The 2023 USC football spring game had its impressive moments. Caleb Williams looked great. The running backs displayed their potential. Defensive backs made some leaping interceptions of passes thrown into traffic. Pass rushers were able to get to the quarterback. There were plenty of highlights to note.
Yet, this was also a very ragged game. Receivers dropped passes. Quarterbacks fumbled. One particular play was an NFL “Football Follies” style fire drill in which the ball was bobbled multiple times before finally being recovered. Bad passes were thrown. The defense missed a number of tackles early in the game before settling down later on. This was not smooth precision football.
Cause for concern? To a degree … but remember: This is what spring games are for. It’s not supposed to be clean and neat. Players are supposed to make mistakes now so that they go into August camp knowing how much work they have to do in order to improve. Better to make mistakes now than in the Pac-12 opener against Stanford.
Lincoln Riley made this basic point in talking to 247Sports:
“I told the team after that was a very fitting end to our spring,” Riley said. “Because I would say that’s in a lot of ways what our spring has looked like in terms of competitive, down to the wire. Most days have been like that and a lot of my excitement comes just from in the past, looking back at some of the better teams that I’ve had, the chance to be a part of that, that’s what it was.
“The majority of time, every day was a battle. If any player or any position group on either side of the ball didn’t show up, the other group was going to make them pay. And it just created this great competitiveness back and forth.”
Translation: Mistakes were made, but the other side of the ball pounced and made plays when a mistake was made. Better to see mistakes get punished than not. That’s part of how players learn, and learning how to get better is definitely something a coaching staff wants to see in a spring game.
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