Cody Kessler did not practice with USC on Tuesday. Nearly two hours into the team's first workout of Stanford week, Kessler arrived at Howard Jones Field in full pads and did some light throwing.
As it turns out, Kessler's tardiness was due to a "procedure" he had done on his toe earlier in the morning.
"He had a deal with his toe that had been bothering him throughout the ballgame (on Saturday) and we felt like we wanted to take care of it sooner rather than later so this morning was the first chance we could to have the procedure done to get it, in our opinion, cleaned up," USC head coach Steve Sarkisian said. "It obviously didn't affect his play on Saturday."
Asked if "procedure" meant that something surgical took place with his quarterback this morning, Sarkisian replied, "it means procedure."
Sarkisian says Kessler should be "full-go" at practice Wednesday and is expected to play Saturday in the Pac-12 opener at No. 13 Stanford.
"I totally anticipate him playing," Sarkisian said.
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Kessler doesn't believe the "procedure" will keep him out of Saturday's game, either.
"I'm 100 percent," the quarterback said. "I'm fine."
The holiday weekend made it tough to have the procedure done before Tuesday, Sarkisian says.
Kessler is the reigning Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week, following his 394-yard, four touchdown performance against Fresno State. He also was named one of eight Manning Award Stars of the Week.
In Kessler's place Tuesday, getting the reps with the first unit, was redshirt freshman backup quarterback Max Browne.
The No. 1 quarterback in the class of 2013 made his USC debut last Saturday and completed 3-of-4 passes for 30 yards. He also rushed three times for 10 yards.
Here is @CoachSark's Tuesday presser with injury updates on @CodyKessler6, @LWtrojan94 and more: http://t.co/8DUOliTdI3 #USC
— USC Trojans (@USC_Athletics) September 2, 2014
