LOS ANGELES — USC football has plenty of questions to answer these days. Who will be the program’s general manager? Who else could the Trojans add in the transfer portal? Who will they hire as linebackers coach?
There’s more, too. So it’s no surprise that our readers have plenty on their minds. Let’s get to your mailbag submissions.
Does the way the CFP has played out — ND & PSU looking very strong — change your perception of USC’s season at all (or their potential in 2025)? Granted both games were at home, but USC played both teams close, and had arguably their two best offensive games against two of the best defenses in the country.
Mathieu L.
No. USC had the potential to play with some of the nation’s best (Penn State and Notre Dame) but also had the ability to lose to one of the worst teams in the Big Ten (Maryland) and barely scrape by some mediocre teams (like UCLA and Nebraska).
Bill Parcells once said, “You are what your record says you are.” USC was a frustrating, inconsistent team this season. Its 7-6 record accurately reflected that.
The margins are thin in college football — unless you have a major talent advantage that renders those margins moot. USC doesn’t. So it has to address that, and its coaching staff has to be better, mainly on the offensive side of the ball, in 2025.
Who gets hired first: a GM or a linebackers coach? What does Dave Emerick do with another GM on board? Who reports to whom?
Owen B.
My guess is the linebackers coach opening will be filled first and the general manager role will be sometime after that. My other hunch is that both the linebackers coach and general manager come from the NFL. That’s where most of defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn’s ties are. He hired co-DC Eric Henderson from the Rams last year.
USC has had discussions about its general manager role for months now. A source briefed on the search indicated that a hire could come within the next several weeks. If it was going to be someone from the college ranks, the hire could’ve already been made by now — unless it’s someone from Notre Dame or Ohio State, who will meet in the national championship.
So I think the general manager will come from the NFL, and that makes sense. As college football becomes more professionalized, it’s probably best to bring someone in who is familiar with the world of negotiations, salary caps, etc.
Dave Emerick holds the GM title at USC right now, but he received that title before the job morphed into what it has across the sport. He’ll likely do a lot of the same stuff he’s doing now — he played a significant role in putting together USC’s defensive staff last offseason — but I’d imagine he would be less involved in NIL negotiations with an actual general manager in place.
Watching the physicality of Ohio St, Penn St and Notre Dame in the playoffs makes it clear SC won’t compete until both lines are able to compete. What is the status of them for 2025?
Tom B.
USC’s lines are still not at that level. I would’ve been really optimistic about the Trojans’ offensive line if it returned left tackle Elijah Paige, right guard Alani Noa and left guard Emmanuel Pregnon. That would’ve meant USC brought back three starters from a line that progressed nicely over the second half of the season.
But Pregnon transferred to Oregon, which was a really tough loss for the Trojans. So USC will bring back just Paige and Noa. Transfers DJ Wingfield (Purdue) and J’Onre Reed (Syracuse) should help fill holes at left guard and center, respectively. The Trojans also need to figure out what to do at right tackle. Tobias Raymond and Justin Tauanuu could compete for the role.
I haven’t watched enough of Wingfield or Reed to develop an opinion on them yet, but I’ll come back to something I tend to harp on with the offensive line: Continuity matters. USC added three transfer portal offensive linemen in 2023, and the chemistry was off. So developing that rapport with three new starters and a new offensive line coach (Zach Hanson) will be key.
The defensive line still lacks a true pass rusher, and it won’t be close to elite until it has several. Lynn’s defense at UCLA was so good because it had Laiatu Latu and the Murphy twins, Gabriel and Grayson, who could all apply pressure. He needs more of that at USC.
The Trojans did add a true space eater with Kentucky transfer Keeshawn Silver, who should provide size they’ve lacked up front.
We already know what the offense is with this team. It’s obviously heavily dependent on an elite QB for Riley to run the most successful version of his playbook. I’m more curious about the defense. We saw massive improvement this year despite a lack of depth and talent. This team hung with two of the final four in the CFP until they just couldn’t anymore, thanks to the aforementioned lack of depth and talent. I’ve seen some encouraging moves already in the portal but what are you hearing/seeing about Year 2 of Lynnsanity? Is there a possibility of this becoming a top 15 or 20 defense considering present player improvement, the portal, and the incoming recruiting class?
Kevin P.
I have a difficult time envisioning this becoming a top-25 scoring defense because of the lack of a pass rush mentioned above. Lynn can do a lot of things to confuse a quarterback, but the absence of pressure caught up with USC in several games this season.
The Trojans also have to replace both starting linebackers, their two starting corners and a starting safety, which is plenty to replace from a defense that took very encouraging steps forward in 2024.
USC certainly has the potential to be better this season, but it’s difficult to forecast that right now with so many new faces.
Do you believe it’s more likely that Maiava or a transfer is the QB1 to start the ‘25 season? Is there any possibility Longstreet is a consideration?
John B.
Maiava. USC didn’t participate in the initial portal wave in early December, and if the Trojans did want to look for a starting-caliber transfer after Maiava’s shaky performance in the Las Vegas Bowl, all the potential upgrades were already off the table. No other ones have presented themselves since.
There’s always the chance to add a quarterback during the spring window, but that means a transfer would miss all of spring practice, leaving him a tough hill to climb. So I think Maiava is the guy — and we’ll see how that goes over the course of a full season. I don’t think Longstreet is a consideration unless Maiava struggles or unless there’s an injury.
USC lost a lot of players to the transfer portal obviously. Do you know what the protocol/process is for a player jumping into the portal? Do they tell Lincoln Riley before hand? Is there a falling out of NIL deal first? Or do players sometimes just blindside everyone.
This might not be specific to USC, but I’m just curious how the Trojans can’t retain players and whether it’s NIL, playing opportunity, fit, or Lincoln.
Daniel L.
A player has to notify the school that he intends to enter the portal, and then the compliance staff has 48 hours to enter said player’s name into the portal. My colleague Sam Khan Jr. wrote this helpful explainer on the portal last month.
Yes, they usually tell the coaching staff beforehand. And a lot of players, particularly high-profile transfers, already have an idea of where they’re headed when they enter the portal. Tampering is commonplace, and just because a player isn’t in the portal doesn’t mean schools aren’t talking to their agents or representatives. So it’s messy.
Programs lose players all the time. USC has lost some pretty high-profile names, though, which placed an even bigger spotlight on the departures. Fans often want to fixate on a core issue, but the truth is most portal movement comes down to a combination of factors.
Some kids want more NIL money while USC takes a hard line with what it’s offering. Some are looking for a new opportunity or a better fit.
In the NIL era, when USC needs to pony up for staff, they seem to be able to do so (Lynn, Henderson, Chad Savage, etc). However, when it comes to high school recruiting and the portal, USC seems to be “paying” in the 15-25 range nationally. If you agree that the difference exists, what would you attribute it to? Will it change in either direction?
Jessica S.
Lincoln Riley dictates how NIL is dispersed amongst the roster, so ultimately, it’s all on the head coach. We’ll see how that changes once a general manager is finally put in place.
Is SC now an example of a program in which fans/media aren’t in step with the new reality, a la Nebraska of the mid 2010s and Texas of the same era? And, if so, is the program doomed to a period in the wilderness? That doesn’t mean USC can’t eventually come back (see Texas). But the issues — disjointed NIL spending, fan/media expectations, a coach who might not be a “hey, I wanna have a beer with that guy” kinda guy, an inexplicable strategy to let out-of-state programs set up camp at So Cal’s best high schools — feel bigger than what can be fixed in a quick rebuild.
Andre M.
I always hear analysts, fans or observers say, “USC needs to act like USC.” And I always wonder what that actually means. Since 1980, USC has one sustained stretch of elite football: 2002 through 2008 under Pete Carroll. Over the rest of that 45-year span, USC has been a program constantly stumbling over itself.
USC should shoot for national championships, but I think expectations might be kind of out of whack. Some might say it’s cherry picking to start at 1980 because USC had so much success in the 1960s and 1970s, but 1980-2024 is a pretty large sample size that includes the majority of the years in which the sport evolved toward its modern-day look, and the truth is USC only won national championships in that span when it had one of the greatest coaches ever on its sideline. This isn’t like LSU, where Nick Saban, Les Miles and Ed Orgeron all won national championships within a 20-year span.
I don’t think USC is doomed to the wilderness, but it needs to do some serious work to get out of there. I’d compare USC more to Texas when it was struggling than Nebraska.
But it’s going to take the right coach and administration to unlock that potential. Other than Riley’s first offseason, when he was one of the first coaches to really flip a roster through the transfer portal, when have the Trojans been on the forefront of any change, whether that’s NIL, recruiting operations or elsewhere?
History and tradition matter less and less in college football now. The highlights of Rey Maualuga returning an interception for a touchdown against Ohio State in 2008 are great, but that was nearly 20 years ago. The traditions of the No. 55 jersey at USC resonates with fans of a certain generation, but do any high school players really know who wore it for the Trojans?
The Pac-12 is dead. NIL is the No. 1 factor in recruiting. Revenue sharing is potentially on the way. There’s a 12-team Playoff now. So it’s going to take some foresight or vision for USC to reach the heights it wants to.
(Photo: Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images)
