Instant Analysis: USC's second scrimmage of fall camp

After USC's fourteenth day of fall camp, USCFootball.com beat writer and columnist Dan Weber and reporter Keely Eure have the news and notes from Howard Jones Field. The Trojans held their second scrimmage of the spring on Saturday. "We practiced a lot of young players today," head coach Clay Helton said in his post-practice media scrum. "[It was] kind of our last being able to take a look at [the young players] before we go into our mock game week. So we forced the issues there." After a lot of build up from Helton throughout the week, Saturday's scrimmage was lackluster. USC's quarterbacks had very few passing attempts and mostly handed the ball off to runningbacks low on the depth chart. Helton has explained to reporters that these "preseason games" weigh more heavily in determining a starting quarterback. Given that context, Saturday was a strange outing for the Trojans because there was not much to evaluate. Defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast held out most of the veteran defenders including Marvell Tell, Iman Marshall, Malik Dorton, Christian Rector, John Houston, and Ajene Harris. Cam Smith, Porter Gustin, and Ykili Ross sat out due to injuries. That left mostly the second and third-team defense against the Trojans' first and second-team offense. On the injury front, Caleb Tremble has a minor left ankle sprain but was able to play through most of practice. Levi Jones left practice early due to a hand injury, Helton announced. Chuma Edoga was pulled halfway through practice due to his nagging hip injury.