed being out the past year.”

Ruffin added that on defense, bringing five-man and seven-man pressures throughout the game is something really fun for him as a linebacker.

“Practice was very spirited,” Sarkisian said. “A lot of game plan work. I thought the guys came out focused, and it will be really key that we have student meetings this evening to really polish things up so we can come out tomorrow morning, and we can clean this game plan up and get right on point to what we’d like to do.”