USC Football News: Prominent Defensive Players Named Vital to USC's 2023 Success
Defense wins championships! It’s one of the oldest sayings in all of sports but still rings true to this day. It doesn’t matter if it’s on the court, field, or ice; if you can’t stop the other team from scoring in whatever way they do, you likely aren’t going to win. This is especially true when it comes to college football due to all the modern offensive schemes being implemented each season.
Offense sells, but defense wins. It’s when you can do both effectively that we see truly dominant teams in the sport. For the USC Trojans, they had the offense last season, but their defense lacked quality, and it cost them. But heading into this year, the team feels a little more confident in their defensive players.
Heading into the season, Matt Zemek from Trojans Wire named a few players who will be crucial for the success of the defense this season.
"Bear Alexander’s run-stuffing ability has to be a significant part of USC’s defense. If he brings that trait to the field, the Trojans will be a much, much better team."
The biggest one, as mentioned above, is Bear Alexander. Alexander is a transfer that comes to Southern California from the champion Georgia Bulldogs, which was quite the get for head coach Lincoln Riley and company. He was the fifth overall defensive tackle in the 2022 class and should make his impact felt on this Trojans' defense.
Last season for the Bulldogs, he has two sacks and three tackles for loss over 12 games played. But he will likely get more playing time with the Trojans than he ever could have with the stacked Georgia defense. Alexander will be one of the keys to this defense, and his improvement will be something to watch going forward.
"I mean, it's Lincoln Riley," Alexander told ESPN. "Just watching their production from last year, they lost two games, barely lost to Utah ... if Caleb [Williams] wasn't hurt, they would have definitely been in that. It's Lincoln Riley, and I'm excited to go play for that guy."
Some of the other names that were mentioned were Mason Cobb, Domani Jackson, Calen Bullock, Anthony Lucas, Shane Lee, and more.
Defensive coordinator Alex Grinch is going to need to be able to get his guys into the right spots and have them making plays. Otherwise, we will see the same result from last year, and that would be a shame considering they have the best quarterback in the county in Caleb Williams.
The Trojans are one of the teams that are favored to make the College Football Playoff this season, and the year will be dictated on the growth of their defense.
