By Sam Merendino
Ladies and gentleman, conference realignment has arrived. Numerous teams will
change conferences for this upcoming season, but the headliners are the teams
moving to the Big Ten and the SEC. In this series, we’ll just be focusing on the
former.
Oregon, USC, UCLA, and Washington will be racking up tons of frequent-flyer
miles this year as they begin their inaugural seasons as members of the Big Ten
Conference. We’ll take a quick look at each squad’s roster, including returning players and transfer portal additions, and I’ll give my take on what each team
needs to do to be able to consider this upcoming season a success. We
previously took a look at Oregon, and today we’ll check out USC.
Roster Preview:
The Trojans will look quite different this year on the offensive side of the ball. Star
signal-caller and Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams became the first overall
pick in this summer’s draft, and USC also lost a bevy of other offensive weapons.
Their two leading receivers, Tahj Washington and Brenden Rice, also had their
names called in the NFL Draft, while promising up-and-comers Mario Williams
and Dorian Singer went searching for greener pastures in the transfer portal.
USC will also replace leading rusher Marshawn Lloyd.
Despite all of the offensive turnover, the Trojans have plenty of reasons to expect
offensive success in 2024. Head coach Lincoln Riley is a well-known QB and
offensive guru, having coached three Heisman-winning quarterbacks. They’ll also see the return of human lightning bolt Zachariah Branch, one of the
most electrifying players in the country, and they added former Mississippi State
tailback Jo’Quavious Marks in the transfer portal. In four seasons with the Bulldogs,
Marks racked up 3,108 yards from scrimmage and 27 TDs. His versatile skill set,
both as a shifty runner and reliable pass catcher out of the backfield, will be a
huge asset to Riley’s offense.
At QB, Miller Moss is set to take over for the departed Williams. Moss looked
stellar in a Holiday Bowl drubbing of Louisville, in which USC prevailed 42-28. He
threw for 372 yards and six TDs, and it looks as though Lincoln Riley has another
star QB on his hands.
Defensively, the Trojans return perhaps their best player in star defensive tackle Bear Alexander, who will give them an anchor in the middle this year. They’ll also return their second leading tackler from a season ago in CB Jaylin Smith, who
put up 75 tackles in 2023.
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Beyond those two, the Trojans will be heavily reliant on new faces this season.
After several seasons of what could only be referred to as aggressive mediocrity,
Lincoln Riley finally parted ways with longtime defensive coordinator Alex Grinch.
To replace him, Riley pilfered DC D’Anton Lynn, formerly of hated rival UCLA. Lynn
will look to right the ship for a unit that has struggled mightily in Riley’s first two
seasons at Southern Cal.
Key To Success:
For the love of all that is pure and holy, play some defense. Riley has never been
known as a defensive-minded coach, but it’s safe to say that side of the ball is
what held his teams back at Oklahoma and now at USC. The Trojans allowed a
staggering 34.4 PPG last season, which was good for 118th in the country. Their
run defense was porous as well, allowing 186.5 YPG (116th nationally) as
opponents feasted on the hapless Trojan front seven.
With a schedule that features games against Michigan, Wisconsin, Penn State,
and Notre Dame, USC desperately needs to fix the run defense and they need to
do it quickly. All of those teams have been historically excellent running teams,
and USC could be in for a long season if they plan on trotting out the same
defense that they’ve had in the last two years.
If the Trojans want to have any prayer of contending in their inaugural Big Ten
season, the defense will need to be rebuilt and the offense will need to stay at its
normal stratospheric level.
