Kiel McDonald believes USC's pass blocking is 'leaps and bounds' better

USC will go into the 2023 season with an eye on making the College Football Playoffs after coming up tantalizingly short just one year ago. And the team’s pass blocking could hold the key

One area that USC could improve a bit is in pass blocking from the running back position, something the team is focused on during fall camp.

“I think we’ve made leaps and bounds, even after last year,” running backs coach Kiel McDonald said. “Travis (Dye) was really good at it. But I think we’re going to be a pretty good crew when it comes to protecting the quarterback.”

While it’s hard to quantify pass blocking for running backs all that well, there are some basic metrics that can be looked at. First and foremost among those is sacks.

USC finished ranked 78th nationally in sacks allowed a year ago, giving up 2.14 per game.

Cutting down on those and keeping Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams on his feet a little more often could be the key to getting even more offensive production out of an already very capable unit. To that end, McDonald has worked his guys through a series of pass blocking drills in fall camp.

“We do one-on-ones and team, get them a chance to identify where the blitz is coming from, how they close out, what they look like on contact,” McDonald said. “Just becoming more consistent in those types of drills when those times arrive, so they’re doing a good job.”

Lincoln Riley pleased with team’s first scrimmage

USC has already held its first scrimmage of fall camp, and coach Lincoln Riley came away pleased, especially with the defense. By his estimation the defense was ahead of the offense early on.

Given that Williams is back with the offense, that’s probably a great sign for USC overall, because you know Williams will be good.

“Good first scrimmage a couple of nights ago. I thought the guys handled it well,” Riley said. “We were able to get a lot of reps, which is really good. We had close to 90 team reps. It was pretty much an offensive and defensive base scrimmage. Worked a few of the special teams; those weren’t competitive yet. We’re not quite to that point in the install. …

“Overall, a lot of back and forth. Defense certainly had the upper hand overall in the scrimmage and there were some bright moments, but a lot of inconsistency out of the offense. I thought defensively (we) made less mistakes and made more plays.”