USC Football: Perfecting Sark's Hurry-Up Offense Proving to Be Worth Wait

Facing an injury-plagued and struggling Notre Dame defense, USC head coach Steve Sarkisian saw an opportunity to push the pedal on an uptempo offense.

And the Trojans red-lined, running 93 plays in their 49-14 rout of the rival Fighting Irish.

"As a coach, when you emphasize something, you like to think you'll get results," Sarkisian said. "We made tempo an emphasis for us [last] week." 

The emphasis did indeed yield results. Quarterback Cody Kessler became the only player in college football history to throw six touchdowns against a Notre Dame defense in a single game, and the Trojans converted 35 first downs and totaled 577 yards of offense. 

Coming into last Saturday's contest, USC was averaging 74.4 snaps per game, eight more than the 2013 Trojans averaged.   

As the showing against Notre Dame demonstrated, USC has room to push the pace even more. Expect to see USC pick up the tempo more in Sarkisian's second season at the helm—a lot more.

One reason for that is the growing comfort members of the USC offense have operating in a hurry-up system. 

"It was obvious today how tough it was for them to get lined up with the uptempo," Kessler said Saturday. "I think it really played to our advantage today."

Kessler was particularly adept at exploiting Notre Dame's inability to get properly aligned. He spread the ball among nine different pass-catchers, finding the mismatches and seams hurry-up play-calling is designed to create.

Receivers like John "JuJu" Smith recognized just how fluidly the offense functioned and Kessler's knack for playing at a quickened pace.  

"When Cody's on fire, it's hard to stop him," he said.

And when USC moves fast at the line of scrimmage, Kessler can catch fire quickly.  

Kessler credited the Trojans' offensive depth with their ability to run a no-huddle scheme so effectively last week. 

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"We have done a really good job of rotating guys in and out," he said. "That is what is really cool about our depth, it really helps our offense."

However, depth was also one of the primary reasons USC couldn't run it more in 2014. 

In July 2013, Sarkisian was preparing to unveil a hurry-up offense at Washington. I asked him then about safety concerns Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema and Alabama head coach Nick Saban raised about uptempo football.

What Sarkisian said proved oddly prescient for his 2014 Trojans.  

"They have 85 guys on scholarship. Play them," he said.

Of course, this year's USC team didn't have 85 players this season. There were weeks when Sarkisian probably would have been happy with 50 scholarship players, but three years of scholarship reductions rendered USC limited.    

That put the brakes on the Trojans to some extent. 

"The faster we go and the more plays we run on offense, generally speaking, the more plays our defense is going to have to play," Sarkisian said on Sunday. 

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True enough, USC's opponents averaged 75.5 snaps per game in 2014. That's a jump of eight, right in line with the increase in offensive plays the Trojans saw. 

"There's always a fine line of being aggressive offensively, but also making sure our defense is in the best position to be successful," Sarkisian said. "As we continue to grow as a program, as we continue to get the depth I know we're going to have, it's going to make that decision [to run more hurry-up offense] easier." 

Reinforcements are on the way with the 2015 recruiting class, USC's first full group in three years. More players in the rotation should translate to more snaps. 

And though 93 plays per week may not be realistic, the Trojans should push the accelerator enough to average in the low 80s come next season. 

Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise cited. Statistics courtesy of CFBstats.com.