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Keyed by improved preparation, USC’s run defense has been born anew

September 5, 2024

LOS ANGELES — Eric Gentry lined up on the edge, kicking up turf in his stance, and in a blink LSU’s third-down formation appeared to him just as he had seen on tape.

The Tigers, USC and Gentry knew, went tight in short-yardage situations. Receiver backside. And knowing exactly what was coming, in an utterly crucial third-and-1 situation with fourth-quarter minutes waning, Gentry broke untouched through LSU’s right side and stuffed Tigers back John Emery Jr. for a 1-yard loss.

He came up bellowing in glee to his sideline, flexing every vein in his biceps, a 6-foot-6 dynamo finally unleashed amid a defensive overhaul.

On Wednesday, after USC’s practice, he was asked: did he think he would have a clear shot on that third down?

“I think every play, I’m gonna have a clear shot,” Gentry smiled. “Not to be arrogant, but shoot. Just intentions on making a play.”

He finished with seven tackles in just 29 snaps against LSU on Sunday night, part of a group of sudden playmakers in a 27-20 season-opening win, where the Trojans thoroughly exorcised the demons of a 2023 run defense that too often was gashed or steamrolled up the middle. The Trojans surrendered just 72 yards on the ground to the Tigers, fewer than they had allowed in all but one game (Nevada) last season, as returning players suddenly mucked up gaps in the offensive line that had sent running backs marching free in 2023.

When asked Wednesday, simply, why USC had improved against the run, Gentry smirked before a blunt reply.

“Our coaches,” he shrugged, chuckling as his words hung in the late-afternoon heat.

For two years in Trojans uniform, Gentry had alternated between flashes of slinky-armed greatness and flashes of action from the sideline, his snaps and utilization fluctuating week-to-week. New defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn’s scheme, head coach Lincoln Riley professed last week, had helped tailor roles to Gentry’s skillset – a 215-pound linebacker who defensive end Jamil Muhammad described as built like an edge rusher, linebacker and safety in one. And Gentry’s evolution, too, starts with new linebackers coach Matt Entz, a man who Gentry said earlier in the fall had “been everything I’d asked for.”

They’ve shared a saying, Gentry described Wednesday: preparation plus desperation equals separation.

“If you’re desperate about preparing yourself for the worst, you’ll do good,” Gentry said.

Hints of Entz’s saying drifted across a variety of position groups, the new staff’s fingerprints felt in varying ways Sunday across stout run containment. Gentry and Cobb, prepared by film, suddenly attacked running lanes with a renewed ferocity. The secondary, so often unable to wrap up ball carriers under an old regime, missed only two tackles against LSU, according to Pro Football Focus. And bodies on USC’s defensive line – sporting custom “Dawg Work” hoodies before the game, distributed by new defensive coach Eric Henderson and his wife – burst from the interior and edge in key late-down situations.

“We did a great job, I thought, condensing their run game,” Riley said after the win. “Squeezing them, to where there wasn’t just a bunch of huge, open gaps.”

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Two plays before Gentry’s massive third-down stop, sophomore defensive end Braylan Shelby lined up for a first-and-10 in a “four-technique,” directly opposite an offensive tackle. Veteran edge Jamil Muhammad, Shelby reflected postgame, chirped at him where the tackle would move. So Shelby, seeing his man pull for a run, burst through to swallow up LSU’s Emery for a crucial 5-yard loss.

“That’s immediately juice,” a beaming Shelby put, postgame. “Juiced it.”

Credit strength work, as Shelby professed, for USC’s run defense improvements. Credit coaching, too. Credit players, who went into the offseason, Shelby said, mainly focused on stopping the run.

And suddenly, within the span of one week in Vegas, a once-downtrodden group showed an aggressive readiness for a new, physical conference.

“That,” Riley said Sunday, “was some pretty good Big Ten football.”

Orange County Register

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Keyed by improved preparation, USC’s run defense has been born anew

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