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Arizona Football vs. USC: Rich Rod and Helton Coaches Comments, Players Pumped, Game Info

By Shereen Rayan

Nov 7, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Southern California Trojans cornerback Adoree Jackson (2) is defended by Arizona Wildcats punter Josh Pollock (9) on a 40-yard kickoff return in the third quarter at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 7, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Southern California Trojans cornerback Adoree Jackson (2) is defended by Arizona Wildcats punter Josh Pollock (9) on a 40-yard kickoff return in the third quarter at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports /
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Arizona Head Coach Rodriguez pregame comments:

On keeping his team upbeat:

Sep 24, 2016; Tucson, AZ, USA; Arizona Wildcats wide receiver Shun Brown (6) catches the ball under pressure from Washington Huskies defensive back Budda Baker (32) during the fourth quarter at Arizona Stadium. Washington won 35-28 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 24, 2016; Tucson, AZ, USA; Arizona Wildcats wide receiver Shun Brown (6) catches the ball under pressure from Washington Huskies defensive back Budda Baker (32) during the fourth quarter at Arizona Stadium. Washington won 35-28 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports /

As I talked to the team today about it, every week’s an opportunity to feel good about ourselves, play well, play a talented team in our league. And there’s still a lot of things we want to accomplish. It’s not like you lose a few games and you’re not going to make the playoffs and the season’s over.

We love to compete, and nobody is going to feel sorry for themselves we’re just gonna try to get better and get a win!

On Injuries:

It’s been a challenge. The biggest challenge coaching-wise is to make sure we have a plan ready and then a backup plan ready because you can only do as much as your guys can execute. And when you are inexperienced, you gotta pare your plan down, but you can’t be so simple that it’s easy to defend. So that’s the balance that we work through every week.

On the Next Man up mentality and freshmen opportunities:

That’s the one positive about it that there are some guys now that a few weeks ago were on a scout team and probably planned on being redshirted and not playing. And all of the sudden then they get an opportunity. As I told the team, it’s going to be a long season, and more opportunities come along as well.

On this game being a single-possession game historically:

I think a lot of our players know their players and probably have known that over the past [years] and get fired up. A lot of our guys, probably 99 percent of them if not 100 percent were recruited by USC.

“That’s the thing I’ve told the team is that every game, even though we’ve lost a few in a row, every game we’ve made some improvements.” Rich Rodriguez on weekly improvements

So they play and try to prove themselves a little bit too. But I think more than anything else its been closely contested interconference, same division race and they are pretty good football players.

On Positives last week, like going from 17% to 50% on third down conversions:

We have gotten better in spots. That’s the thing I’ve told the team is that every game, even though we’ve lost a few in a row, every game we’ve  made some improvements.

Third down conversion was better because first down was better; we had a lot of third and shorts and converted and third and mediums and converted some of them.

And defensively we got a little bit of pressure. We didn’t get any turnovers; that’s a thing we gotta improve on. But our guys are being active, and they are moving around a little bit and trying to create some confusion, so that’s a positive as well.

On Khalil Tate and Adoree Jackson being former Serra HS teammate possibly being a positive:

I don’t know. Playing against Adoree, nobody probably really wants to because he is such a great, dynamic player. But they know each other, and Khalil again is a 17-year-old freshman, and he’s been pretty composed.

“I think we have a lot of guys that are Southern California guys that this is obviously a big game for them.” Coach Rich Rodriguez on players recruited from California

I’m sure he knows that there’s going to be some mistakes made and we know that as well. But you know he’s a competitive guy, and we’ll try to get him ready this week in practice.

On Khalil possibly being pumped up for the USC game:

Yeah, I think we have a lot of guys that are Southern California guys that this is obviously a big game for them.

On Key Matchups Rich Rod’s seen on tape against USC:

It’s going to start up front. They are always very good up front; the O-Line, D-Line, big physical guys and we’re not as big. So we’ve got to play with great leverage, we still need to start there.

And then they’ll challenge you on the perimeter defensively with their corners; play press coverage and get in your face and try to take away everything and we’ve got some veteran receivers but we’re going to get challenged. We have to try to win some of those matchups.

In the last game, the punter from Utah was unbelievable. I mean he was putting the ball on the one-yard line, the one-yard line, and the four-yard line and it was just great placement. There’s not much you can do about that.

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