USC coach Will Muschamp is dealing with an 0-2 start after losses to 14th ranked Tennessee and 4th ranked Florida. In both games, USC got off to a quick start on offense, fell behind during the middle part of the game, and rallied late to make the fourth quarter interesting. On his conference call Sunday night, Muschamp cited several reasons why his team lost in the Swamp Saturday afternoon, not the least of which was the continuing problem of allowing explosive plays on defense.
Some key comments from Muschamp
- Too many mistakes against a good offensive team, six explosive plays, 5 in the first half.
- Didn’t play well during middle part of game, the middle 8, when Florida built it’s lead and turned the momentum.
- Secondary has got to play better, 10 explosive plays allowed in two games, seven drops by the wide receivers, did run the ball better.
- Too many mistakes overall against a good team and you can’t make those mistakes. No lingering injuries. Will not address injuries or Covid issues the rest of the year.
- Thought the right side of the offensive played better, but they can play better, will continue to look at players at those positions.
- As a whole the secondary needs to play better. Giving up too many explosive plays and they will work on that this week.
- Got to keep the ball off people, 50-50 balls they aren’t getting, having opportunities to get picks and knock down balls and didn’t get it done. “Their guys did.”
- They had 12 miss tackles, had 4 guys who couldn’t get Toney on the ground on his 57 yard touchdown, that was the glaring play.
- Joey Hunter might play more, O’Donnel Fortune would be another they might try and get ready for the secondary.
- Thought Johnny Dixon played well in the secondary and on the punt return team. Was proud of his effort and is starting to come on.
- Didn’t want to run 7 minutes off clock on final drive, but the goal of the drive was to score a touchdown, said it was just the way that drive came together, with multiple third and fourth down conversions, that slowed them down, but he was pushing for them to go faster, and they didn’t execute that well enough.
