Tag: USC Football Transfer Portal

Amos Talalele, Gino Quinones hit the portal as USC loses O-line depth

Two portal departures on the USC offensive line will force the Trojans to go into the portal. Josh Henson has not developed this OL room as well as he could have.

USC football is watching its offensive line depth get reduced. Two linemen have hit the transfer portal in the past 20 hours. First it was Amos Talalele who declared his intent to transfer. Then Gino Quinones announced that he would enter the portal. USC has promptly lost interior offensive line depth, making the team’s situation entering 2025 a lot more precarious. Offensive line coach Josh Henson did not do a good job over the course of the full season. The line did improve in the second half of the season, but by that point, the Trojans had already lost three games, falling to Michigan and Minnesota before mid-October due to critical offensive line breakdowns.

There are two big components to these stories: First, USC will need to go to the portal for offensive line depth. Second, Lincoln Riley faces fresh questions and tensions connected to the decision to either retain or fire Josh Henson. Riley has to ask himself if this offensive line situation is good enough to retain Henson, who has struggled the past two years and did not put Miller Moss or Jayden Maiava in the best possible position to succeed in 2024. USC has lacked an elite offensive line. Riley has to be ruthlessly honest and make sure that if he does retain Henson, he will get the very best from his offensive line in a crucial 2025 season.

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USC edge defender Romello Height enters the trasfer portal

We wish Romello Height the best, wherever he ultimately lands.

A USC fan favorite is moving elsewhere. Redshirt senior Romello Height, a promising prospect at the rush end position, will enter the transfer portal for the second time in his college career.

Height was originally a four-star recruit and the Georgia Class 2A Defensive Player of the Year in high school who signed with the Auburn Tigers.  He transferred to USC in 2022 where he began the season as the starting rush end and was expected to add speed and toughness to the edge defense. Unfortunately, he suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in the second game of the season against Stanford.

Returning to action in 2023, Height came off the bench in his only full season at USC, playing in every game except Washington in Week 10. In Week 3 against Arizona State, he had his most significant impact, recording five tackles and two sacks. His only other game with at least three tackles was the previous week against Stanford. As the season progressed, his production diminished significantly. He finished the season with 21 tackles, six tackles for loss, four sacks, and a fumble recovery.

If granted a medical hardship waiver for the 2022 season, he could possibly have three years of eligibility.

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2023-24 USC football transfer portal tracker

Track the incoming and outgoing USC transfers here:

The early signing period for recruiting began on Wednesday, December 20. Meanwhile, the transfer portal window — which began on December 4 — has involved a lot of plot twists and major headline stories. Some of those stories have featured USC, which has lost Domani Jackson, Malachi Nelson, and Tackett Curtis to the portal in recent days.

If you want to stay on top of the transfer portal at USC — players who have come and gone — you’ll want to follow this tracker below. USC — as of lunchtime in the East on December 20 — had not yet officially landed a transfer portal quarterback, but when that transaction occurs, you will find it posted here.

Stay with us for continuing updates on our transfer portal tracker at USC.

This first set of updates runs through the morning of December 20. We will add new transactions as they happen:

USC transfer tracker — Trojans get elite receiver Dorian Singer, continue to grab Pac-12 transfers

The Trojans have secured a top-end receiver for 2023. Ralen Goforth will play for Washington. That and more in this updated #USC transfer tracker for Dec. 19.

Welcome to one of the most important weeks in college football: It’s the start of the transfer portal for the 2022-2023 offseason cycle. Buckle up. It’s going to be a wild ride.

College football now has its own equivalent of pro sports free agency. Players look at their own situations and come to the conclusion that for various reasons — playing time for some, coaching fit for others, winning games for others — it’s best to pack up and go somewhere else.

The transfer portal officially opened on Monday. Over 1,000 players have already entered or at least expressed an intent to enter the portal. We have our national transfer tracker to keep tabs on a lot of notable names.

Here, we present our USC transfer tracker. Right now, it has players headed out, but soon enough, we’ll be able to add new players coming in to play for Lincoln Riley in 2023.

We’ll update and refresh the list below as needed:

Lincoln Riley, USC are in a great position to raid Jimbo Fisher and Texas A&M this offseason

Texas A&M and Louisville are both likely to endure a transfer portal exodus of highly-rated freshmen who want out. This is where Lincoln Riley can pounce. #USC

If you are looking at ways for USC to build itself up to a national championship standard for 2023 and then for its first Big Ten season in 2024, the transfer portal is going to be a central avenue for Lincoln Riley.

Among various head coaches at elite college football programs, Riley has already established himself as a leader in the transfer portal. This is how he immediately built back the USC roster. This is something he will continue to do in future years to stock his roster and address deficiencies.

Actual transfer portal declarations (players entering the portal) have not yet occurred in large numbers, but one can reasonably guess that exoduses and defections will begin to accumulate at the end of the regular season, which is one month away.

Two schools in particular are likely to provide a lot of high-quality transfers to Lincoln Riley’s USC program and other interested programs. Let’s go through the details on why this is true, and what it could mean: