USC SPORTS INFORMATION OFFICE • HERITAGE HALL• LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90089-0601 TELEPHONE: (213) 740-8480 • FAX: (213) 740-7584 • WEB: USCTROJANS.COM
POSTGAME QUOTES | USC USC vs. Texas LA Memorial Coliseum ! Los Angeles, Calif. Saturday, Sept. 16, 2017
HEAD COACH CLAY HELTON Opening Statement “Glory to God and bunch of great kids who just refused to quit tonight or give up and just kept on fighting. Credit to coach Herman, I have respect for him and Texas. I’m so glad we caught them early in the season because that team is going to be really, really good. They’re doing some great things and that team will continue to grow. They’ll be a pain in the butt next year when we play them again. A great coach and great squad we played tonight. Credit to our defense, I think for about three and a half quarters played phenomenal, helped us when the offense was struggling keeping us in the game and keeping us ahead. they down the stretch by Sam (Darnold) and Deontay (Burnett), I don’t think I’ll ever forget in my life, the best 2m in drive I’ve ever been associated with. Having to go that far in that little of time, you hope for perfect execution and that’s what you got. The guys were poised, guys that had practice that situation a million times, they knew exactly what to do. So proud of them that when the lights were the brightest they executed. Again, the young man there doesn’t play like a freshman. He was asked to do a job not once but twice. Once to send us overtime and then the second time to end the game. What an unbelievable job by Chase (McGrath).”
On how a game like this gets you ready for the road: “Having done it for a long time, I always feel like you’re going to have one of these games when you’re trying to win a championship, where you have to dig down deep and find a way to win. Credit this team, whether it was coming up with a big play before the half, a two-minute situation, that doesn’t happen all the time to be able to go that far with no timeouts, and then defensively to find a way to get the ball out and put us in a situation to kick a field goal. That’s what great teams do, they’re going to have one of these games and they find a way to win. I’m proud of our kids and proud of our coaches for staying poised and keeping fighting.”
On missed opportunities early: “It started for me over the summer. This was one of the most fearful games on the schedule because I knew the personnel and Coach Herman. He is fearless, whether it’s a fake punt or a trick play, he’s an attacking and aggressive type of coach. I thought we were poor in the red zone tonight. I always trust our kids in the red zone, and we just didn’t convert. If there was one glaring negative in this it was our red zone efficiency.”
On Helton’s aggressiveness as a coach: “I told myself, going into the game, and I guessed wrong. Looking at a Texas team that scores 48 points per game and we’re sitting at 45 points a game. I thought it would be a high-scoring affair and I didn’t think field goals would be good enough.”
On when he realized it was going to be one of “those games”: “I started feeling it in the second quarter when we missed a couple red zone chances and it was a tight ball game. I had a gut feeling going in that it would be a 60 min fight. That team is going to be a very, very good team by the end of the season. That staff is too good. Credit to our kids to keep fighting.”
On if this game stands on its own after the 2006 meeting: “We knew it was important to our fan base, but it was 12 years ago. To a lot of these kids they were just 6 years old. It was more important for us, for our season. You talked about starting fast in the month of September, and now we look up — 1-0 this week we’re 3-0 and we put ourselves a lot better off than where we started last season. Now the challenge is getting ready to go on the road. I’m proud of where we are right now. There’s going to be days like this. You have to fight to win games.”
On what to improve on for next week: “It’s such a team game and you show up and offensively we’re struggling and defense was lights out for three and a half quarters, it was phenomenal football by them. Both teams really stopped the run. They came to stop the run. Credit to Sam (Ehlinger), the amount of times he created and kept plays alive, a great competitor for Texas. And credit to our Sam who found way to win a ballgame that wasn’t always pretty.”
USC SPORTS INFORMATION OFFICE • HERITAGE HALL• LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90089-0601 TELEPHONE: (213) 740-8480 • FAX: (213) 740-7584 • WEB: USCTROJANS.COM
On how exhausting this game was: “I thought this was going to be as mentally tough a game as it was physical coming off a physical Stanford win and an emotional game like this. Credit to our kids, they were mentally tough, they fought their way through and found a way to win a really important ball game for our season.”
SAM DARNOLD, QB On how big this win is: “It’s a win. I don’t know where it ranks. It’s good to get a great win against such a great Texas team. We gave it all we had and they gave it all they had. It was a great win for our guys. We learned a lot of things about our offense — good things we got to figure out and learn from them.”
On the mindset going into the last drive: “Just trying to get first down after first down, that was my mindset. I knew they’d play conservative as a defense, so I knew I’d be able to find the holes and have some time doing it and if they did bring pressure then they’d be that much more open. Credit to our O-line in that situation for playing great ball. It’s just such a great win for our team and for our offense it showed a lot.”
On his growth and confidence under pressure: “Just being comfortable in those situations because we practice it so much. That’s where it stems from. Every situation you could possibly think of, we’ve practiced that. It’s awesome when you practice it so much and then you go out and execute it. It’s a good feeling.”
CHASE McGRATH, PK On which kick gave him the most nerves: “Really they didn’t kick in that much on either of them. They were both the same kick to me. I treat every kick the same.”
On the reaction to his winning kick: “I just remember just getting swarmed by everyone on the team. It’s such a brotherhood here. I came here a couple months ago and already feel like a part of the team tonight and they feel like brothers to me.”
UCHENNA NWOSU, OLB On what he saw from the Texas quarterback tonight: “He’s a great QB, he’s a great player, very athletic. The calm that he had, able to play under pressure and get his team going and not affected by things. It’s like what you see in Sam, being able to make a play and look to the sideline, get the next play and continue on, not paying attention to the crowd. He’s a very good athlete and total respect to him.”
On what he said to the defense when the offense was struggling: “We just communicated that we’re all in brotherhood, we’re all in this together. Anything the offense does we feed off of. We knew we couldn’t let them down. We practiced hard all week. We just had to play for each other.”
Texas Quotes Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Sept. 16, 2017
Texas Coach Tom Herman “Pretty heartbreaking loss to play with that much passion, energy and commitment and love for the guy next to you. It’s amazing how many mistakes you can overcome with attitude and with effort. We made our fair share. We turned it over 4 times and had issues with the snap and a couple costly calls. There were big time momentum swings but our guys kept fighting. There are no moral victories in college football. They don’t put a loss in parentheses (yea they played really hard). It doesn’t happen. You lost. But if we can’t hold our head high and learn from all of the good that came from this game, to go into the No. 4 team in country and be up by 3 with 30 seconds left, after everything that happened poorly, to be in a position to win, I think that says a lot about how far we’ve grown up as a team in the last two weeks. We wanted to win. There were a lot of tears and sorrow and dejection in the locker but after we lick our wounds and realize how close we came, we’ll be able to build upon this immensely. If we play every team in the Big 12 as hard and physical as we played this team to night, home or road, we’ll have a shot to win some games.”
What he learns from this game about the team “How we’re training them, works. We lost, so we’ve got a lot of mistakes to clean up. But I said after the San Jose State game, we won that game because we played so stinking hard and physical, but if we don’t clean up mistakes we’d get run out of stadium We still made our fair share, but it’s amazing the power of playing hard and never giving up and the power of resiliency, it’s something our guys learned a huge lesson on tonight and hopefully be a turning point in our season.
Was there thought to going for two after first Overtime TD “Yea there was, but we were playing good defense and had moved the ball offensively. Hindsight is 20-20. Had you told me if you go into double OT, hey you’ll fumble … But we had a 9-yard run with Sam and called same play and their guys made a great play on the ball.”
On Texas’ defense “They kept us in the game. We couldn’t do anything in first half. Nothing. We were 1-7 on third down, two turnovers, time of possession was awful. There wasn’t any finger pointing. I think the defense was exciting to go back out because they were having fun out there. To keep us in the game the way they did was a real testament.”
On how Sam Ehlinger bounced back in second half. “Maturity. It was obvious he was struggling in first half but to take the opening drive down in second half and kick a field goal settled him down a bunch.”
On losing LT Connor Williams to injury “You saw. We can’t survive on 1 and 2 yard runs and expect to convert a bunch of 3rd and 6 and 7s. We felt like we had a good plan or we wouldn’t have installed it. They did a good job defending us.”
On pressuring Sam Darnold “That was the plan (to blitz Darnold). If we were going to go down, we were going to go down swinging. He threw four picks in two games and felt we could get our hands on some passes and did and they were huge momentum swings.”
“We practiced all week with crowd noise. It wasn’t an issue. We practiced with our punt returner’s heels at the 8 ad nauseam but we’ve got to do more. There’s an experience factor there two. We have got to do a better job of coaching him and make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Texas QB Sam Ehlinger On if he had nerves and when he settled down “Absolutely. This was my first away game. In front of a sold out crowd at the No. 4 team in the nation, it took a little time to get used to it. That’s the competitor in me. (I settled down) somewhere in the second quarter. It’s football. It’s a really good team, but it’s just football.
On losing Connor Williams to injury. “Obviously Connor is an incredible player and everyone knows that. But next man up. I think the guys that stepped in and the way we moved together up front, the guys did a great job.
On leaving it all out on the field. “I tried to. My teammates deserved it. They’ve been through a lot. I tried to give it all I had.”
On receiver Collin Johnson “I think our receivers did a great job of getting open. They have a very talented secondary. Our receivers did a great job. Collin Johnson is a hall of famer. Everyone knows that and he’ll be a first round draft pick, no doubt in my mind. It’s great to know he’s there. And there’s one of the best corners in the nation over there and he’s still beating him.’
Texas Rover Malik Jefferson On Coach Herman saying how well the defense was playing and how much fun they were having. “It was fun. Any time you get a chance to get on the field it’s fun. That’s the mentality. To be out there with your brothers and giving the ball back for your offense and generate some momentum. That’s what we’re about. We love being on the field. We’re ready to go.”
On USC’s big plays at the ends of both halves “The big plays killed us. We shot ourselves in the foot. We need to go look at the film and see what happened.”
“We are finally understanding that we need to play every game like a championships game. Not that we thought this was a championship game, but we needed to find that out and go out and find our identity. We preached that last week and we proved to ourselves how to work hard for each other.” USC vs. Texas Game Notes Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Sept. 16, 2017
• With the 27-24 double-overtime win, USC improves to 3-0 and Texas falls to 1-2. • USC won its 12th consecutive game, its longest since also winning 12 straight games in 2008-09. USC has also won 12 consecutive home games, its longest home winning streak since 2007-09. • USC’s win was its fifth in six meetings against Texas. USC’s loss to Texas in the 2006 BCS title game was later vacated (as were 14 wins) due to NCAA penalties, by direction of NCAA policy. • USC improved to 4-6 all-time in overtime games, snapping a three-game losing streak in overtime games. USC’s last overtime game was a 56-48 triple-overtime loss to Stanford on Oct. 29, 2011. USC’s last win in overtime was a 16-13 victory vs. Oregon State on Nov. 3, 2001. USC improved to 2-5 all-time in multi-overtime games and 2-2 in two- overtime games. • Fr. PK Chase McGrath missed his first career FG attempt in the second quarter, also USC’s first FG attempt this year. McGrath then made his first career field goal, a 31- yarder with no time remaining, to force overtime and then hit a career-long 43-yarder in the second overtime to give the Trojans the victory. USC’s last game-winning, last- minute field goal was kicked by Matt Boermeester vs. Penn State in the 52-49 win at the 2017 Rose Bowl. Since the 2001 season USC has had just three last-minute, game- winning field goals (the other Andre Heidari vs. Stanford in 2013) and a total of 15 since the 1931 season. • Rs-So. QB Sam Darnold finished 28-for-49 for 397 yards. It marked the 13th straight game he’s thrown for at least 200 yards and the sixth time for over 300 yards, third in last four games. His 397 passing yards are the second-most for a single game in his career behind the 453 in the 2017 Rose Bowl. • With his 28 completions tonight, Darnold moves into 11th place on USC’s all-time completion list with 318 in his career. He passed Jimmy Jones (298), Paul McDonald (299) and Mark Sanchez (313) on the all-time list tonight. Sean Salisbury is 10th on the list with 346 career completions as a Trojan. • Darnold has 11 career games of two or more touchdown passes and seven games of three or more TD passes in his career. • Jr. WR Deontay Burnett had a 15-yard TD reception in the second quarter and a 25-yard TD catch in the first overtime to give him four TD catches this season and 11 in his career. • Burnett finished with 8 receptions for 123 yards with the two touchdown catches. He has had at least 100 yards receiving in all three games this season and four consecutive games, dating back to the 2017 Rose Bowl. They are his only 100+ receiving yard games in his career. • Jr. TB Ronald Jones’ 56-yard TD catch to close the second quarter was his first scoring- reception this season and the third of his career (and a career long). Senior WR Steven Mitchell Jr. had the final block to spring him for the score. • Jones has now scored at least one TD in 10 straight games (he had nine straight games with at least one rushing score entering today). • USC held Texas to 68 yards, the fewest by a Trojan opponent since holding UCLA to 55 rushing yards on Nov. 19, 2016. Texas entered tonight’s game averaging 252 yards per game on the ground this season. • RS Fr. WR Tyler Vaughns posted career highs with 4 receptions for 25 yards. • The first quarter marked just the second quarter USC didn’t score this year, first for Texas. • USC recorded three straight sacks on Texas’ final possession of first half. Junior OLB Porter Gustin’s back-to-back 2nd quarter sacks were his second and third this year (14 for his career) and sophomore DL Christian Rector followed with the first of sack of his career. Junior DE Rasheem Green also had a first half sack (7.5 for career), first of the season • Sr. OLB Uchenna Nwosu entered the game with six pass breakups and had another in third quarter. • Jr. S Marvell Tell III’s fourth-quarter interception was his team-best second this season, third of his career. • RS-Jr. CB Ajene Harris’ recovered fumble in the 2nd overtime was the second of his career and the first by a Trojan this season. • So. CB Jack Jones’ 1st-quarter interception was the first of his career. • USC finished with 468 total yards of offense, its 13th-straight game with at least 400 total yards.
TEXAS LONGHORNS 2017 FOOTBALL POSTGAME NOTES #4/4 USC TROJANS 24 84,714 (2OT) TEXAS 3-0 27 LONGHORNS 1-2 TEAM NOTES INDIVIDUAL NOTES • Saturday night’s game was Texas’ fourth all-time overtime game • DeShon Elliott’s second quarter interception returned for a and just their second double-overtime game. The Longhorns are touchdown was his first career touchdown. It was Elliott’s first now 2-2 in OT games and 1-1 in double-OT games. interception of the season (fourth career).
• DeShon Elliott’s second-quarter interception marked Texas’ third • Elliott’s fourth quarter interception was his second of the game. He interception return for a touchdown on the season. It was their fifth is the first Longhorn this season with two interceptions in a game. non-offensive touchdown of the season and the three pick-sixes are tied for fourth-most all-time in a season (also three in 1950, 1978, • Collin Johnson finished with seven catches for 191 yards. The 2002, 2003 and 2007). 191 yards were the fourth-most in school history. It was his second 100-yard game of both this season and his career. • Texas now has five non-offensive touchdowns through three games. Holton Hill pick-six (2), DeShon Elliott pick-six, Reggie • Sam Ehlinger passed for 298 yards and two touchdowns. The 298 Hemphill-Mapps punt return, Hill field goal block return. yards were the second-most by a true freshman ever behind Shane Buechele’s 318 vs. West Virginia last season. • Texas falls to 1-2 on the season with the loss and has an all-time record against ranked opponents of 125-147-8 (.461) and 33-46 • Armanti Foreman scored his 10th career touchdown Saturday (.418) on the road. night. He now has one in each of the Longhorns’ three games this season. • The Longhorns’ defense held USC to 71 rushing yards on the night, their second straight game allowing less than 100 yards on • Anthony Wheeler led the team with 12 tackles and had 3.5 tackles the ground. It is the first time since the 2014 season that a Longhorn for loss in the game to set a new career high. His 1.5 sacks were team has held an opponent below the century mark in rushing at also a career high. least twice in a season. • Malik Jefferson had 11 tackles, including two tackles for loss.
• Cade Brewer’s first-overtime touchdown reception was not only his first career touchdown, but also his first career catch.
• Naashon Hughes started Saturday night which marked his 40th consecutive game played.