The Oregon defense lines up for practice this week to prepare for the USC Trojans and their quarterback – who is still yet to be announced.
But Oregon players and coaches say that it doesn’t matter who is under center for the Trojans, they will prepare for the team, not the quarterback.
“I don’t think they do dramatically different things based on the quarterback,” said Oregon coach Mike Bellotti. “The quarterback themselves are a little bit different in that (John David) Booty is more of a classic pocket passer…(Mark) Sanchez is a little bit more creative when things break down. But they’re running a similar attack that they’ve run.”
“Whatever quarterback plays, plays, you know. We’re just going to work on them, either one,” said junior defensive tackle Cole Linehan. “They kind of have the same kind of style, they like to throw the ball deep.”
For his part, USC coach Pete Carroll wasn’t saying anything for certain, but said that sophomore quarterback Mark Sanchez will take most of the snaps in practice this week while the health of senior quarterback John David Booty will be evaluated on a day-to-day basis.
“Mark will take all the starting reps again. We’ll prepare him to play the football game until we know more, and we’ll see how that all turns out,” said Carroll.
No matter who plays at quarterback, USC is certainly loaded with talent at the other offensive skill positions.
“This is a classic team that is running and throwing the ball with good balance,” said Bellotti. “Some games they have run the ball extremely well and some games they have thrown the ball extremely well but they are capable of doing both.”
The Trojans use a rotation of three running backs to give defenses different looks and keep them all fresh. Their starting receivers are all fast as well as physical, and they have a true big-play threat at the tight end position.
“They’re all very very good. They were all high school All-Americans,” said Bellotti. “They have some choices.”
Of those choices, Bellotti said he considers senior tight end Fred Davis the most dangerous.
“The most impressive guy in their offense right now is their tight end. He’s one of the best tight ends in the nation,” he said. “He’s one of the most dangerous because he can run like a wide receiver and they find ways to get him the football both underneath and over the top.”
In USC’s one loss of the season, to Stanford, Bellotti said that turnovers were the only thing that hurt the Trojans in an otherwise solid performance. He said the Trojans’ success over the last five years has been based on taking care of the football.
“They don’t usually beat themselves, and turnover-takeaway is the biggest correlation of winning or losing in college football,” said Bellotti. “It’s certainly a reason we’ve been winning games this year and in the games we lost last year it was a huge factor.”