On this episode of the Peristyle Podcasts hosts Ryan Abraham and Coach Harvey Hyde are back together talking about USC's season opening 56-28 win against San Jose State Saturday night in the Coliseum. The Trojans came in as a heavy favorite and finished up with a 28-point margin of victory, but there was still a lot of room for improvement, especially along both lines and the overall defensive effort as a whole. Coach and Ryan don't pull any punches and share exactly what they though of the job head coach Lincoln Riley and defensive coordinator Alex Grinch did against the Spartans.
The coach starts off talking about it being an opening game and you really don’t know what to expect. As a coach, you hoped that you covered all scenarios and get the guys ready to play. 
One of the ways Riley tried to get everyone ready to play, and ready to play the rest of the season, was using mass substitutions throughout the game. We saw three different offensive line combinations in the first four drives and just about everyone on defense was rotating in and out. Coach Hyde thinks that this is great to get more film on guys and see how they perform, but it is also tough for units to get into a rhythm with the personnel changes every drive. 
Offensively the coach felt it was hard to get a feeling for the run game with the carries being spread out among several backs. He also wouldn’t like to see Caleb Williams running around with run/pass option plays where he can get hit and potentially injured. Overall the balance was good with 33 runs and 33 passes, he just felt like the timing and rhythm was off with so many different personnel packages coming in and out.
Defensively the tackling was much better and the players that were playing looked bigger, stronger, faster and more athletic than what was on the field last season. Coach Hyde isn’t as down on this defense as some fans are, and wants everyone to get it a little time. His philosophy is you can’t coach a kid that can’t play and while that was the case last year, it isn’t this season. USC has players that can play and he feels that will show as the season progresses.
They also discuss the special player that Zachariah Branch is, with his 232 all purpose yards with a receiving touchdown and a kickoff return for a touchdown. The bad part is Coach Hyde says teams won’t even be kicking to him going forward, he is just too good with the ball in his hands.
As usual the guys answer listener questions via email, text message and voicemail to finish up the show.
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Make sure you check out USCFootball.com for complete coverage of this USC Trojan football team. 

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