Brandon Pili ready for starting role
Brandon Pili is preparing to step into a starting role at defensive tackle against Notre Dame after Josh Fatu was injured in a car accident.
Beads of sweat frolicked down the cheeks of Brandon Pili as he stopped to chat with the media on Wednesday. The freshman defensive tackle had just finished extra cardio-vascular conditioning. It was preparation for a new role Pili is likely to take on when USC travels to Notre Dame for a Saturday night showdown.
Pili kept his helmet in place atop his head as he answered questions about potentially taking over the starting nose tackle position. Incumbent senior starter Josh Fatu isn’t expected to play after suffering a concussion when he was involved in a multi-car accident earlier in the week.
“I feel comfortable. I feel like I belong with the ones,” Pili said before adding he is also feeling pressure. “I just feel like there's a big burden on me. Everybody is depending on me to step up and fill the role of nose guard — the heart of the defense, so it's much more stressful this week.”
Pili made his collegiate debut two weeks ago against Oregon State, playing 21 defensive snaps and added another 11 last Saturday. He has three tackles.
“He did some good things the last couple of weeks,” USC defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast said. “He's kind of been trial under fire so to speak, but he's made some progress. He's a big, athletic kid that is pretty good at the point of attack and we've just got to make sure that we keep an eye on him and make sure he plays with good gap integrity.”
After watching the film from his first two appearances, Pili feels confident in his abilities even as he strives to clean up some technical aspects.
“Assignment-wise I've been pretty good,” he said. “I'm pretty confident in myself. As a freshman, I'm really heavy, so it's going to be hard to move me.
“Still need to work on my footwork a little bit, my hand placement, playing double teams. I've been working on that all week.”
Pili expects to combat several of those this weekend against Notre Dame’s power rushing attack and knows he has to hold his ground in order for the defense to be successful. If he can force both blockers to stop him, it will leave the linebackers free behind him to come up and make plays in the hole.
“Notre Dame, they're real big, a real physical team. They got a lot of great offensive linemen, really big, really heavy. It's going to definitely be a challenge up front.”
Watch Brandon Pili talk about preparing for a starting role, what he’s learned, Notre Dame’s rushing attack and what he knew about the Trojans’ rivalry with the Irish while growing up in Alaska: