Lane Kiffin responds to the Yahoo! Sports story alleging recruiting improprieties by former USC assistant Willie Mack Garza during his time at Tennessee.
- Kiffin's comment on the above story: "I did read that. All I can say on that is that the alleged incident, I had no knowledge of or knowledge of a relationship at all. I have been and always been committed wherever we've been to doing things the right way and cooperating with the NCAA."
- Injury report: CB Torin Harris, LB Lamar Dawson, LT Matt Kalil, RB Amir Carlisle and TE Christian Thomas all missed practice. Also, CB T.J. Bryant will redshirt, Kiffin announced.
- The head coach attributed many of the mistakes made at Arizona State to youth, but he expects the freshmen and first year starters to improve from this point. "There's really two steps to get over," Kiffin explained. "The first one is going through a game period. The next step is going on the road."
- USC is 113th (out of 120) in the nation in turnover margin (-6). "The most surprising thing that's happened since we've got here this time around is the lack of turnovers that we've gotten," said Kiffin, who offered ice cream as a reward for improving the turnover situation. "We thought that would work with the linemen."
- Aundrey Walker has been moved back out to right tackle, where he practiced during camp, to compete with Kevin Graf. "We obviously were not satisfied, nor was Kevin, with his play on Saturday."
- Ross Cumming solidified his spot at fullback with a strong showing at ASU. "We are really pleased with Ross," Kiffin praised the converted LB. "He's only been on offense for a couple of weeks. He was matched up against [Vontaze] Burfict a couple times and did really well."
Kiffin has not heard from the Pac-12 office regarding clarification on T.J. McDonald's first two personal fouls. "If I had to do it all again, I wouldn't change a thing," McDonald (photo by Jon SooHoo) said after watching the film. "You know this game is dangerous when you sign up to play the game. If you don't want to get hit than get out of the way."- McDonald tweeted similar sentiments last night when the Cowboys were flagged for a hard hit on a receiver with the ball. "That's what the fans come to see," McDonald said about big legal hits. "I don't aim for the head. I just try to be as physical as I can. That's the only way I know how to play this game."
- Arizona is a deceptive 1-3. "They've probably played the hardest schedule in the country," Kiffin said. The Wildcats have lost to #5 Oklahoma State, #6 Stanford and #9 Oregon.
- Matt Barkley emphasized 3rd down conversions as the number one stat to improve. "The 3rd down conversion was horrific. I've never seen anything like that," he said. "It was pretty ugly."
- Barkley had "a sick feeling" after the game about his performance, but he said that his confidence does not dip from week to week.
- Here is the head coach...
Your attention please,Lane Kiffin please report to the NCAA infractions committee, again