Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Special Teams, Missed Opportunities End Bulldogs' Upset Bid
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 6 years ago on
September 3, 2019

Share

LOS ANGELES — When J.T. Daniels left the field unable to put weight on his right leg, the quarterback’s Southern California teammates understandably fell into a funk that lasted through halftime.
Velus Jones Jr.’s magnificent kickoff return finally roused the Trojans to persevere for a gritty opening win in a season that looks uncertain.
Vavae Malepeai rushed for a career-high 134 yards and Jones returned a kickoff 101 yards for a score in a 31-23 victory over Fresno State on Saturday night.

Daniels Passes for 215 Yards in First Half

Daniels passed for 215 yards before getting hurt on a blitz 27 seconds before halftime.
Coach Clay Helton called the injury “gut-wrenching, when you see a kid that’s poured so much into the game and into this team” after the game. On Sunday, Helton said that Daniels has suffered an ACL injury and a meniscus tear and will miss the remainder of the season.
Freshman backup Kedon Slovis passed for 57 yards in his debut for the Trojans (1-0), who opened a high-pressure season for Helton with a major injury overshadowing strong performances across the rest of the Air Raid-style offense installed by new coordinator Graham Harrell.
Stephen Carr caught a TD pass and rushed for another score, while Malepeai scored a touchdown and ground out plenty of tough yards in the second half. Tyler Vaughns had 11 catches for a career-high 150 yards for the Trojans, whose point total was hurt by two red-zone turnovers by Daniels before his injury.
“It was just amazing to come out here and show everybody what this offense can do,” Carr said. “It was a sad sight to see J.T., but he came up to me on the sideline and said, ‘Hey, let’s turn it up.’ He was still pumping us up.”

Tedford: ‘We Didn’t Execute Very Well’

USC led by 18 points entering the fourth quarter, but needed a strong defensive finish to hang on. Isaiah Pola-Mao made an interception in the end zone with 1:45 to play.
Jorge Reyna passed for 256 yards and ran for 88 more for the defending Mountain West champion Bulldogs (0-1), who had won 21 of their last 25 games under coach Jeff Tedford. The Bulldogs trimmed USC’s lead to 17-13 right before Jones’ 101-yard return.
“(The) kickoff return was a big play for sure, because we had a little bit of momentum going right there, and we let him get loose,” Tedford said. “Again, they made a big play and we didn’t execute very well.”
Fresno State trimmed its deficit to 31-23 on Chris Coleman’s 8-yard TD catch with 6:39 to play. USC then turned the ball over on downs at midfield, but Pola-Mao picked off Reyna’s throw to the end zone before Malepeai and the Trojans ran out the clock.

Reyna’s First Start

Reyna, a Los Angeles-area native, went 19 for 39 while taking over for Marcus McMaryion, one of eight Bulldogs offensive starters who must be replaced this fall. Reyna ran well, but glaringly missed a handful of key throws.
“He will definitely build off of this, his first start against a very aggressive good team,” Tedford said. “We missed some balls, but next time out he’ll know what to do with it.”
One of Reyna’s high school coaches and his coach from West Los Angeles College were in the stands.
“My journey has never been easy — family life, football life, academics,” Reyna said. “But I just wanted to show you guys that I can fight, and I’m going to keep on fighting on matter what happens.”

Early Success

Harrell’s highly anticipated offense had a fairly sharp start with Daniels, who completed 13 of his 14 passes on the first two drives. USC racked up 308 total yards in the first half, but Daniels threw a goal-line interception in the second quarter before losing a fumble while getting injured.

USC’s Unheralded Backup

With big plays on defense and special teams, the Trojans hung on in the second half behind the 18-year-old Slovis, an unheralded recruit from Scottsdale, Arizona, who unexpectedly beat out Jack Sears and Matt Fink for the backup job in camp. Slovis went 6 for 8, but threw an interception that sparked the Bulldogs’ comeback hopes.
“You never like to see your teammate go down,” Slovis said. “But that’s my role. I’ve just got to be as good as him.”

The Takeaway

Fresno St: The Bulldogs couldn’t pull an upset at the Coliseum despite 206 yards rushing and decent moments of defensive play. It’s too early to gauge the quality of this loss, but Reyna’s inconsistency in important moments raises flags.
USC: A win feels good, but Helton and Harrell have a huge amount of work to do in the next week. If Daniels is out long-term, they must decide whether Slovis is ready to take charge during the Trojans’ brutal early-season stretch of games, or whether they go back to Fink or even Sears, who entered the transfer portal after missing out on the starting job.

Up Next

Fresno State welcomes Minnesota to Bulldog Stadium next Saturday for the first visit from a Big Ten team since 2014.
USC opens Pac-12 play with a visit from Stanford next Saturday in the California private schools’ annual way-too-early meeting.
___
More AP college football: https://apnews.com/Collegefootball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Russia Removes Afghan Taliban From List of Banned Terrorist Groups

DON'T MISS

Operation Assad: The Air Mission to Smuggle the Syrian Despot’s Valuables

DON'T MISS

Mother of Woman Killed by Immigrant Speaks at White House Briefing

DON'T MISS

Lilly Weight-Loss Pill Works as Well as Ozempic, Shares Surge

DON'T MISS

Jung Hoo Lee Stars as the Surging Giants Beat Aaron Nola and the Phillies

DON'T MISS

Moscow Plans to Use Seized US-Owned Company to Feed Russian Army, Document Shows

DON'T MISS

Scientists Find Strongest Evidence yet of Life on an Alien Planet

DON'T MISS

Ohtani Hits 448-Foot Homer in 7-Run 1st Inning, Dodgers Sweep Rockies

DON'T MISS

Ursula Is Beautiful, Athletic, and Seeking Your Companionship

DON'T MISS

EU Announces $1.8 Billion Aid Package for Palestinian Authority

UP NEXT

Ohtani Hits 448-Foot Homer in 7-Run 1st Inning, Dodgers Sweep Rockies

UP NEXT

Ursula Is Beautiful, Athletic, and Seeking Your Companionship

UP NEXT

How Trump Might Unwittingly Cut Emissions From Online Shopping

UP NEXT

Merced’s Own Super Bloom Is Here. How This Grassland Reserve Protects Endangered Species

UP NEXT

AI Action Figures Flood Social Media (Accessories Included)

UP NEXT

Fresno Police Looking for Man Who Attacked Employees Over Beer

UP NEXT

Fresno Gets a Shoutout on Jeopardy! in Monday’s Episode

UP NEXT

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Jennifer Michelle King

UP NEXT

Butler, Curry Lead Warriors Past Grizzlies to Secure Seventh Seed in West Playoffs

UP NEXT

Harper and Realmuto Homer to Help Lead the Phillies to a Win Over the Giants

Lilly Weight-Loss Pill Works as Well as Ozempic, Shares Surge

19 minutes ago

Jung Hoo Lee Stars as the Surging Giants Beat Aaron Nola and the Phillies

23 minutes ago

Moscow Plans to Use Seized US-Owned Company to Feed Russian Army, Document Shows

27 minutes ago

Scientists Find Strongest Evidence yet of Life on an Alien Planet

44 minutes ago

Ohtani Hits 448-Foot Homer in 7-Run 1st Inning, Dodgers Sweep Rockies

50 minutes ago

Ursula Is Beautiful, Athletic, and Seeking Your Companionship

53 minutes ago

EU Announces $1.8 Billion Aid Package for Palestinian Authority

1 hour ago

How Trump Might Unwittingly Cut Emissions From Online Shopping

1 hour ago

Trump Slams Fed’s Powell Over Rates, Saying Termination Can’t ‘Come Fast Enough’

1 hour ago

Dollar, US Stocks Find Some Stability as Trade Talks Help the Mood

1 hour ago

Russia Removes Afghan Taliban From List of Banned Terrorist Groups

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia on Thursday suspended its ban on the Taliban, which it had designated for more than two decades as a terrori...

18 seconds ago

Members of the Taliban participate in a rally to mark the third anniversary of the fall of Kabul, in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 14, 2024. (REUTERS File)
18 seconds ago

Russia Removes Afghan Taliban From List of Banned Terrorist Groups

A satellite image, according to Reuters analysis, shows the C5-SKY jet taxiing to the runway before its flight out of Syria, at Hmeimim air base, Syria December 8, 2024. (2025 Planet Labs PBC/Handout via REUTERS)
5 minutes ago

Operation Assad: The Air Mission to Smuggle the Syrian Despot’s Valuables

Patty Morin, the mother of Rachel Morin who was murdered in 2023, speaks during a briefing for reporters at the White House in Washington, on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. The appearance by Patty Morin came as a federal judge threatened the Trump administration with a contempt-of-court investigation over its deportation flights to El Salvador. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)
11 minutes ago

Mother of Woman Killed by Immigrant Speaks at White House Briefing

The logo of Lilly is seen on a wall of the Lilly France company unit, part of the Eli Lilly and Co drugmaker group, in Fegersheim near Strasbourg, France, February 1, 2018. Picture taken February 1, 2018. (REUTERS/Vincent Kessler)
19 minutes ago

Lilly Weight-Loss Pill Works as Well as Ozempic, Shares Surge

23 minutes ago

Jung Hoo Lee Stars as the Surging Giants Beat Aaron Nola and the Phillies

Russian conscripts called up for military service line up during a ceremony before their departure for garrisons, in Bataysk in the Rostov region, Russia, April 10, 2025. (REUTERS File)
27 minutes ago

Moscow Plans to Use Seized US-Owned Company to Feed Russian Army, Document Shows

An illustration shows a hycean world – an exoplanet with a liquid water ocean beneath a hydrogen-rich atmosphere - orbiting a red dwarf star. Based on observations by the James Webb Space Telescope, the exoplanet K2-18 b might fit in this category. This illustration was obtained by Reuters on April 16, 2025. (A. Smith, N. Madhusudhan/University of Cambridge/Handout via REUTERS)
44 minutes ago

Scientists Find Strongest Evidence yet of Life on an Alien Planet

Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani watches his ball go out for a solo home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Colorado Rockies Wednesday, April 16, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP/Mark J. Terrill)
50 minutes ago

Ohtani Hits 448-Foot Homer in 7-Run 1st Inning, Dodgers Sweep Rockies

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend