USC football reveals 2019 Spring Camp start, Showcase date

USC football revealed the start of 2019 Spring Camp in March and the date for the Spring Showcase at the beginning of April.

The offseason can be dark at times with no actual football to break up the monotony—though USC football hasn’t lacked for news this January—but the arrival of Spring Camp is always one of the landmarks that makes the offseason a little more bearable.

In 2019, Spring Camp will begin during the first week of March and continue until the Spring Showcase on April 6, head coach Clay Helton revealed in an interview with Jordan Moore of USC Athletics.

The Spring Showcase will take the place of the annual Spring Game again this year as renovations keep USC from using the Coliseum. It will take place on campus, likely at Cromwell Field and Loker Track Stadium, where it was held last year.

The Trojans didn’t lay down exact dates for the spring action, but the team will get back onto Howard Jones Field with an eye on improving the team’s attention to detail, Helton said. He highlighted fundamentals, technique, penalties and turnovers as a focus.

More from Reign of Troy

• Markese Stepp enters transfer portal intending to leave USC football
• USC football’s Alijah Vera-Tucker declares for NFL Draft
• USC football adds Xavion Alford as transfer from Texas
• USC Podcast: RoT Radio Ep. 396 on the Football Season’s Fallout
• Talanoa Hufanga named Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, USC football with five first-teamers

“In 2016 and 2017, we did those little things well and we won a Rose Bowl and a Pac-12 title. Last season, those things cost us close games down the stretch (USC’s last four losses were by 7 points or less),” Helton said. “My total focus this spring, therefore, will be on the discipline of the game.”

If that sounds familiar to Trojan fans, it should. Helton made similar noises about emphasizing fundamentals and technique early in the 2018 season, even before it all unraveled. He will have to prove the earlier focus will come with different results once the 2019 season arrives.

Hope of that happening largely comes from the retooled staff who will be taking the practice field with USC’s players this fall.

In addition to new, but as of yet unannounced, offensive coordinator Graham Harrell, the Trojan running backs will be coached by Mike Jinks, the defensive line by Chad Kauha’aha’a, the secondary by Greg Burns and the outside linebackers by Joe DeForest. Johnny Nansen is expected to take over the inside linebackers.

Helton also officially revealed two new graduate assistants who will be familiar to fans. Safety Chris Hawkins and offensive lineman Viane Talamaivao are set to return to help coach up the team.