Los Angeles Times - 07.09.2019

D6 LATIMES.COM/SPORTS

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

MATCHUPS:

USC (1-0) vs. Stanford (1-0)

Tonight, 7:30, Coliseum. TV: ESPN. Radio: 790.

Marquee matchup

USC passing game vs.
Stanford pass defense. Any
remaining hope for USC’s
season rests on the right arm
of freshman Kedon Slovis,
who, unlike in his unexpected
debut a week ago, has had
time to prepare as the Tro-
jans’ starting quarterback.
But even a week of prepara-
tion may not be enough for a
freshman facing off with
Stanford’s secondary, which
came out strong a week ago.
Against Northwestern, Stan-
ford gave up only 117 yards
passing, while intercepting
two passes from Hunter
Johnson. Offensive coor-
dinator Graham Harrell
proclaimed this week that
plans on offense wouldn’t
change with Slovis under
center, and that includes
airing it out in the passing
game.

Getting offensive

8 USC (447 ypg, 31 ppg):
It’s hard to know how much
JT Daniels’ season-ending
injury will alter the Trojans’
offensive plans. Slovis has the
arm to sling it downfield, but
his decision making, in a
limited sample size, has been
intermittently suspect. It’s
safe to expect a conservative
start for Slovis and the of-
fense. That could mean an
increased focus on the
ground game, in which the
Trojans excelled a week ago.
The combination of Vavae
Malepeai, who rushed for 134
yards, and Stephen Carr, who
accumulated 99 all-purpose
yards, could do some damage
against a defensive front that
might not be as stout as its
reputation suggests.
8 Stanford (365 ypg, 17
ppg): With its starting
quarterback (K.J. Costello)
also sitting out, Stanford will
entrust the offense to a for-
mer five-star prospect. Davis
Mills has the recruiting pedi-
gree to suggest he can step
right in, but he’d thrown only
two passes before last Sat-
urday, when he completed
seven of 14 passes against
Northwestern. More than

likely, the Cardinal will count

on the run game to control

the ball. Cameron Scarlett

probably will carry the load,

after he had 23 carries last

Saturday. His effectiveness

should determine whether

Stanford can dictate the

game’s tempo. An injury to

star left tackle Walker Little,

who will miss the game,

makes those matters only

more difficult.

Getting defensive

8 USC (462 ypg, 23 ppg):

A bright spot in an otherwise

sloppy defensive effort,

USC’s line proved in its sea-

son debut that it could poten-

tially be among the Pac-12’s

best. Freshman Drake Jack-

son flashed his potential

early and, along with senior

end Christian Rector, could

cause trouble for a Stanford

offense relying on a freshman

at left tackle. Questions

continue to linger surround-

ing USC’s secondary, but

aside from a few youthful

mistakes, the unit was fine

enough in its debut, holding a

less-than-stellar Fresno

State passer under 50%. A

backup Stanford quarter-

back makes for ideal circum-

stances again to iron out any

issues, but sooner or later,

the secondary will face a

serious test. Whether Mills

will provide that is an open

question.

8 Stanford (210 ypg, 7

ppg):After a year of ques-

tions about its normally

vaunted defense, Stanford

put together a vintage per-

formance a week ago. Only

four of Northwestern’s 12

drives reached Stanford

territory, and with a fresh-

man quarterback upcoming,

Stanford’s defense is no

doubt salivating this week.

The Cardinal lost their top

two tacklers from a year ago,

but replacing them didn’t

seem like much of an issue in

Week 1. Neither did the sec-

ondary, which a year ago gave

up more yards through the

air than all but one Pac-12

team. Cornerback Paulson

Adebo, who had an intercep-

tion last week, could be the

conference’s best cover man.

Something special

Over the previous six

seasons, only one USC re-

turner managed to score on a

kickoff. Adoree’ Jackson

returned four of them for

touchdowns during his ten-

ure as returner, but since his

departure, the Trojans had

been in a dry spell. That

changed against Fresno

State, when Velus Jones took

a third-quarter kickoff 101

yards for a touchdown. Jones

entered the transfer portal

over the summer, only to later

pledge his fealty to the Tro-

jans again. In his postgame

news conference last week,

coach Clay Helton turned to

Jones and thanked him for

returning.

Of note

Last season, in another

Pac-12 opener between these

teams, Stanford held USC to

three points in a 17-3 win. It

was the fewest points scored

by the Trojans in a game in 21

years.

Injury report

USC offensive guard

Andrew Vorhees (foot) will be

available to play but is not

expected to start. ... Line-

backer Jordan Iosefa, who

has missed the last month

after dislocating his kneecap

in camp, will be out at least a

few more weeks recovering

from surgery. ... Freshman

wideout Kyle Ford (knee)

was cleared to practice but is

not expected to factor into

the receiver rotation.

By Ryan Kartje

USC MIGHTneed to

rely heavily on running

back Vavae Malepeai.

Kyusung GongAssociated Press

MATCHUPS:

UCLA (0-1) vs.

San Diego St. (1-0)

Saturday, 1:15 p.m., Rose Bowl. TV: Pac-12 Networks. Radio: 570.

Marquee matchup

UCLA quarterback Dori-

an Thompson-Robinson vs.

the San Diego State defense.

After enduring what might

have qualified as his worst

game as a Bruin, Thompson-

Robinson will face one of the

nation’s top defenses. His

first task is to hold onto the

ball after losing two fumbles

and having two passes inter-

cepted during his team’s

season-opening loss to Cin-

cinnati. He’ll also have to

show better touch than he

did against the Bearcats,

when most of his eight com-

pletions came on passes that

were not crisply thrown.

Getting offensive

8 UCLA (218 ypg/14 ppg):

The Bruins’ offense would

immediately become more

prolific should running back

Joshua Kelley return from

the lingering knee injury that

sidelined him in the opener.

His presence would allow the

team to significantly lessen

the load on Demetric Felton,

who generated 162 yards last

week, while presumably

opening up the passing

game for Thompson-Rob-

inson.

8 San Diego State (238

ypg/6 ppg): Aztecs fans have

already called for the firing of

offensive coordinator Jeff

Horton after the team man-

aged just two field goals out

of its new spread formation

last week against Weber

State, a Football Champi-

onship Subdivision team.

San Diego State gained just

3.0 yards per carry and its

longest completion went for

11 yards. It could help the

Aztecs that running backs

Chase Jasmin and Kaegun

Wiliams are expected to play

after sitting out the opener

with injuries.

Getting defensive

8 UCLA (417 ypg/24 ppg):

There was some early prog-

ress with the run defense,

which allowed only 3.6 yards

per carry last week, but the

defensive backs routinely

gave up big plays, particu-

larly while playing zone

coverage in crucial situa-

tions. UCLA allowed Cincin-

nati to convert 50% of its

third downs, a defensive

success rate that ranks No.

100 nationally.

8 San Diego State (154

ypg/0 ppg): The Aztecs’

defense dominated Weber

State, holding the Wildcats

to five first downs and allow-

ing them to run just one play

in San Diego State territory

— a fourth-and-one pass

that fell incomplete. Still, it

took safety Tariq Thompson

intercepting a pass with

three minutes left to assure

victory because the Aztecs’

offense was so inept.

Something special

Graduate transfer Wade

Lees had a career-best 72-

yard punt against Cincin-

nati, the longest for the

Bruins since Jeff Locke had

an 81-yarder in 2009.

Of note

San Diego State coach

Rocky Long was UCLA’s

defensive coordinator

during the 1996 and ’97 sea-

sons under coach Bob

Toledo.

Injury report

For UCLA, uncertainty

lingers about Kelley, corner-

back Darnay Holmes (an-

kle), receiver Theo Howard

(wrist) and offensive line-

men Michael Alves (back)

and Alec Anderson (leg),

who all missed the Bruins’

opener after Kelly declared

them available to play. All

five players practiced this

week, though Holmes

worked on the side with a

trainer Wednesday. The

Bruins will play without

running back Kazmeir Allen

(academic ineligibility) and

linebackers Keisean Lucier-

South (academic ineligi-

bility), Tyree Thompson

(foot surgery) and Bo

Calvert (NCAA suspension).

... San Diego State starting

running back Juwan Wash-

ington is questionable be-

cause of an ankle injury

suffered in the first half

against Weber State. Corner-

back Darren Hall’s status

is also unclear as he contin-

ues to recover from a hip

injury.

By Ben Bolch

ruled out quarterback K.J.

Costello, leaving backup

Davis Mills to take the reins

of a suddenly uncertain Car-

dinal offense. The former

five-star prospect was

mostly unremarkable in lim-

ited work a week ago, com-

pleting seven of 14 passes,

and casting doubt over

whether the Cardinal might

be able to weather the ab-

sence of Costello, who was

one of the Pac-12’s top

passers a year ago. Amid the

outside panic over potential

changes, Stanford coach

David Shaw assured this

week that all would remain

the same with Mills under

center.

“It’s not going to change

our philosophy, not going to

change our scheme,” Shaw

told reporters. “All our

quarterbacks know our of-

fense.”

In Los Angeles, Clay Hel-

ton offered his version of the

same message. All week,

he’d proclaimed his confi-

dence in Kedon Slovis, the

freshman tasked with re-

placing JT Daniels at the

helm of USC’s offense. For

Slovis, the playbook was

“wide open.” The system,

supposedly built for such a

situation, would remain the

same.

Like Shaw, Helton did his

best to downplay the signifi-

cance of the change at

quarterback.

“No matter who the

quarterback is for the other

team, no matter who the

quarterback is for us, it’s

about executing,” Helton

said. “It’s about doing the

things that we did last game

and improving on them, get-

ting that much better as a

team.”

It’s fair to wonder,

though, if either team stands

any chance of improving

without the starting

quarterbacks in tow. Mills

does have the pedigree. The

No. 1 pro-style quarterback

in the 2017 class, Mills was at

one point one of the most

coveted recruits in the na-

tion. He has sat behind Cos-

tello ever since, giving him

ample time to develop in

Stanford’s system.

Slovis just picked up Har-

rell’s offense last spring,

shortly before he attended

his senior prom. At Desert

Mountain High in Arizona,

where he learned under the

tutelage of Hall of Famer

Kurt Warner, Slovis was an

overlooked, three-star

prospect with only a handful

of big-time offers. Now, with

Daniels out for the season,

the unproven freshman has

had a week to confront the

enormity of his circum-

stances.

So far, it doesn’t seem to

have fazed him.

“It’s just the same game

I’ve been playing forever,”

Slovis said. “Nothing

changes.”

Slovis, at least, seems to

have the company line down

pat. But against a Stanford

defense that looked awfully

stout last week, he’s going to

need all the help he can get

elsewhere.

That could mean a heavy

dose of the run game, which

hummed along for 175 yards

and two touchdowns last

Saturday against Fresno

State. Since his arrival, Har-

rell has reiterated the impor-

tance of the run game to his

version of the Air Raid. Ne-

ver has that been more true

than this week. The same

could also be the case for

Stanford, though the Cardi-

nal have never strayed all

that far away from their ball-

control approach.

With Costello, the offense

was able to air it out more

than in past seasons. As long

as Stanford is without him,

it’ll have to rely more on its

run game, which uncharac-

teristically struggled a sea-

son ago, ranking 11th in the

conference in rushing of-

fense.

In a battle of backup

quarterbacks, it’s impos-

sible to know exactly what to

expect from either USC’s or

Stanford’s offense. To-

gether, Mills and Slovis have

thrown 24 total passes. The

sample size is too small to

draw much of a conclusion.

But Saturday, with their

young quarterbacks in their

first collegiate starts, both

teams will get a glimpse of

what’s to come and just how

much change their respec-

tive systems can withstand.

Slovis, Mills weren’t

supposed to be here

[USC, from D1]

FORMER FIVE-STARrecruit Davis Mills will start

for Stanford in place of the injured K.J. Costello.

Tony AvelarAssociated Press

Kelly isn’t parsing all the
reasons why his team needs
its first victory of 2019 after
going just 3-10 with the Bru-
ins.
“There’s no reason to try
to justify, ‘Well, it would be a
good reason to have a win be-
cause of this,’ ” said Kelly,
who is searching for his first
UCLA triumph before mid-
October. “It’s good to have a
win and that’s what our
whole plan is, is to win every
game we play and we don’t
put any quantification on,
‘We want to win because of
this’ or ‘This will give us this.’
... We don’t quantify what the
reason is for the win, we just
want to win.”
UCLA (0-1) has enjoyed
almost a century’s worth of
success against the Aztecs
since the first meeting be-
tween the teams in 1922, go-
ing 21-0-1, including 13-0 as the
home team. But San Diego
State (1-0) is easily the more
prosperous of the programs
in recent years. The Aztecs

have gone 29-12 since the

start of the 2016 season, win-

ning four of five games

against Pac-12 Conference

teams, compared with

UCLA’s 13-25 record over that

same stretch.

Long discarded the I for-

mation he had long favored

before this season and

moved to the spread, hoping

to capitalize on the system

that quarterback Ryan Ag-

new ran in high school. The

coach emphasized that the

Aztecs would still lean heavi-

ly on the running game,

which generated 130 of their

238 yards during a season-

opening 6-0 victory over We-

ber State, a Football Cham-

pionship Subdivision team.

Kelly said that Long’s fa-

miliarity with his old system

would give him the option to

go back to it at any point.

“You’re not sure what

you’re going to get in our

game,” Kelly said, “but usu-

ally they’re an I-formation

team with multiple tight

ends and fullbacks and going

to run the football, that’s

kind of their mind-set.”

It was hard to say what

UCLA was running against

Cincinnati, other than an of-

fense that sputtered. The

Bruins abandoned the pre-

snap sideline checks that

had helped them pile up

yardage and points toward

the end of last season, lead-

ing to little of either during a

24-14 loss in which they man-

aged just 218 yards of offense.

UCLA quarterback Dori-

an Thompson-Robinson

shouldered much of the

blame after losing two fum-

bles and having two passes

intercepted, but his team-

mates acknowledged that

the struggles were universal.

“Everybody lost,” receiver

Jaylen Erwin said. “I got a L,

Coach Kelly got a L, all the

players got a L, the whole

staff got a L, it’s not just on

one player.”

Thompson-Robinson’s

quarterback rating of 12.5

stood as the fifth-worst in the

nation after the season’s

opening week.

The quarterback one spot

above him, with a 13.1 rating?

Agnew, who completed 16 of

30 passes for 108 yards with-

out a touchdown or an inter-

ception against Weber State.

The Bruins’ best hope at

bouncing back could be a re-

turn of running back Joshua

Kelley and receiver Theo

Howard, both of whom sat

out the opener because of lin-

gering injuries. They prac-

ticed this week but had also

done so in the days before the

game against Cincinnati,

adding to the uncertainty

about their status.

Though Kelly isn’t inter-

ested in the semantics of

securing his team’s first vic-

tory, his players realize the

importance of not letting

their recent history repeat it-

self.

“We’re definitely not try-

ing to have a season like last

year, anything close to that at

all,” defensive lineman Ato-

nio Mafi said, “so getting this

one would mean a lot.”

SAN DIEGO STATE’S Ryan Agnew, right, runs a spread offense but the Aztecs still rely heavily on the run.

Hayne Palmour IVSan Diego Union-Tribune

Status of Kelley, Howard uncertain

[UCLA,from D1]