Tag: Austin Jones

USC running back Austin Jones selected for Hula Bowl, follows his pro football path

Austin Jones prepares for his big pro football job audition.

Former Stanford and USC running back Austin Jones has been selected to play in the 2024 Hula Bowl in Orlando.

In his career, Jones rushed for 2,337 yards and 24 touchdowns on 4.7 yards per carry. He also added over 900 yards receiving and three touchdown catches in his five years on a college gridiron.

Jones was the second running back for USC in each of the past two seasons. In 2022, he was behind Travis Dye, the transfer from Oregon who gave so much to USC. When Dye got hurt, Jones stepped in and gained a lot more carries in the final leg of the regular season plus the Cotton Bowl game against Tulane.

In 2023, Jones was the second running back in the rotation behind MarShawn Lloyd. Once again, USC had a strong number one running back, but Jones was a productive number two. USC’s offense didn’t reach the heights it hit in 2022, but Jones still played a very important role on the Trojans and was a very good teammate. Now he moves into an environment where he will try to display his talents and make a favorable impression on all the evaluators who will be studying potential pro prospects.

With Jones participating in the Hula Bowl, he will get a chance to give pro football scouts a glimpse of what he is all about.

Scouts from several organizations will attend, including the NFL, XFL, USFL and CFL. Players in this game will also range from several countries as well, including the United States, Canada, Australia and Japan.

Jones will play in the Hula Bowl on Jan. 13. The game can be seen on CBS Sports Network.

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USC statistical leaders through six games

You probably can name one of these guys offhand.

USC nearly lost its perfect season against Arizona but survived. Notre Dame’s College Football Playoff chances ended with a loss at Louisville. Neither team is coming into their annual meeting with the best momentum. That means talent could be the game’s determining factor.

This is a perfect opportunity for the Trojans to make a statement. They’re catching the Irish when they’re fatigued and struggling. The only thing that could slow them down is the wet conditions forecast for the game, but they’re preparing for that by using water in rather interesting ways in practice. While there’s no way to tell if that will affect anything, it shows they’re not leaving anything up to chance.

As you’re about to see, there are several players responsible for the Trojans’ offense being the country’s highest scoring, not the least of whom is the reigning Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback. Here he is among the top Trojans players on both sides of the ball:

Austin Jones enters this season fresh and not overworked

Austin Jones was not overextended last season, nor did he take too many hits. This RB room isn’t just deep; it’s fresh.

Remember when Stanford transfer running back Austin Jones came to USC? Oregon transfer Travis Dye also joined USC, and Raleek Brown was another mouth to feed in the USC running back room last season.

This year, Jones should be the second option in the ground game, although there is a ton of talent everywhere on the offense for Lincoln Riley and Caleb Williams.

Jack Follman of SuperWest Sports sang the praises of Jones, whom he has as the 11th-best running back in the Pac-12.

“He’s been in the Pac-12 for quite some time and did well in his first season at USC after playing at Stanford. He had almost 800 combined yards and scored seven touchdowns last year.”

As productive as Jones was late in the 2022 season, he wasn’t overworked over the full 12 games because Dye got so much of the workload until his November injury. Jones enters this season relatively fresh, and that should matter for him and the USC running back room.

The 1-2 punch of MarShawn Lloyd and Austin Jones is going to be a headache for opposing defenses, and then you add in the intriguing factor of Raleek Brown, who can line up a lot of places and will begin the season as a receiver, not a running back. This offense will be a nightmare for defensive coordinators to figure out.

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Austin Jones could be USC’s number two option at running back yet again

2022: Travis Dye. 2023: MarShawn Lloyd. Austin Jones was second to Dye last year. He could be the No. 2 guy in the RB room this year.

Austin Jones isn’t getting most of the publicity in USC preseason camp. More attention is being given to South Carolina transfer MarShawn Lloyd, who has been getting snaps with the first-team offense in camp. That’s perfectly fine. Jones was ready to produce last year when Travis Dye got hurt. Jones will be part of a deeper, more balanced running back rotation in 2023. The main thing is to be ready when called upon.

(h/t Zachary Neel of Ducks Wire)

“Why You Should Know Him: It was Austin Jones and Travis Dye splitting the workload a year ago. Now with Dye gone, Jones takes over as the veteran RB in Los Angeles. He will have to split carries with Marshawn Lloyd, but I think Jones could be a crucial part of the Trojans’ offense this year.”

USC has a real chance to give multiple running backs a lot of work and keep them all fresh heading into the teeth of the schedule in mid-October. No running back should be overworked in late August and early September.

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MarShawn Lloyd means USC should have fresh running backs throughout the 2023 season

Austin Jones was fresh for the UCLA and Notre Dame games last season. MarShawn Lloyd will enable Jones and Raleek Brown to remain fresh throughout 2023.

You surely have heard the news by now: The USC Trojans landed former South Carolina running back MarShawn Lloyd, who ran for 573 yards and 9 TDs this past season, while also gaining 176 yards on 18 receptions. MarShawn Lloyd is a former top-50 recruit in the 2020 class.

The 247 composite considered Lloyd the third-best player in Maryland, the fourth-best running back in the country, and the No. 33 player overall. He is from Delaware but traveled every day to DeMatha Catholic HS in Maryland when he attended high school.

USC’s running back room just got crowded with the addition of Lloyd. Quinten Joyner, A’marion Peterson, Austin Jones and Raleek Brown will all be featured on the depth chart for the Trojans in 2023.

If you remember how the 2022 sesaon unfolded, you know that Austin Jones played really well against UCLA and Notre Dame. He was fresh, having received few carries when Travis Dye was healthy.

Lloyd’s arrival means that with Jones and Raleek Brown already in the rotation, USC will be able to rotate running backs a lot so that no one gets overloaded. What happened in 2022 with Austin Jones being fresh for the final few games of the season in November should become a season-long reality. Everyone should be fresh throughout the season, because no one should be overextended in a running back room this deep. Lincoln Riley can spread around the carries and give defenses a lot of different looks.

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Austin Jones decides to return to USC for 2023 season, creating a stacked running back room

When MarShawn Lloyd transferred to #USC earlier on Friday, it might have seemed Austin Jones was headed for the NFL. Nope. He’s staying. This RB room is loaded!

Oh, my goodness. USC’s running back room for 2023 just became that much bigger and better.

Earlier on Friday, South Carolina running back MarShawn Lloyd — who had entered the transfer portal — announced that he was heading to Los Angeles to join the Trojans and Lincoln Riley. One might have reasonably concluded that with Lloyd in the fold, Austin Jones had either already made up his mind to go to the NFL or would soon announce a decision to enter the pros.

Instead, Jones decided to stay.

Jones’ decision to play for USC in 2023 gives the Men of Troy an absolutely loaded running back room. Not only is Lloyd in the mix as a bruising, between-the-tackles running back; Jones joins him as a tough veteran who will get crucial yards after contact and give USC the depth it didn’t quite have at the position in 2022. Lincoln Riley didn’t give Jones a heavy workload partly because he had concerns about Jones’ pass blocking, but with Raleek Brown being a freshman who was slowly integrated into the offense, it’s not as though USC had a lot of second or third options in the backfield this past season.

Now, with Brown having a year under his belt, Lloyd arriving, and Jones staying, Lincoln Riley can balance the workload among these three featured backs, and that doesn’t even include Darwin Barlow or the other newcomers at the position. USC has clearly upgraded its running back room.

Now we just need some defense.

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USC report card: grading Trojans after 11th win of 2022 vs Notre Dame

Caleb Williams gets an A+ as a #Heisman QB, a punter, a defensive back (denying a Notre Dame INT), a leader — what can Caleb not do? #USC

Football games are fundamentally pass-fail tests, not term papers graded on an A-B-C-D-F scale. What matters most is that USC defeated Notre Dame, 38-27, to move to 11-1 on the season, one win away from a spot in the College Football Playoff.

The Trojans are not an airtight team, and they’re not an imposing, overwhelming two-way juggernaut on both offense and defense. However, their offense is definitely for real, and the simple fact that they have Caleb Williams and Lincoln Riley has been more than enough to lift them to 11 wins, the Pac-12 Championship Game, and a New Year’s Six bowl bid.

Let’s hand out the grades to the Trojans after another imperfect but winning effort, as this magnificent, overachieving season heads into December with big prizes on the table:

Instant analysis of USC win over Notre Dame: Austin Jones, 3rd downs are huge keys

With help from @IrishWireND, we present a tag-team edition of big-game takeaways after #USC beat #NotreDame, 38-27.

The simplest analysis of USC’s win over Notre Dame is that the Trojans have Caleb Williams and the Irish did not, but there are obviously more components to this story.

Before the game, it was uncertain if USC was going to meet the physical challenge presented by Notre Dame. Playing Arizona, Cal, Colorado, and even a tissue-soft UCLA defense offered no real preparation for facing Marcus Freeman’s Fighting Irish defense. Notre Dame is definitely a few notches better on defense than USC’s recent 2022 opponents.

The last really good defense USC faced: Washington State on Oct. 8. Before that: Oregon State on Sept. 24. Those are the two really solid defenses on USC’s 2022 schedule. Utah has a defense-first reputation but has not played great on defense this year — not against good offenses with fully healthy quarterbacks. (Oregon’s Bo Nix was nowhere close to 100% for last week’s game versus the Utes.)

USC’s offense wasn’t perfect against Notre Dame’s defense, but the offensive line fundamentally met the challenge against the Irish’s front four. Caleb Williams did the rest, avoiding sacks other QBs would not have avoided.

Let’s analyze this game with help from our friends at Fighting Irish Wire:

Know your foe, USC: Which Trojans could give Notre Dame problems

Which Trojan’s do you fear?

Anytime you face-off against one of the top rated teams in the country, there’s going to be plenty of talent on the other side of the field. That’s exactly the case as the Irish travel to Los Angeles to take on the No. 5 USC in a highly anticipated matchup. The home team has plenty of firepower, led by Heisman candidate Caleb Williams and his go-to receiver Jordan Addison. Since we all know about their exploits, we won’t touch on them but here are five of their teammates that could give Notre Dame problems.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Mike on Twitter: @MikeFChen

 

USC Football Report Card: Handing out grades to the Trojans after UCLA conquest

The biggest grade of all: #USC got an “A” for this very big “W” over UCLA. That was the assignment. The Trojans completed their homework.

That was quite a night.

If you had been following USC and UCLA all season long, you knew this was going to be a shootout.

You might have predicted a 48-45 final score. I personally had 52-42 USC if Eric Gentry had been able to play effectively and with force. He briefly played, but clearly was not fit enough to play a lot of snaps. If Gentry wasn’t able to play, I labeled this game as a coin flip, with one team winning 50-49 on a 2-point conversion.

Yet, even though we all knew this would be a video game, it was still thrilling and very entertaining to see it all play out if you were a neutral party.

If you were a USC fan, it was a roller-coaster of stress, anxiety, and ultimately, elation.

Let’s grade the Trojans on their performance: