With the offseason on the horizon, one of many questions starting to arise for USC football was the Trojans’ wide receiver depth heading into 2025. This past week, those questions became an even bigger issue when redshirt junior wideout Kyron Hudson announced his plans to enter the transfer portal.
Although he never got a ton of accolades or hype, Hudson has quietly been a solid contributor for the Trojans the past two seasons. He had the best year of his career to date in 2024 catching 38 passes for 462 yards and three touchdowns. Perhaps Hudson’s most memorable moment in Cardinal and Gold was his incredible one-handed catch against LSU earlier this season.
Now, Hudson will look elsewhere for his final season of eligibility. And with it, questions arise about USC’s wide receiver depth.
Barring a surprise transfer, the Trojans are currently slated to return their quartet of rising juniors in Zachariah Branch, Ja’Kobi Lane, Makai Lemon, and Duce Robinson. However, with Hudson transferring and Kyle Ford out of eligibility, USC will bring back just one other wide receiver who has caught more than one pass this year: rising senior Jay Fair, who finished the regular season with eight catches for 78 yards and one touchdown.
As we have seen over the past few years, the Lincoln Riley’s offenses are most successful when the quarterback spreads the ball around to different wideouts. The Trojans had seven wide receivers with double digit receptions in 2022, and eight in 2023. Hence, it will be critical that Riley add more depth at the position in the transfer portal this offseason.
USC’s offensive outlook is murky. It’s the same for the defense after pass rusher Sam Greene declared his intent to enter the transfer portal.
Lincoln Riley has talked about building his program through recruiting, but more departures mean Riley must make more portal additions than he had probably hoped.