Mock Game Offers a Chance to Fine-Tune

USC’s mock game tonight at the Coliseum offers players another opportunity to compete for playing time and prepare for the Sept. 2 opener against Arkansas.

The dress rehearsal, however, also is important for a coaching staff in transition, especially on defense.

Coach Pete Carroll shuffled his staff in the off-season after defensive line coach Jethro Franklin and secondary coach Greg Burns took jobs with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Carroll hired Nick Holt as defensive coordinator and defensive line coach and promoted David Watson from graduate assistant to full-time status and also assigned him the defensive line.

Carroll moved Rocky Seto from linebackers co-coach to the secondary and left Ken Norton Jr. in charge of linebackers. First-year graduate assistant Demetrice Martin is helping with the secondary.

Holt coached linebackers at USC from 2001-03, then left to become head coach at Idaho. He had accepted a job as an assistant with the St. Louis Rams in February before Carroll offered him the coordinator position.

“He’s making the calls, basically, and I just contribute to the situations just to use the whole game plan that we have and stay in touch with it,” Carroll said.

This is the first season that Carroll is not defensive coordinator.

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Running back Michael Coleman was absent from the walk-through Saturday because he was attending the funeral of a family member, said Carroll, who added that Coleman would play tonight. ... USC players adjourned to Heritage Hall after the walk-through for their traditional rally in the lobby before home games, which features a performance by the marching band and song girls. The Trojans, however, were scheduled to stay in a different hotel than usual Saturday night to simulate the road-game experience, Carroll said.