Tag: Gino Quinones

Gino Quinones injury puts pressure on USC OL coach Josh Henson

When Courtland Ford and Andrew Vorhees got hurt in 2022, Henson reacted well. He’ll face that same challenge now.

The USC Trojans didn’t have a whole lot of offensive line depth in 2022. When Andrew Vorhees got hurt, the margin for error became a lot smaller for this position group.

Offensive line coach Josh Henson had to mix and match players and reshuffle them to get the best possible results. Against Utah — a really good team — USC didn’t have enough answers on the offensive line in the Pac-12 Championship Game. The Trojans were able to manage, however, in games against Arizona, Cal, Colorado, and UCLA, with Vorhees playing through pain against Notre Dame and helping USC thrive against the Irish.

Henson moved Bobby Haskins — probably the unsung hero of the 2022 offensive line — from one position to another. Mason Murphy got some playing time when Vorhees was hurt. The offensive line held together in the Pac-12 regular season.

Now Henson has more reshuffling to do with the injury to Gino Quinones. The loss of the backup left guard means the Trojans — who have been rotating bodies up front in an attempt to get player evaluations while also keeping guys fresh — have to re-order their rotations.

This game against Stanford will obviously involve new backup options at left guard, but it also invites the possibility for a re-think of the backup roles for the healthy linemen in the unit. The Trojans still don’t want to overextend their starters in a game they should be able to win comfortably, but now Henson faces a fresh set of (unwelcome) choices. Let’s see how he and Lincoln Riley put the pieces together on Saturday night.

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USC left guard Gino Quinones (leg) out for the rest of the 2023 season

#USC lost a measure of its offensive line depth. The Trojans can’t afford too many OL injuries before Notre Dame on Oct. 14.

This is not the news anyone at USC wanted to hear. The leg injury suffered by USC backup left guard Gino Quinones in Saturday’s win over Nevada is severe. At least, it is severe enough to end Quinones’s 2023 football season.

USC entered this season with more offensive line depth than it did last year. However, injuries will reduce depth, and that’s where USC stands just two weeks into its season. The margins just got a little smaller on the offensive line, where the Trojans will soon walk on a tightrope.

A short-term injury to Quinones wouldn’t have merited alarm, but losing Quinones for the season instantly changes the balance of resources up front.

USC plays nine straight weeks (Week 4 on September 23 at Arizona State through Week 12 on November 18 versus UCLA). The Trojans won’t have a week off during that two-month span. If they pick up multiple offensive line injuries, there won’t be a chance for guys to get healthy. Notre Dame is up on October 14. If the Trojans suffer another major offensive line injury before then, they will not be able to rotate nearly as many offensive linemen, which invites the real possibility that the starters could get overextended and might lose some stamina in November.

This is a very important plot point to monitor in the coming weeks.

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Gino Quinones (leg) leaves USC game vs Nevada, is helped off the field

#USC has more offensive line depth than last year, but still: a Game 2 injury reduces the Trojans’ backup options.

The USC Trojans have more offensive line depth than last year, but absorbing injuries in the second game of the season will still create some anxiety for the team and its fans. Backup left guard Gino Quinones, inserted into Saturday’s game against Nevada in the first quarter as part of a planned series of multiple rotations by the coaching staff, suffered an apparent right leg injury in the first quarter. He was favoring that right leg when being helped off the field.

A key point to remember this year for USC is that the Trojans are playing games in nine straight weeks, from Week 4 (September 23 at Arizona State) through Week 12 (November 18 versus UCLA). USC will need as many available bodies as possible. Losing depth, even a little bit, could matter.

We will see how severe this injury turns out to be. We will provide updates on this story as events warrant during — and after — the Nevada game.

UPDATE:

SECOND UPDATE:

Check out our Pac-12 football predictions roundtable for the 2023 season.

Gino Quinones will start at left guard for USC in Cotton Bowl vs Tulane

USC’s reshuffle on the O-line — with Andrew Vorhees and Brett Neilon not playing — means untested linemen will have to shoulder the workload in the #CottonBowl.

No Andrew Vorhees. No Brett Neilon. USC will need its depth pieces on the offensive line to handle a lot of snaps — and handle them well — in the 2023 Cotton Bowl against Tulane.

Enter Gino Quinones.

The Cotton Bowl game is one week away. Quinones has been practicing at left guard. He will be asked to hold down the fort on a reshuffled line with Justin Dedich sliding over to center, Jonah Monheim at right guard, Mason Murphy at right tackle, and Bobby Haskins at left tackle.

You might recall that Quinones started at right guard in Week 5 of the season against Arizona State (October 1) when Dedich — who wore a brace in Week 4 against Oregon State and was laboring in that game — sat out in order to get healthy for the big Utah game on Oct. 15. Quinones turned in a respectable performance, but let’s keep in mind that Arizona State’s defense was generally bad this season and was not playing well in early October. Tulane is better than ASU. Quinones has a lot to prove.

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