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USC Football Fall Notebook: Trojans Prepare For Hawaii Warriors

Aaron Fischman |
August 30, 2012 | 4:28 p.m. PDT

Senior Sports Editor

With the regular season fast approaching, the Trojans only have one practice remaining before they take on the Hawaii Warriors Saturday afternoon at the Coliseum. Thursday's practice, however, was the final practice open to the media, as Friday's walkthrough will be closed to non-team personnel. 

Below are Coach Lane Kiffin's more interesting quotes, accompanied by a video of his full media session.

Kiffin on Thursday's practice: "I thought guys were very focused. Had a really good day. Very crisp, the offense especially. No line of scrimmage issues and no alignment issues. We’ll be back at 2 o’clock tomorrow and continue to get ready for a very competitive game." 

On Silas Redd: "Silas knows our stuff really well. He obviously hasn’t played any games with us, but the good thing about him is that you know he’s played before. Normally the new guys to your program haven’t played or been in big environments. He’s done that already." 

General expecations for Saturday's opener: "I just hope we play really well, that we play really smart and physical and don’t screw up first games like a lot of teams do. This isn’t a game about tricks or anything like that. It’s about preparing really well, which I think we have, and now we need to perform."

With the bowl ban in the past, does this season feel any different so far? "It doesn’t feel any different to me at all. When you come to a place like USC, I believe that the expectations are so high regardless of how many scholarship players you have, regardless of if you have a bowl to play for. The stakes are always high. We expect to win every game regardless of the situation we’re in." 

On how he's prepared his team for the opener: "I think my number one job, especially with the hype around this season and team, is to make sure that they’re ready to play and execute, (that) they don’t get caught in anything else. This is classic: sold-out stadium, first game and everyone wants to, 40 minutes before kickoff, run around, get the crowd fired up and hit each other in warm-ups. Well, we’ve been doing this long enough to know that’s not what it’s about. We just have to educate our guys and guard against lost energy."

Reach Senior Sports Editor Aaron Fischman here or follow him on Twitter.



 

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