Justin Dedich drops what you want to hear about USC Football bye week
By Evan Desai
Justin Dedich, and seemingly everyone on USC Football's roster, is not happy with the loss against Utah on Saturday. Dedich spilled some news on how practice went on Tuesday, just three days after the crushing loss:
This is exactly what USC fans needed to hear after a loss like they had against Utah. SC needs to take that loss personally. They need to respond to that loss by taking it out on getting better and more physical on the football field. It's also a good sign that guys were chirping back and forth. It shows that their competitive spirit has certainly not taken a hit after the L.
Again, if anything, this team seems to have an even more competitive spirit. Dedich even said it was "probably more physical." It's especially important because it's essentially the stark opposite in recent years with this program. Cultural issues ran rampant within this program, and there were many questions when it came to practice in particular.
This team is going to need to be particularly physical if they want to win out the rest of the way, and winning out is the goal Caleb Williams said he wants to have. If they do win out, they're going to need physicality against UCLA's run game, and UCLA's front seven. They'll also need toughness and physicality all around against Notre Dame, which is a historically physical, hard-nosed team.
USC Football clearly understands that iron sharpens iron.
Some college football coaches believe that practice shouldn't be as physical as a game, and that players' bodies should be protected by not going as hard, but that's clearly not the case with this USC Football coaching staff. Trying to protect players from getting injured just leads to their bodies not being conditioned for the beating that football brings, and creates injuries.
With this team continuing to practice hard, even after their first loss, it goes to show that they still have big things in mind for their year. A Playoff birth is still most certainly possible if they go undefeated the rest of the way and then win the Pac-12 Championship game.
That would have no chance to happen if SC wasn't practicing this way, even in a bye week when they're coming off of a tough loss.