Zachariah Branch made his USC debut a spectacular and memorable one.
It’s hard to make more of an impression than Branch did in his first game as a Trojan. A 96-yard kickoff return and a 25-yard touchdown is quite a one-two punch for a first game as a college freshman. Branch electrified the Los Angeles Coliseum and had USC fans singing his praises.
When a great football player plays on the offensive line, fans appreciate the consistency and quality, but the whole point of an offensive lineman is to make sure the skill players can make the dazzling plays. A freshman offensive lineman having a great debut will be noticed by the coaches on film, but it doesn’t jump off the page the way it does for other players on a team.
It will always be more of a story when a freshman kick returner and receiver has a splashy debut, because fans can see the excellence in a much more obvious — and dazzling — way. So it was for Zachariah Branch.
One of the many signs Branch’s performance resonated so deeply is the number of great college football players he was compared to in his first USC game. Just one game had Branch associated with great players from Pac-12 football history.
We have proof of these comparisons, so sit back and enjoy: