USC scrimmages El Camino

The Trojans held a 7 on 7 passing scrimmage with El Camino College today and the big news for the Trojans was the presence of Mike Williams. Mike only took a few snaps at the start of the drills but he spent the majority of the day working with the younger receivers, primarily Dwayne Jarrett, to help coach them on what they need to be doing in this offense.

Williams looked good, he is trimmer than we saw him at the end of last year and he was laughing and joking with his teammates as if he had never been gone. Jarrett is almost as tall as Mike but is noticeably slimmer, Dwayne is between 205-210 and the one thing that stood out to me about Dwayne is his long arms. He's got very long arms and he extended them well to catch a couple passes in the drills. It doesn't take long when watching him on the field to realize that he's going to be an impact player very soon.

The play of the tight ends was also encouraging as Alex Holmes and Dominique Byrd both had nice catches over the middle with Holmes and Nick Vanderboom catching touchdowns during the scrimmage (both from John David Booty). Holmes looks more agile and flexible right now and that could be in part because he weighs in at 257 pounds which is lower than we've seen from him in recent years.

The quarterback spot was manned by John David Booty and Rocky Hinds with Matt Leinart running the drills and working with Rocky throughout the day on various coverages and routes to watch for. It's a good sign to see so many of the veteran players working with the younger guys. Both quarterbacks had a lot of zip on the ball, Rocky has a stronger arm than anticipated, but the success today came mostly from short and medium routes with several deep routes overthrown.

The linebacker group once again was impressive with the way they move together on the field. The starters seem to know each other so well and the 2nd unit played good too. Ryan Powdrell continues to look good. Keith Rivers had a sore groin and didn't play.

Here are some highlights from the scrimmage:

* Booty hit Chris McFoy on the first play for 18 yards
* Booty hit Steve Smith on the run with a sharp throw on a post pattern
* On consecutive plays John David overthrew Bush and then Holmes
* Hinds hit Lee Webb with a short pass. Webb had undergone a root canal earlier in the day and was out practicing with his team by the afternoon.
* Hinds completed back to back passes to Jarrett, the 2nd one being a little low but Dwayne reached his arms down to make a nice catch
* Hinds missed on a pass to Byrd deep over the middle in traffic but it was thrown on a rope and definitely gave onlookers a sense of what kind of zip Rocky can put on the ball
* The biggest uproar came when Jason Leach bobbled a sure interception and the whole USC sideline erupted in mock abuse of Jason for dropping the easy pick.
* The 1st TD of the day came on a Booty short pass to Greig Carlson
* El Camino came right back to score to make it 7-7 and that seemed to ignite the Trojans as they proceeded to score four more times without allowing another score
* Vanderboom got the next drive started with a long gain where he ran untouched down the sideline. Booty then hit Holmes down the middle for a score.
* Brandon Ting got an interception on the next possession and the Trojan defense lateralled the ball down the field (much like the Cal vs Stanford play) until they eventually scored the touchdown
* Hinds threw a bullet on a slant to Will Buchanan who bobbled the ball with an El Camino defender coming up for the pick. It was a nice, on target throw from Rocky.
* El Camino went to the air and Justin Wyatt made a beautiful diving play to knock a pass away along the sideline.
* Hershel Dennis caught a screen pass out of the backfield and put a great move on a defender
* Perhaps the best throw of the day came from Hinds on a deep fade to Bush down the sideline for a score
* John Walker had a nice pass deflection
* Booty completed the scoring with a touchdown to Vanderboom

Among the USC teammates who came to offer support were Shaun Cody, Chauncey Washington, Manuel Wright, Scott Ware (came late and did not participate), Sedrick Ellis, Frostee Rucker, Thomas Herring, Lawrence Jackson, Ryan Killeen, Drew Radovich, Mario Danelo and Will Collins.