USC SPORTS INFORMATION OFFICE | HERITAGE HALL | LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90089-0601 PHONE: 213-740-8480 | FAX: 213-740-7584 | WEB: USCTROJANS.COM POSTGAME QUOTES | USC USC vs. Stanford United Airlines Field at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum | Los Angeles, Calif. Saturday, September 7, 2019 HEAD COACH CLAY HELTON Opening Statement “A really nice win by our football team. Really proud of them. We have this saying ‘So what? Now what?’ and at the beginning of that game we had to say ‘So what?’ and not blink and not flinch and just keep fighting and know that the plays would come if we executed. And it started with this guy, (Kedon Slovis). In the first half we needed a spark and No. 8 (Amon-Ra St. Brown) did that for us. Really proud of a young quarterback and his first opportunity to be out there, to play and do exactly what we said — to play with poise and don’t try to force things, use your athleticism and let your playmakers make plays. Defensively, we were bend-but-don’t-break. I though third downs were the key. I think they were 0-for in third downs in the first half and did a nice job in the second half to allow us to separate from a good Stanford team. First conference game, feels good to get under our belts. Thank you to the fans, I thought they were incredible tonight with great energy.”
On his confidence in Kedon Slovis: “We knew his talent and we understood the type of players our quarterbacks are. Graham (Harrell) is kind of loose and lets the kids have fun and play fast and play aggressive. Even though he’s young, we named him the No. 2 for a reason. Let’s go cut him loose. That’s not hard for Graham because he’s always ready to cut it loose. It was fun for me to watch.”
On the offensive line’s protection: “Coming into the season I thought they were our best-kept secret, our most improved position and part of our offense. We’ve been waiting for those kids to grow up for three years. We signed them all together — Austin Jackson, Elijah Ve- ra-Tucker, Brett Neilon, Andrew Vorhees, Jalen McKenzie and I’ll throw in Drew Richmond as a senior transfer — they’re just playing really mature right now. We saw a bunch of pressures and they kept the quarterback upright. The quarterback did a nice job of using his legs and creating for us. They’re playing great ball right now. We’ll go as far as they take us.”
On getting Slovis ready: “We had a great quarterback competition, and like Kedon said, we don’t underestimate the value of spring and fall compe- tition. The value of getting 30 reps last week in the game. Kedon said it best, it’s unbelievable when you have Amon-Ra (St. Brown) and Tyler Vaughns and Michael Pittman and those guys around making plays. It all came together tonight, and credit the quarterback for the amount of work he put in and all the wideouts for going in there with us saying he doesn’t have to be superman, you do. If you touch it you catch it, and the guy was superman tonight.”
KEDON SLOVIS, QB On his timing and connections with St. Brown: “I still got a lot of reps in the spring. And just credit coach Graham (Harrell) for spreading it to all the quarterbacks. They make it so easy on us. There’s a large margin of error with those guys on the other end.”
On his feeling going into the game: “Prettty good. It was nice to get the last half of the other game. For me it was honestly... just don’t take it away from these guys, just get it in their hands and let them do it.”
On his performance tonight: “I thought it was pretty good. But at the same time, how good is it with these guys? It doesn’t show how well I did but how good a team we have.”
AMON-RA ST. BROWN, WR On what Slovis proved today: “We all knew Kedon was a great quarterback and then saw him in the spring and he looked great. He wasn’t a highly touted recruit coming out of high school so we didn’t konw much about him. But after the first day we saw he could sling the ball. Going into the spring and fall it was QB competition and we didn’t really have a starter named, and repped all the quarter- backs. We didn’t care who was out there, the receivers just were catching balls.”
USC SPORTS INFORMATION OFFICE • HER 103 • LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90089-0601 TELEPHONE: (213) 740-8480 • FAX: (213) 740-7584 • WEB: USCTROJANS.COM
USC POSTGAME NOTES USC vs. No. 23/No. 23 Stanford United Airlines Field at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum – Saturday, Sept. 7, 2019
Team 1Q 2Q 3QQ 4Q Final Stanford 7 13 0 0 20 USC 3 21 7 14 45
With the 45‐20 win tonight, USC improved to 2‐0 (1‐0) and Stanford fell to 1‐1 (0‐1). USC improved to 21‐6 in its last 27 games against a Pac‐12 opponent. Tonight’s game against Stanford marked the sixth consecutive season that the Trojans and the Cardinal opened up Pac‐ 12 play against each other and the seventh time in eight seasons. USC also played the first conference game of the season for the ninth consecutive year (Cal and Washington also was scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. start tonight, but they were delayed). Stanford scored on its first four drives of the game (2 TDs & 2 FGs) before being forced to punt late in the second quarter. They did not score again. After trailing 17-3 early in the second quarter, USC outscored Stanford 42-3 the rest of the game. USC’s 45 points tonighth were its most against Stanford since scoring 48 in a 56--48 triple-overtime loss on October 29, 2011. The last time USC scored 45 or more points in any game was when it scoored 49 vs. Arizona on Nov. 4, 2017 (W, 49-35). The 45 points scored by USC are the most points surrendered by Stanford since also allowing 45 to Oregon on Nov. 1, 2014 (L, 16-45). Eight of Stanford’s last 15 opponents were held to 17 points or less. Fr. QB Kedon Slovis became just the fifth USC true freshman to start a game at quarterback, joining JT Daniels (11 starts in 2018), Matt Barkley (12 starts in 2009), Carson Palmer (5 starts in 1998) and Rob Johnson (1 start in 1991). Here are each QB’s stats from their first start: Comp‐att Pass Yds Pass TD INT 2019 Kedon Slovis 28‐33 377 3 0 2018 JT Daniels 21‐35 282 1 0 2009 Matt Barkley 15‐19 233 1 0 1998 Carson Palmer 18‐31 279 1 0 1991 Rob Johnson 10‐20 114 1 2
Slovis connected with So. WR Amon‐Ra St. Brown on a 39‐yard TD pass in the second quarter for his first career TD strike. He connected on 2 TDs to St. Brown and one to Rs‐Jr. WR Tyler Vaughns. Slovis finished with 28 completions, 3 TDs, an 84.8 completion percentage and 377 passing yards…all records by a USC true freshman making his first career start. His 377 passing yards tonight were the most by a Trojan QB since Sam Darnold had 397 yards passing vs. Texas on Sept. 16, 2017 and ranks 26th on USC’s single‐game passing leaders list. His 377 passing yards tonight are the second‐ most ever in a game by a USC true freshman QB behind Matt Barkley’s 380 passing yards at Notre Dame on Oct. 17, 2009. St. Brown also had a 7‐yard TD reception with 31 seconds remaining in the first half. The 2 TD catches by St. Brown are a career high. St. Brown finished the game with 8 catches for 97 yyards. Jr. RB Stephen Carr scored on a 25‐yard TD run in the second quarter. It was his second rushing TD this season and third TD overall (1 TD catch). Carr finished the game with 6 carries for 35 yards. Fr. WR Drake London’s first career reception went for 45 yards on USC’s first drive of the night. London finished the night with 3 receptions for 62 yards. The 6‐5 London is also on the USC men’s basketball roster for the 2019‐20 season. Rs.‐Jr. RB Vavae Malepeai had a 4‐yard TD run in the third quarter and added a 6‐yard TD run in the fourth quarter. Malepeai finished with 12 carries for 42 yards. Rs.‐So. CB Greg Johnson’s fourth‐quarter interception was the first of his career. So. S Talanoa Hufanga finished with a team‐high 10 tackles tonight. It was his third career game with double‐digits in tackles. He had a career‐best 12 tackles at Utah on Oct. 20, 2018. USC had 320 yards of total offense in the first half. USC had 249 yards of passing in the first half. Seven Stanford opponents last season had less than 249 total passing yards in their 13 games. Jr. OT Austin Jackson’s blocked FG in the third quarter was the first blocked FG by a Stanford opponent since Delvon Simmons of USC in 2014. The blocked FG was the second of Jackson’s career (at Colorado in 2017).
USC SPORTS INFORMATION OFFICE • HERITAGE HALL• LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90089-0601 TELEPHONE: (213) 740-8480 • FAX: (213) 740-7584 • WEB: USCTROJANS.COM
POSTGAME QUOTES | Stanford USC vs. Stanford LA Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, Calif. Saturday, Sept. 7, 2019 HEAD COACH David Shaw Opening Statement “Give a lot of credit to USC. We thought we had them on the ropes in the 1st half, but they made some plays and stayed in it. Give credit to Clay Helton as well. He has heard a lot of crap, but think he’s one hell of a football coach. He’s got a really good football team, they were well prepared, his staff was well prepared and I think they are going to be a tough team to beat down the road. For us, the game boiled down to missed opportunities. We had guys open for touchdowns, we settled for some field goals, we missed some field goals. And they took advantage of their opportunities. Bottom line is, we got in the red zone five times and scored two touchdowns, you can’t beat a good football team that way.”
On inability to get pressure: “It didn’t have to do with the air raid or anything, it has to do with us rushing the passer. Style offense didn’t matter because the ball wasn’t coming out that quick. He was still able to go back and go through his reads. We’ve just got to beat guys one-on-one. We got to him a couple times, but not enough.”
On QB Davis Mills: “I thought he played well. It’s just about not missing those opportunities. But I think he’s going to be outstanding. He’s got a great mind for the game. He’s athletic, has a great arm, he’s accurate. A couple of the deep balls he through were a little flat, he has to get some more air under those. But like I said, he’s going to be really, really good.”
On rebounding from this loss: “It’s still early in the season. We’ve done some things really well that we can build on, and we’ve made some mistakes. We’re also a little banged up right now. We’ll go look at some film, work on the things we need to work on and be ready to go.”
Davis Mills, QB On not getting the third touchdown: “In the moment no we just kind of capitalized on those opportunities when we got down on their field and get positive ball position. We got to score in the red-zone.”
On starting the game: “It felt great to get back out there. It has been a long time. I struggled with a couple injuries my first year out here but getting back on the field always feels great…unfortunate result.”
On the high scoring game: “They played great. I thought we did pretty well at some things. Definitely some things we can improve on going into the next couple of weeks. It’s a long season we have a lot to work on.”
On if USC surprised them at all: “We prepared very well this week weren’t surprised by anything. We thought we were going to come in and they were going to throw stuff at us but I mean we picked it up pretty well and played a good game overall; it could have been better though.”
On having K.J. Costello on the sideline: “He was involved. He was in my ear pretty much between every possession. Just seeing what he saw and I could bounce some stuff off him because he has all the experience. He was great, in my ear helping me out throughout the game.”
Casey Toohill, LB On the most frustrating part of the game:
USC SPORTS INFORMATION OFFICE • HERITAGE HALL• LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90089-0601 TELEPHONE: (213) 740-8480 • FAX: (213) 740-7584 • WEB: USCTROJANS.COM
“Honestly, we didn’t come out there and execute. That hurts to say. You never ever want to look back and just realized it was completely on you own execution, that it was completely in your control, but it was. We just didn’t have a good game, didn’t execute.”
On the attitude of the team going forward: “We got a lot of games left, it’s only the second game of the year. A lot of football to be played after this we got to look hard at the film, look at our performance and improve from there. Next week is a new opportunity, a new week, and that’s what we look forward to.”
On not having film on USC QB Kedon Slovis: “we had enough film on the offense, he played great props to him. I don’t think that was our issue. I really do feel like we prepared well. We did not come out and do what we were supposed to do. At the end of the day that’s all that matters.”
Connor Wedington, WR On not getting the touchdown after recovering fumble on kickoff: “At the end of the day, we had the lead, we just need to play like it’s 0-0 and not get complacent.”
On QB Davis Mills: “Davis played well. We missed some shots down the field, but I know Davis, he’s going to get in the film room, work on some of the things that went wrong today and come back stronger.”
On his touchdown: “It was a quick screen behind a great block by Foster (Sarrell) on the edge. It was a great toss by Davis too and I had great blockers out there.”
On how this loss will test the team’s maturity: “It’s definitely going to test us. It’s our first loss of the season, not something we expected. We just have to drive it back, watch the film and keep going.”