California Head Coach Sonny Dykes
"Tough one tonight for us. We looked like a tired beat up football team and we were. I've said it last week. It's a travesty whoever scheduled this game to schedule us back to back weekday games on six days rest to play a team on the road on an open date. I hope the Pac-12 doesn't do this again to another school. It's not right for the kids. It's not right for the players. They've had to miss a bunch of class. Everyone talks about student-athlete welfare and didn't put their money where their mouth is on that one."

"We got down early and didn't execute well early. We didn't do a good job on third down and got to do better and be able to move the chains. We didn't look sharp. We had to move some receivers around with Chad out and other guys going down. We didn't execute well. Give USC credit. They're a good team and Clay has done a nice job and they've gotten better every week. The QB has improved and done a nice job. They did a good job against us in the run game. We have to be able to stop somebody from running the football against us."

"I thought we did some good things at times offensively to give us a chance to get back in the game. As bad as we started we cut it to 28-17 and had a chance to make it one score but didn't do anything with it. We got to play better and coach better but that's a beat up team. I hope the Pac-12 thinks better of not doing this to someone else."

"Singleton was out. He tried to play. We started running out of bodies. Our timing wasn't what it normally is in timing because we were playing guys out of position but we have to get them ready to play. It's my job to get them ready regardless. We practiced once this week in pads – thought that was the way to go to get to the game more fresh. It's hard to practice one time before you play a game."

"We've got to tackle better. It's up to us to teach your guys how to tackle. If we don't play well then we didn't coach well."

"Sam (Darnold) is a good player. He's a big kid. He's got a good arm and good mobility. I think he's improved every week and what you want to see young QBs do. You can see his confidence getting better."

"Adoree' (Jackson) is a heckuva football player. He makes plays and does good job of taking away your best receiver. When you can play defense like these guys when both corners can take away guys, it changes the game. He's a killer in the return game. You're always holding your breath anytime he's touching the ball."

California Players
Davis Webb
(On playing without Chad Hansen and momentum switch on first drive, dropped pass for potential TD)
"That's how the ball goes sometimes. There are plenty of throws I miss, plenty of drops. It's a short week and something we had to deal with because of injuries. We didn't play well tonight and it starts with me. It was a game where we didn't click in the first half and had a lot of miscues. And give credit to USC. There's a reason they're one of the best teams in the Pac-12."

(On if the short week hurt)
"That's for you to write about. We prepared well and Coach Dykes did a great job of getting us ready. It's on us. It's how it should be. It's a players' game and we look forward to getting home.

"I think USC did a good job defensively up front putting pressure on me but our offensive line played well at the end. They got on us early. We didn't execute good enough on first down. We got to third and short but can't get to fourth down every time."

DeVante Wilson
(On, as a former Trojan, making a couple big plays)
"It was nice to make those couple plays but it would've been better to come out with a win. But it definitely felt good to make those plays.

(On USC's running game)
"It was tough. We had some miss tackles and stuff we have to clean up for next week. A credit to them."

(On if the short week hurt)
"It's tough but we were up for the challenge. It's something you just have to deal with. It's life."

USC Head Coach Clay Helton
Opening Statement
"Good win for our football team. It's never easy to win a Pac-12 game. I'm proud of our defense, to hold that team to 24 points is something special. Cal has a very good quarterback. They were a good, skilled team. The O-line really held their own. To limit that team to 75 plays was key. The wideouts and the quarterbacks do what they do. We probably left a few out there. Overall it was a very, very good win for our football team."

(On the growth of the team)
"We're just playing good football. We're playing together and they really are playing all three phases exceptionally. We made a few mistakes in turnovers. But they're playing as a unit and they're gelling and there's a lot of confidence out there."

(On Sam Darnold's improvement)
"We put a couple balls on the ground today, but he's distributing the ball extremely well. He had one forced pass today. He's finding the open man and just extremely comfortable. His maturity is beyond his years."

(On the offensive line)
"They've been the key. The key defensively is to put pressure on the quarterback and the offensive line to establish the run at the point of attack. Those guys rushed for 398 yards tonight. It's one of those things where we say big men win games. I thought they had a tremendous game."

(On Sam Darnold)
"I know that we've got some things to improve on and keep him going. It wasn't perfect tonight but the beautiful thing is he knows it. His humbleness and humility is staggering. He works to be a perfectionist and he'll continue to do that."

(On Ronald Jones II)
"He's a special dude. You know as a coach that there's a ticking time bomb ready to go off. With the talent he has and the competitiveness he has, you knew he was getting ready to explode. We saw it in a practice and there was a fire under him tonight. I'm proud of him and Ced (Ware) and proud of the ball security they had all night."

(On USC's confidence to run the ball)
"We gave them a lot of credit. We know when to stay balanced. I think we did. We rushed 398 yards and threw five touchdowns. At the line of scrimmage, they did a tremendous job of not allowing penetration. Then you put two runners behind them. They lead our team and they did tonight."

(On improvement as a staff)
"I think we've improved as total team. Any time you bring in so many new staff, there's a progression that has to be made. You have to improve from game one to game eight and I can say we're doing that. As an organization we're improving each game."

(On his conversation with Sam Darnold after the interception)
"Sam came over I said that's great learning experience. It's an opportunity to throw the ball away. It's a great learning lesson for him. There's going to be growing pains with a redshirt freshman quarterback but there has been more positives than negatives."

(On Tyson Helton and Tee Martin being up in the coaches' booth)
"I thought I was pretty good quarterback coach at one point. I have the opportunity to be down there with him. But I have two incredible pairs of eyeballs in Tee and Tyson. The ability for both those guys to see what is going on and to get us to the correct play, that's very important. If I wasn't a quarterback coach by trade I'd probably have one of them down there. Tyson is doing a really good job on the third-down situation, and Tee is doing a good job on the normal situations. The combination of the two I think are doing a really terrific job."

(On the deep incomplete pass late in the game)
"We went into the game saying we'd be aggressive for 60 minutes. I told Tee this offense is way too dangerous. They could score at the drop of a hat; I didn't want to play safe football, I wanted to be aggressive, so put that one on me."

USC Players
Ronald Jones II

(On which play he remembers the most)
"That first one kind of bothered me for the rest of the game."

(On extra motivation with Justin Davis out tonight)
"We had to pick up the slack. You just never know. He's is a leader on this team. He's a teacher and coach to me a Ced (Ware). We knew he was going to be out for this game."

(On getting increased opportunities tonight)
"You just keep looking for your opportunities and make the most of it."

(On how he and Ware feel about the game)
"It's great. We've waited for this opportunity to pick up the slack. Great offensive line all night, receivers, everybody, it all just came together."

Marvell Tell
(On shutting down Cal QB Davis Webb)
"Preparation. We watched film all week. Coach always harps on studying your opponent, get to you're your opponent and that's what we did."