2018 Utah Wednesday: Notes

USC Athletics

October 17, 2018 /

Aubrey Kragen

The Trojans continued their preparation for another Pac-12 South foe in Utah.

Per USC head coach Clay Helton, the only addition to the injury report is OL Jacob Daniel, who was pulled form practice with a sore knee.

Helton said that tomorrow is a pivotal day for inside linebackers Cameron Smith and Palaie Gaoteote IV, who are both working through injuries (Smith: hamstring, Geoteote: concussion protocol). "Both are close [to being healthy]," Helton said. "Obviously, they've got ot be medically cleared and then I'll get with both of them and see how they're feeling and their confidence level."

Gaoteote credited teammates like Smith for his breakout game against Colorado last week. "I was really comfortable," he said. "It just came from the other guys like John [Houston] just feeding energy ... My teammates as a whole made it easy for me to just be out there and have fun with it. And Cam Smith was there to catch my back whenever I had mistakes and always told me what to fix."

Gaoteote is hoping to make a similar impact against a good Utah team. "I feel really well prepared for it," he said. "It's going to be a physical game of course, being in Utah. For the most part everything's going to be just playing hard-nosed football and being assignment-sound and the more physical team is going to win."

The Trojans will be without one of their most physical players in senior LB Porter Gustin, wo will miss the rest of the season after undergoing surgery to repair a fractured ankle. "It's hard to replace a Porter Gustin from the totality of what he brings, from leadership, being a captain, how he leads by example, how he grabs a young kid and makes him better, but we have players that are going to make plays," Helton said. "There's no doubt in my mind."

Helton singled out Christian Rector, Hunter Echols (pictured below) and Kana'i Mauga as the most likely candidates to step up in Gustin's absence. "Obviously, Christian has been there before and has experience at that spot," said Helton. "And I'm very proud of Hunter Echols — he's been right under the tutelage of Porter the whole way — and he's been productive off the edge in pass rush situations."

Rector emerged as a formidable pass rusher when Gustin went down last season, so he's confident the defense can step up this year in a similar way. "Replacing [Gustin] is gonna be tough to do, but it's 'next guy up' mentality and we have a good scheme and good system that Clancy's drawn up for us," Rector said. "It's our job to execute it."

USC's defense will need to step up to contain Utah's much-improved offense. "There's really two runners back there, both the quarterback and the running back," Helton said. "They've advanced their run game, over the last two weeks especially. I think [Utah RB Zack] Moss is running the ball extremely well."

After knocking Colorado off to take the top spot in the Pac-12 South, the Trojans need another win to maintain their lead. "When you look at both times we went to Santa Clara, we were undefeated in the Pac-12 South," Helton explained. "Last week I thought was a playoff, championship mentality game where whoever won was going to take a step ahead of everybody. It feels that way this week again. It'll be an electric atmosphere."

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