Reminded of this article from before our bowl game:
Under the watch of coordinator Clancy Pendergast, the Trojans operate a 4-2-5 system similar to the one made famous in Ft. Worth, as his old school, 5-2 defense has evolved to meet the challenges posed by modern spread offenses. Long focused on stopping the run first, Pendergast's defense removed a stand-up end/outside linebacker in favor of a third safety to match the speed presented by three and four-receiver sets on the opposite side.
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As you can probably guess, this coverage places a great deal of trust in the Trojan cornerbacks and leaves them exposed to quick, three-step routes like outs, slants, and hitches.
But the reason Pendergast calls for 2-Robber so often is the way it inserts the free safety as an extra hitter against the run. Much like Bud Foster's Virginia Tech 4-2-5 or the Michigan State 4-3 Quarters systems, which stymied the Buckeye running game by adding a safety back into the box and gaining the numerical advantage back in their favor, the Trojans look to do the same from an extra defender in the middle of the field.
The defense is built to stop a spread to run offense like ours from 2017. USC had some success with that...but really, once we went up by 24...we played conservative Tresselball and bend-don’t-break pass defense against Darnold.
USC’s athletes are at least as good as TCU’s. We just saw this defense...and solved it. only now, we have a pass first QB which should light up the soft coverage of TCU’s DBs. Our 2017 team/scheme is even more equipped to face this defense than the 2017 version. We don’t need a running QB read option game. The passing will open up the running, IMO.
We will feast on outs/slants/hitches like we did one week one and then we’ll play action over the top.
