Chemistry between Daniels and wide receivers keeps improving

Redshirt sophomore wide receiver Tyler Vaughns tallied 64 yards on seven receptions against Washington State. (Sinead Chang | Daily Trojan)

Following an impressive comeback win against Washington State, USC now focuses its attention on containing the dynamic ground game of Arizona, led by junior quarterback Khalil Tate and sophomore running back J.J. Taylor.

The team emphasized the importance of its pass-rush as well as how to keep the quarterback in the pocket, a necessity against a mobile play caller like Tate. With senior captain and offensive lineman Porter Gustin still limited with a knee injury, as well as its depleted secondary due to multiple injuries and the undisclosed absence of sophomore safety Bubba Bolden, the defense has been struggling to develop any sort of chemistry, as indicated by the 73 points they have allowed over the previous two games. For now, the offense remains the Trojans’ focal point.

Freshman quarterback JT Daniels didn’t seem fazed by the noise from the media and critics following his best performance yet, throwing for 241 yards and three touchdowns. His throwing motion looked fluid, a relief to Trojan fans who were concerned about his right hand injury scare against Texas the prior week. The rest of the offense was moving with a rejuvenated sense of confidence as well, following its season-high five-touchdown performance as well as head coach Clay Helton’s clear vote of confidence in them when he elected to receive the ball first at the start of the game.

“We said in our last team meeting, I said ‘Guys, we’re gonna take the ball,’” Helton said. “We talked all week about starting fast. I believe in the offense, I believe this is going to be a breakout game for you. We’re gonna establish the run early, and they did.”

Helton made sure to highlight Daniels’ improvement and development, rather than isolating one game.

“I can feel it. I actually talked to [redshirt sophomore wide receiver Tyler] Vaughns when we were at practice and said, ‘Man, you can feel the chemistry start to come with JT and the wideouts,’” Helton said. “He had it with [freshman wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown], but it took a couple weeks to really kind of feel them out, but you could feel it in practice last week … It carried over to the game.”

Helton was especially proud of his team’s resilience and composure under pressure.

“We had said it was [going to] be a four quarter battle,” Helton said. “There was no part about it. We wanted to start fast and finish strong. We felt like if we could win the first and fourth quarter, that we’d win the game. I never saw any panic. They were like, alright, let’s cut this to a one score game, we did, and then the defense started to click in.”

Looking ahead to Arizona on Saturday evening, Helton made it clear that it is a must-win game against a conference rival.

“Really important game for us,” Helton said. “Not only a road game, but when you talk about Pac-12 South games, it’s so important that you make your Pac-12 South wins. The last two times we went to the Pac-12 championship, we had to run the tables in the Pac-12 South … You know you control your own destiny by getting those wins.”

Arizona is currently in first place in the Pac-12 South at 1-0, though most other teams have yet to play a conference game. The Trojans’ next four games are all against conference opponents, with Colorado, Utah and Arizona State looming in the near future. All four games are critical, should USC make a push for a repeat Pac-12 championship appearance and a New Year’s Six bowl game. If Daniels’ and the offense keeps their positive trend up, USC might be able to salvage what seemed like a lost season just last week.

JT to TV

After catching seven passes for 64 yards and a score, Vaughns spoke about his blossoming connection with Daniels and how no one was ever worried that St. Brown would be Daniels’ only go-to target.

“Like I said before, it was [going to] go slow, it’s a new quarterback, we didn’t have too many rotations in the fall camp,” Vaughns said. “As the game’s going, that’s how we get to know each other more … He only really had one connection; that was [St. Brown], we all knew that going in, so we just had to get on the same page as both of them.”

Vaughns also emphasized the importance of establishing trust through communication between him and Daniels.

“I [have to] be on the same timing as him,” Vaughns  said. “I [have to] go back to the sideline, tell him what I saw, [have to] see what he saw, and we just [have to] marry up at that point.”

Daniels concurred with Vaughns.

“There’s a lot of things we’re getting better [at] as an offense and as a whole,” Daniels said. “We’re real close to some timing things. We’ll be connecting on a lot more soon, but I think we’re going in a positive direction.”

Injury Update

Redshirt freshman defensive lineman Jay Tufele sat out practice with a sickness. He is expected to return tomorrow.

Gustin was limited as a precautionary measure due to his knee injury.

Sophomore offensive guard Andrew Vorhees was limited with a sternum contusion.

St. Brown was limited with an AC shoulder sprain.

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