The aftershocks from a failed 2023 college football season continue to reverberate through the USC football program. After Domani Jackson and Malachi Nelson entered the transfer portal over the previous 24 hours, linebacker Tackett Curtis joined the exodus from Los Angeles.
Though not a five-star recruit the way Jackson and Nelson were, Curtis — a four-star linebacker — was still a high-profile player who had generated considerable enthusiasm among the USC fan base.
The hype surrounding Curtis was so great that a lot of USC fans wondered if he should be given the number 55, a high honor reserved for the school’s greatest linebackers.
Curtis’s freshman season did not unfold the way he or USC hoped. This is a recurring theme, of course. Domani Jackson’s 2023 season didn’t go the way he wanted, either.
It’s as though — wait for it — Alex Grinch simply couldn’t coach his way out of a wet paper bag, which gave these highly-rated prospects a terrible experience in practice and on the field. They wanted out, not only because they had a bad time in 2023, but because the coaches they worked with in 2023 were the ones who were booted out of the program. They did not sign up for a change in coaching staffs.
Lincoln Riley did have to change his defensive staff, but the price to pay for those necessary changes is that players loyal to the departing coaches will continue to enter the portal. The Trojans will have to significantly remake their roster … again.
USC linebacker Tackett Curtis is expected to enter the transfer portal, source tells @latimes.
A surprising move, considering how much Riley seemed invested in Curtis last season.
— Ryan Kartje (@Ryan_Kartje) December 18, 2023
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