LOS ANGELES — The turf on the new practice field has been laid and set, a swath of green glistening beyond the red fence that surrounds USC’s Howard Jones Field, construction on a brand-new football facility yielding a first gift that’s primed and ready for the start of fall camp.
“This is like Christmas morning for us,” head coach Lincoln Riley said Wednesday, addressing the start of camp in front of a room full of media in Heritage Hall. “So, we can’t wait to get started.”
Beyond that new field, however, it’s wholly unclear what presents lay under a Big Ten tree for Riley’s program this winter season. The 2022 glory days of Caleb Williams’ Heisman reign are long gone. The bitter taste of 2023’s defensive collapse has been mostly swirled and washed away. 2024 began with a delicate public balance in Indianapolis, with Riley speaking a paradox to life at the Big Ten media days: again reinforcing championship expectations, again emphasizing his program was still in the midst of the rebuild that began when his plane from Oklahoma touched down in Southern California in 2021.
“We didn’t take over one that was a national championship contender and just walk into it, right,” Riley said in Indianapolis, in a larger media scrum. “Like, this was a revamp.”
After two years within that revamp tearing down and rebuilding USC’s roster through the transfer portal, the program largely targeted the portal not for immediate fixes but for positional depth in the fall and spring — expressively choosing to emphasize and trust the growth of players already within the system. And as a host of returners on both sides of the ball look to make a leap, Riley’s Year Three at USC will be largely made or broken by the amount of development on that brand-new turf.
With that in mind, here are four top storylines to watch as USC kicks off fall camp Friday.
Are the young guns ready on the Trojans’ offensive line?
Asked this very question inside Heritage Hall at USC’s media day Wednesday, offensive line coach Josh Henson paused.
“It’s time to get ’em ready,” Henson said, a 25-year coaching vet who rarely has minced a word.
Stalwart senior Jonah Monheim is entrenched at center, and has drawn nothing but rave reviews from teammates and coaches after a sterling season at left tackle last year. Former Wyoming transfer Emmanuel Pregnon looks slightly more beefed-up, and simply more comfortable in his demeanor, entering 2024 as USC’s likely starting left guard. Beyond those two slots, however, Henson will have no choice but to rely heavily on his youth, players from ’22 and ’23 recruiting cycles with years of development but few snaps to their name.
Redshirt freshman Elijah Paige is up nearly 15 pounds from last season, and performed admirably in the Holiday Bowl against Louisville, but a world falls on the left tackle’s young shoulders, tasked with protecting Miller Moss. Returning Mason Murphy could get a shot at right tackle — or redshirt freshman Tobias Raymond, or true freshman Justin Tauanuu, or JUCO transfer Erwin Taomi. Right guard is completely up in the air, with redshirt freshman Amos Talalele, sophomore Alani Noa and veteran Gino Quinones all vying for time.
“We’re gonna rep a lot of guys … that’s gonna be up to them to decide that competition on the practice field,” Henson said.
If Paige, Raymond, Talalele and Noa aren’t ready, it’ll stretch USC’s front thin upon entry into the Big Ten.
Can Jayden Maiava challenge Miller Moss for QB1?
Moss smiled, in Indianapolis, when asked on the sidelines about the feeling of finally being the guy entering the fall.
“It’s definitely been different,” Moss said. “I think, now, being the guy for an entire offseason, it’s hard for me to remember not being the guy, you know?”
Now embarking on his fourth year on campus, Moss finally has his long-awaited shot at USC’s starting quarterback job, little secret he’s been tabbed as Caleb Williams’ successor since a six-touchdown performance in December’s Holiday Bowl. If he stumbles in the spring, though, there’s enough competition behind him to give Riley some pause. UNLV transfer Jayden Maiava stands 6-foot-4, can take off and run and has a cannon, and has steadily built confidence since a strong performance in USC’s spring game.
When asked if it was his goal to push Moss for USC’s starting job, Maiava nodded Wednesday.
“Yeah, for sure,” he said. “I mean, everybody in the room, we all push each other.”
Who’ll best position themselves in the receiver room?
After being named a First Team All-American returner last season as just a true freshman, receiver Zachariah Branch set Twitter alive Tuesday with a side-by-side photo of his weight development from January to July — showing he’d cut his physique to a miniscule 4.8% body fat.
“That’s what the machine said!” he smiled Wednesday.
He’s primed for a breakout catching the ball this fall, as coaches have pushed him, Riley said in Indianapolis, to grow in his maturity and reading the game. The slight problem, fellow sophomore receiver Duce Robinson is ready for a leap, too. So is Ja’Kobi Lane. So is Makai Lemon. So is junior Kyron Hudson. And USC added two receivers in the spring portal, Kyle Ford from UCLA and Jay Fair from Auburn, who both were substantial pieces of their respective offenses in 2023.
A good problem to have, no doubt. But a couple names will invariably be pushed to the fringes, and USC’s receiver depth is set to be one of the most competitive groups on the roster this fall.
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Can Bear Alexander reach his promise?
New defensive line coach Eric Henderson made expressively clear on Wednesday: he did not want to relive “whatever it was at that time,” as he put it, from a will-he-won’t-he transfer-portal saga that embroiled Alexander this spring.
After a sophomore year at USC vacillating between flashes of dominance and periods of inactivity, Alexander chose to remain at USC in large part to work with Henderson, saying Wednesday he’s “trying to get through it here.” The former Georgia transfer is up 15 pounds since last season, and enters 2024 as one of the most important pieces on USC’s roster.
“He’s been here, working his tail off, getting better every day,” Henderson said of Alexander Wednesday.
The depth on the interior around him isn’t exactly a strong point, and after he sat out much of spring ball with injury, a strong fall for Alexander would go a long way toward instilling confidence in USC’s defensive line.
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