USC Football: Southern California Prep School Coach Pinpoints Problem With Trojans' OL
The Lincoln Riley era at USC is not off to a hot start.
After signing a blockbuster deal in the middle of the 2021 college football season to coach the Trojans for the next 10 years, USC is coming off one of the worst seasons in recent history as they went 7-5 in Riley's second year.
USC has had its fair share of issues this past year, primarily on the defensive side of the ball. While you could argue that the offense should've ran the ball more this year, the one thing that will remain true is the offensive line is not good.
After having a season where he threw for 4,537 yards with 42 touchdowns and five interceptions and won the Heisman Trophy Winner and could've been the number one pick in last year's NFL Draft, quarterback Cale Williams did not replicate last year and might've lost his opportunity to become the number one pick.
Immediately when Williams would snap the ball this year, he was running for his life on every play as USC's OLine was constantly being bullied by the opposing team.
This season, Williams was sacked 33 times.
Thuc Nhi Nguyen of The Los Angeles Times unpacks the team's issues on both the offensive and defensive line.
Despite acquiring a new lineman through the transfer portal, it didn't seem to pay off for the Trojans.
Nguyen reports that Chris Ward, an offensive line coach from Orange Lutheran High School in Orange believes a lack of opportunities for players played a factor in the decline of the offensive line this past year.
“Only the elite guys out of high school are getting their opportunities,” Ward said. “At least FBS-wide, they’re going to lean more on the transfer portal than the high school guys, but … that runs the risk of all the other things that happen with that, the jelling.”
Following his quote, Nguyned reported that the Trojans signed six different O-linemen and even started three-star recruit Alani Noa at left guard to open the season against San Jose State.
Unfortunately, the O-Line took a hit early in the season as they were beginning to deal with injuries that resulted in players shifting positions and moving out of areas where they were comfortable.
As of right now, USC has four offensive line commitments and just one four-star recruit in Jason Zandamela. However, it appears this class will not make an immediate impact to the O-Line room as they're ranked 18th in the nation.
With USC heading into the Big 10 next year, they will need to bolster up at the line position if they want to be competent.
Following the critique of the O-line from Ward, former USC Heisman Trophy winner and National Champion quarterback Matt Leinart agrees that the line needs to be fixed by next year.
While it's not official, it is likely that Williams might've played his last snap with the Trojans on Saturday's loss to UCLA and could now find himself playing on Sundays for an NFL team.
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