Coach Harvey Hyde gives his recap on the USC spring game in the Coliseum

Peristyle Podcast - USC Trojan Football Discussion

On this episode of the Peristyle Podcasts hosts Ryan Abraham and Coach Harvey Hyde are back together recapping USC's spring game that featured the defense getting the better of the offense by a score of 43-28 in a modified scoring system. With D'Anton Lynn at the helm, the new-look USC defense secured four interceptions including a 100-yard pick-six and three-straight drives ending in interceptions in the first half.

Coach Hyde thought the Coliseum looked great on Saturday afternoon with beautiful weather, turf in pristine condition and everything looking perfect. When the game started he was happy to see the offense huddle up to get the plays in with helmet communication now allowed per NCAA rules. He wasn't as happy to see the game not feature live tackling and instead defenders would "thud" the offensive players instead of tackling them to the ground. Coach doesn't feel you can get a true game speed evaluation when there is no live tackling and you can't see if the tackling has improved at all because you just aren't running at a full speed pace like you would in a real game.

Overall he felt the defense played more to defend the pass than the run since there was no tackling allowed and the offensive play calling was more skewed towards passing than running. The secondary and linebackers were able to play more coverage and so it makes it hard to evaluate their performance when they aren't as worried about coming up to support the run. Coach liked how the offensive line blocked in pass protection, but again it just wasn't a real life game situation when you aren't including the physicality of the run game.

The secondary did stand out with four interceptions and coach loved how they were always around the football. It just looked like the players were better coached, not leaving guys wide open and forcing the offense to make contested catches.

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