All quiet on the Southland front as USC officially takes the rest of the week off for its bye week. Nothing major happened in L.A. this side of the I-10 while UCLA head coach Jim Mora threw out all media and members of the UCLA sports information department. Before his presser, USC head coach Lane Kiffin quipped, “I just wanna let you know I love my SID.”

Morgan Breslin: The man, the myth, the (silent) legend

The breakout star of the 2012 USC season has yet to talk to media will likely never. Nonetheless, Breslin’s tenacity and energy has led him to a team-best 5.5 sacks, and it certainly has impressed coaches.

“Morgan played every snap in the game [against California],” Kiffin said. “The first play of the game, he makes the [tackle for loss] all by himself, and the last play of the game, he makes the sack: pretty cool story to point out to our guys.”

Since he has declined interviews, no one outside of the team has keyed in on Breslin’s personality. Kiffin shed some light on the subject.

“He does not have a personality,” Kiffin seriously stated. “All he says is, ‘Fight On.’ ”

There you have it: into the mind of one Morgan Breslin.

Found its identity?

USC showed great physicality against Cal, running for nearly 300 yards and owning both battles along the line of scrimmage. But is this the way Lane Kiffin wants or expects the Trojans to play the next (at minimum) eight games?

“I hope it is what we saw last week. That was a great identity,” Kiffin said. “I think we know if teams are going to play us in normal coverages, we know what can happen outside. But if defenses keep [limiting the passing game], we have to have this other element, which we had last week.

“I’m hoping that’s the identity to our team, not what we had seen seven days before that,” Kiffin added.”

Heidari’s importance

When discussing the keys to the Trojans’ identity, Kiffin pointed out senior center Khaled Holmes and sophomore kicker Andre Heidari. Typically, special teams players are marginalized. But not in this case.

“In general, when talking about identity of the team, people think offense and defense, but to do what we’re doing on special teams -- from a head coach’s perspective -- you just love every minute of it,” Kiffin said of coach John Baxter’s unit. “The kicker and the punter are a big part of that, finding guys that really done well within our systems. And we have an elite kicker.”

Watch the rest of Kiffin’s presser below.

 

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