After spending the day at a Manhattan Beach volleyball tournament and posing for team pictures, the Trojans participated in their first simulated game of fall camp, scrimmaging under the lights at the Coliseum. Unlike the rest of the week’s events, the Sunday night session was closed to the public, but members of the press were there to observe the proceedings. We recap their coverage in the latest installment of our daily practice roundup.

Who looked good

• Take your pick: either the Trojan defense looked good, or the offense looked bad. The Trojan pass rush, especially, interfered with the offense’s gameplan, and the defense (first-stringers, especially) gave up almost no big gains.
• Chauncey Washington provided the offensive highlight of the night with a 78-yard run (in his only carry).
• Freshman QB Aaron Corp looked solid, completing all four of his passes for 49 yards and a touchdown.
• David Buehler hit a 49-yard field goal. While the kicker has been inconsistent from short yardage this week, he continues to hit the long ones.
• Joe McKnight and Ronald Johnson each had a long kick return, although it should be noted that for as long as we can remember, there have always been long kick returns at Trojan scrimmages.

Injuries and problems

• Take your pick: either the Trojan offense looked bad, or the defense looked good. Demonstrating that even teams absolutely loaded with talent aren’t fully ready to play after only one week of practice, the offense stumbled throughout the night, and in what might be an omen of things to come, looked especially vulnerable to the aggressive pass rush put on by the defense. Of course, the Trojan offense won’t have to compete against too many defenses as talented as USC’s during actual games.
• Backup QB Mark Sanchez’s numbers on the night: 4-8, 29 yards, 1 interception, 1 fumble.
• CB Cary Harris (hamstring) did not participate.

Also of note

• The Trojan offense worked quite a bit out of the shotgun formation, still trying to work out the kinks of integrating it into the playbook.
• S Josh Pinkard played cornerback during the scrimmage, although Scott Wolf reports Pete Carroll saying that he was there only to replace the injured Harris.
• Freshman RB Broderick Green got a relatively large number of carries for the second consecutive day. While that may be indicative of his place in the tailback pecking order, it is more likely a case of the coaches giving him a long look in the early going to see where he might fit in this season, if at all.
• The Trojans next practice Monday at 3:00p, and then twice on Tuesday.

Scrimmage stats (Scott Wolf)
Scrimmage play-by-play (Scott Wolf)
Johnson does a number on special teams (LA Times)
Booty Throws 2 TDs, McKnight Has Punt Return TD In USC Football Scrimmage (Official USC site)
Offense trails ‘D’ in USC scrimmage (Press-Telegram)