Tag: USC

Offensive lineman Emmanuel Pregnon will return to USC in 2025

Emmanuel Pregnon returning is absolutely central to USC’s fortunes in 2025. The Trojans needed this to happen.

It has not exactly been the best offseason for USC’s offensive line. The Trojans have already lost several key contributors from the unit to the transfer portal, including experienced starting tackle Mason Murphy. However, USC got some great news on the front on Wednesday, when new offensive line coach Zach Hanson announced that guard Emmanuel Pregnon for the 2025 season.

After starting his career at Wyoming, Pregnon transferred to USC ahead of the 2023 season. He has started at left guard each of the past two years, and has arguably been the Trojans’ best offensive lineman during that stretch.

Getting Pregnon back will be critical for a USC O-line in an otherwise precarious state. The unit has struggled the past two years, and has lost several key players to the transfer portal, in addition to four-year starter and team captain Jonah Monheim moving on to the NFL.

Having Pregnon around will also be critical for Hanson, who was officially named the offensive line coach on Wednesday after spending the last three seasons working with USC’s tight ends. He replaces Josh Henson, who left on Tuesday to be the offensive coordinator at Purdue.

USC lands running back transfer commit from New Mexico

USC gets its transfer running back, and this time, it is not from the SEC.

With Woody Marks off to the NFL and Quinten Joyner in the transfer portal, USC was in desperate need of depth at the running back position. On Wednesday, the Trojans got just that. Wednesday morning, former New Mexico running back Eli Sanders announced his commitment to USC. Sanders will have one season of eligibility left with the Trojans.

After starting his career at Iowa State, Sanders transferred to New Mexico ahead of this season. In his lone year with the Lobos, he rushed for 1,063 yards and nine touchdowns.

Riley has had success with transfer running backs at USC. The likes of Travis Dye, Austin Jones, Marshawn Lloyd, and Marks have all thrived in Riley’s offense.

Now, Sanders will look to be next in line. USC’s track record at this particular position has been very solid. If there is one position on the roster fans should not be overly concerned about, it’s running back.

USC acts quickly to name a new offensive line coach

USC acted very quickly to replace Josh Henson as offensive line coach.

On Tuesday, USC offensive line coach Josh Henson left to become the offensive coordinator at Purdue. It took the Trojans just one day to find his replacement. On Wednesday, head coach Lincoln Riley officially announced that Zach Hanson will be USC’s new offensive line coach. Hanson has spent the past three seasons coaching the Trojans’ tight ends.

Prior to arriving at USC, Henson was the offensive line coach at Tulsa for two seasons. Before that, he worked under Riley as a senior offensive analyst at Oklahoma in 2019.

Hanson played offensive line at Kansas State from 2008 through 2011. He began is coaching career as a graduate assistant with the Wildcats the following year, and has been working his way up the coaching latter since.

Hanson is married to USC executive director of recruiting Annie Hanson.\

We will have more reaction to — and analysis of — this promotion by Lincoln Riley, a key development on the USC football coaching staff heading into 2025.

Yet another USC player enters the transfer portal

The portal exodus from USC continues.

Stop me if you have heard this one before: Another USC football player has entered the transfer portal.

On Tuesday afternoon, defensive lineman Elijah Hughes became the latest Trojan to put his name in the portal. The sophomore defensive lineman was the third player to depart he program that day, following safety Zion Branch and wide receiver Zachariah Branch.

Hughes signed with USC as a relatively unheralded three-star recruit in the 2023 cycle. In two years with the Trojans, Hughes recorded 12 tackles and 1.5 sacks.

According to Chris Trevino of 247Sports, Hughes entered the portal with a “do not contact” tag. Presumably, this means that he has already been in contact with one or multiple other schools.

Hughes will have two seasons of eligibility remaining.

USC has a lot of roster spots to fill. The number of players the Trojans need to gain in the portal is large at the moment, and that is certainly cause for concern. The hope is that the caliber of portal players will be better than the players who are leaving the Trojans. USC has to hope that the exchanges become a net positive in the course of time.

Highly-touted transfer running back cancels USC visit

USC has been good about finding transfer portal running backs, but one candidate withdrew from consideration.

With Woody Marks off to the NFL and Quinten Joyner in the transfer portal, USC football has a significant need at the running back position.

One transfer option that the Trojans were pursuing to fill their hole at running back was Washington State’s Wayshawn Parker. After entering the portal, Parker scheduled visits to four schools, including USC.

However, according to 247 Sports, Parker has decided on Monday to cancel his visits to both the Trojans and UCLA. Instead, he will now only visit Utah and Arizona.

Parker was one of the top freshmen backs in the country with Washington State this season. He carried the ball 137 times for 735 yards and four touchdowns. In addition, he caught 11 passes for 108 yards and a touchdown.

With Parker no longer an option, USC will need to look elsewhere to fill its running back need. The Trojans have been good about finding quality running backs in the transfer portal. Now that search will take a little longer.

USC is losing former five-star recruits at an alarming rate

We can’t ignore how many highly-touted recruits are leaving USC. It’s not the sign of a healthy program heading in the right direction.

They say that the key to building a successful program is signing lots of blue-chip recruits. That is true at USC football and other places, but it only works if the recruits actually stick around.

Perhaps no program is a bigger example of this right now than USC itself. In his first three recruiting cycles at USC, Lincoln Riley signed six players who were rated as a five-star by at least one of the four major recruiting services (247, On3, Rivals, and ESPN). Of those six, just one is still with the Trojans.

Last offseason, USC saw cornerback Domani Jackson, running back Raleek Brown, and quarterback Malachi Nelson transfer out. This year, the Trojans have lost wide receivers Zachariah Branch and Duce Robinson. (Several of them have also offered some snide comments following their departures.) Only wide receiver Makai Lemon remains with the team.

Now, each individual player had their own reasons for leaving. Some struggled to earn playing time, while others did not play well and left in search of a fresh start elsewhere.

Still, the fact that the Trojans have lost as many former highly-touted recruits as they have is an alarming sign. Clearly, Riley and his staff are struggling to develop and retain the talent that they are signing, which is a major problem.

It would be one thing if USC was continuing to win games despite the departures. But the Trojans are just 14-11 since the start of the 2023 season.

Riley and company will need to get these issues sorted out and start winning soon. Otherwise, they might not be around for much longer.

USC’s Zion and Zachariah Branch enter transfer portal

USC’s Branch brothers are heading to another team. Roster churn continues for the Trojans.

Another day, another USC loss to the transfer portal. This time, it was a double-whammy. On Tuesday afternoon, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that USC’s brother duo of Zion and Zachariah Branch intend to enter the portal. This marks a major blow for the Trojans, as the Branch brothers were two of the team’s most talented young players.

The elder brother Zion was one of the top defensive backs in the 2022 recruiting class, and one of Lincoln Riley’s first big recruiting victories at USC. However, he has struggled with injuries during his time at USC, having missed his entire first season and significant parts of the past two. Still, he is only a redshirt sophomore, and had the potential to be one of USC’s best defensive players if he were able to stay healthy.

The younger brother, Zachariah, arrived as a five-star wide receiver in the class of 2023. He immediately turned heads when he returned a kickoff for a touchdown in his first game in Cardinal and Gold. As a freshman, he was named first-team All-American as a return specialist.

This season, following the departures of wide receivers Tahj Washington and Brenden Rice to the NFL, Branch took on a bigger role, in the passing game, catching 47 passes for 503 yards and a touchdown. However, he struggled with drops at times, and his confidence on kick returns by the end of the season was clearly broken.

Still, Branch was USC’s most explosive player on the offensive side of the ball. His departure is a significant one, as he is not a player that will be easy to replace.

With the loss of Branch, three of USC’s top five receivers are in the transfer portal. With Kyle Ford out of eligibility, the Trojans are set to return just two wideouts next season who caught more than 8 passes in 2024.

Former USC defensive coordinator gets new job

Wisconsin’s defense wasn’t great with Alex Grinch on staff in 2024. Now UCF and Scott Frost are taking a chance on Grinch in Orlando. This will be a wild ride.

A little over a year after getting fired by USC football, Alex Grinch is a defensive coordinator once again.

On Tuesday morning, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that Grinch will be the new defensive coordinator at UCF. He will serve under new head coach Scott Frost, who returns to Orlando after leading the Knights to an undefeated season in 2017 before departing for Nebraska.

Grinch was hired by Lincoln Riley as Oklahoma’s defensive coordinator prior to the 2019 season. When Riley left Norman for Los Angeles in November 2021, Grinch was one of the first assistant coaches to follow him.

However, Grinch’s USC tenure was a disaster. His 2023 defensive was the worst statistical unit in school history, with the Trojans allowing 28 or more points in all but two games. Following a 52-42 loss to Washington last season, in which the Huskies racked up 572 yards of total offense, Grinch was fired by USC.

This past season, Grinch served as the safeties coach and co-defensive coordinator at Wisconsin. He returned to the Coliseum with the Badgers on September 28. Against Grinch’s unit, USC quarterback Miller Moss threw for 308 yards and three touchdowns in a 38-21 Trojans victory.

Now, he is in charge of a defense once again.

USC bowl opponent loses two key defenders to 2025 NFL draft

USC is enduring roster depletion for its bowl game, but its opponent, Texas A&M, is facing the same problem. It creates a very fluid situation in Las Vegas.

We are less than two weeks away from USC football concluding its 2024 season against Texas A&M in the Las Vegas Bowl.

The Aggies finished the season 8-4, including a 5-3 mark in SEC play. However, they will be without two key defenders in the matchup against the Trojans.

Since the conclusion of the regular season, Texas A&M junior defensive linemen Nic Scourton and Shemar Stewart have both declared for the NFL Draft. The expectation is that neither will play against USC in Las Vegas.

Scourton finished the regular season with 37 tackles, five sacks, two passes defended, and a forced fumble. Steward had 31 tackles, two passes defended, 1.5 sacks, and a forced fumble.

Given the Trojans’ makeshift offensive line, USC will certainly not complain about the news. The Trojans have already lost offensive linemen Mason Murphy, Gino Quinones, and Amos Talalele to the transfer portal. It is also not yet known whether NFL-bound seniors Jonah Monheim and Emmanuel Pregnon will play in the game or not.

Even with a relatively mobile quarterback in Jayden Maiava, USC could be in trouble up front in the Sin City. While their opponent being without two of its top defenders certainly won’t fix everything, it should hopefully at least make Maiava’s life a little easier.

Jayden Maiava needs his bowl game to produce lots of information

Jayden Maiava has to make significant gains in understanding and knowledge in USC’s bowl game versus Texas A&M. It’s less about the numbers, more about the mind.

To say that the transfer portal has significantly affected college football would be a massive understatement. In today’s era, it is nearly impossible to predict who will be on a team’s roster from year to year. Hence, regardless of the circumstances, a team can never assume that a player will be coming back the following season. Hence, it was notable when USC quarterback Jayden Maiava revealed he will be back with the Trojans in 2025.

“This is the place to be,” Maiava told reporters when asked about his future following a bowl practice last week.

After transferring in from UNLV, Maiava started the final three games of the year for the Trojans. He finished the regular season completing 60.8% of his passes for 906 yards, seven touchdowns, and three interceptions, while also adding 49 yards and four scores on the ground.

Maiava’s return marks a breath of consistency for the Trojans. USC has already seen more than a dozen players enter the transfer portal since the conclusion of the regular season.

Maiava and the Trojans will conclude the 2024 season in the Las Vegas Bowl against Texas A&M on December 27. It will be important for Maiava to use this bowl game as a real education. Would it be great if Maiava excelled the way Miller Moss did in the 2023 Holiday Bowl? Sure it would. However, that game — as we saw in 2024 — didn’t guarantee that Moss would be an excellent quarterback. It’s more about learning, less about the stat line, for Maiava against Texas A&M. Maiava needs to grow into the leader USC will need him to be in 2025.