The USC Trojans played the Cotton Bowl without Jordan Addison and Travis Dye, so somebody was going to need to step up.
Brenden Rice dazzled with a career-best performance, and running back Raleek Brown made plenty of noise as he gave everybody a preview of what is to come in 2023.
Brown, the freshman, ran for 61 yards and a score on six carries and added two catches for 24 yards. On the surface, those don’t seem like eye-popping numbers.
However, Brown’s big plays were not surprising to his teammates.
Back in September, Ryan Kartje of The Los Angeles Times gave plenty of insight into Brown, and his teammates had already seen what he could bring to the field.
On Monday, Brown showed up on the big stage, and Trojan fans got a glimpse of what the running game might look like in 2023.
Here are some of Brown’s best plays and what his teammates said about him: