FOOTBALL

USC Morning Buzz: I See Soft Spots On Roster

I’ve been going closely through the USC roster this week and one thing stands out: I don’t think the depth is as great as has been portrayed, especially when this is Year 4 for Lincoln Riley.

There are quite a few positions with unproven players and things really look dicey at some spots if injuries occur (which always happen).

For example, at linebacker USC will start Eric Gentry and Desman Stephens. Gentry is a talented performer with a history of injuries. Stephens had 13 tackles in 13 games last season. He’s not proven yet.

And if they get hurt? There are actually walk-ons who might play but the backups would probably be Penn State transfer Ta’Mere Robinson (who had only 11 tackles last season) and true freshman Matai Tagoa’i.

Let’s remember last year USC had Easton Mascarenas-Arnold, who had just come off being a first-team All-Pac-12 performer at Oregon State in 2023.

The offensive line is similar. You have three new starters (including two transfers) but if they get hurt you’re basically looking at freshmen as replacements. There is a big bet being made that transfers/first-year starters are going to perform. We’ll see.

The wide receiver position is always one of strength at USC and you’ve arguably got the offense’s top two weapons (Makai Lemon, Ja’Kobi Lane) there. But among the backups are Jaden Richardson, Xavier Jordan and Jay Fair. Who will that scare at the moment?

Also, who are the guaranteed playmakers on offense besides Lemon and Lane right now?

Now a roster can still change if USC adds transfers in the summer (something it claims to want to avoid). But right now, I’m not as bullish on the overall strength of the roster as a lot of people seem to be.

30 thoughts on “USC Morning Buzz: I See Soft Spots On Roster”

  1. Scott says were thin at linebacker. He left Anthony Beavers and Jadyn Walker off the depth chart. Rob Ryan is impressed with both of them. I think we are fine at that position.

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    1. When you have a guy like Ryan saying he is impressed, that carries a lot of significance. But Wolf will drag up the negative somehow. My expectations for 2025 are not real high, but the future is looking better all the time.

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  2. Woman’s golf loses to Florida State 4-1, season over.

    Men’s golf doesn’t make it out of the regional

    5’10” guard Jordan Marsh transfers to USC from UNC Ashville. He was the Big South Newcomer of the Year. USC will be his third school in three years.

    Baseball opens the Big 10 Tourney against Penn State on Thursday

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  3. 11 million a year Sir Lincoln Pneumonia Riley created this mess of a roster with his unwillingness to recruit California and relying way to heavily on transfers.

    Bowden is trying to fix it by loading up on high school kids, mostly from Cali. One wonders if Riley even knows what’s going on, maybe Bowden is running the program, kinda like who was President the last four years cuz it wasn’t Joey Mush Brain Biden.

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  4. KAM: Buzz Patterson, a former senior military aide in the Clinton White House who carried the nuclear football for Bill Clinton. revealed another major Clinton scandal, this time involving sexual assault allegations aboard Air Force One.

    “We landed on the South Lawn at about midnight,” Patterson recalled, “and, after ensuring the president was on his way to his residence upstairs, I headed to my bedroom in the East Wing.” But the night was far from over. “Shortly thereafter, my phone rang and it was the AF-1 presidential pilot. ‘Buzz, we have a problem,’ he said. ‘Oh s**t,’ I thought.”

    The “problem” was President Bill Clinton.

    “Apparently, Clinton had cornered a female AF-1 steward in the galley and molested her,” Patterson revealed. “She was young, a staff sergeant, and married with children. I knew her, liked her, and she was super sweet. Now, she was in tears.” Patterson says he asked the pilot what she wanted to do. “He told me that she didn’t want to be another ‘bimbo,’ she wanted to remain in the Air Force and be promotable. All she wanted was an apology.”

    DON: Bill Clinton has never been held accountable. Not by Congress, not by the courts, and not even by the so-called #MeToo movement that claimed to champion victims of powerful men. He skated through it all — untouchable, unrepentant, and still celebrated by the very party that lectures the rest of us about integrity.

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  5. Bill Clinton is very bright and also a pathological liar which helps him cover up his bad deeds. I recall a few years ago he was comparing his wife’s possession of classified documents to that of Trump. He claimed that his wife never had classified documents on her server and that there was no evidence that the server was hacked. He omitted the fact that Hillary hired a tech guy to “bleach the server” and she destroyed her cell phones both acts in violation of a subpoena. Even so, the FBI found remnants of 13 classified documents and Comey testified that it was likely that her server was hacked by the Russians. Nevertheless, no charges filed not even for obstruction. And he also omitted his airplane meeting with AG Loretta Lynch which resulted in her disqualification.

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  6. We have some playmakers on offense. The two transfer running backs, Jordan and Sanders can score. I think the transfer WR from Boise, Prince, may be difficult to defend given his height. And Scott is underestimating Jay Fair, he is a solid player. Some of the Freshman WRs are supposed to be fast too.

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  7. musk cost taxpayers more money than he saved them.

    ……and now he’s giving trump the middle finger

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    1. KAM: Such a sad day for Board Pest Board Cancer Cowardly Gabby aka TebowObama aka Charlie Bucket the UCLA Fan aka The Guy who posts as Buddhakarma & So Cal’s Wife & Michael Guarino & Trojan RJJ & LawyerJohn & Pudly & Plow Horse and TrojanFan 1-3 & steveg49 & DOJ & Scott Wolf and Frank Young and KATHY and Foreskin Thoughts and SCOTTLOVESTHEROOOOOTTÞ and Manureman, your role model Letitia James now says she “mistakenly” claimed Virginia residency in loan documents. Just like Pious James Comey “found” the 86-47 seashells on the sea shore.

      DON: It’s all just a big mistake. They’re not criminals, they’re just dumb!

      🤣

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    2. Let’s face it, Musk gave our whole country the middle finger by rescuing the astronauts Biden and Harris tried to kill……

      #…..HeHadNoBusinessDoingThat

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    1. Gabriella listened to Joe say “The word that best expresses the idea of America is…. exlzfgtqv…..” as he walked into a tree…..and she said to herself “Joe looks sharper than ever!”

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  9. Scooter,

    All I see are guns for hire. No loyality to the program. With transfers every day or so, you won’t have the final roster until 10 minutes before the game. Putting effort into the roster is not worth the time. But I will eventually.

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    1. Everyone needs to watch Senator [& supreme POS] Tim Kaine smirkingly ask Marco Rubio why the United States is trying to rescue 49 farmers marked for death in South Africa…….

      #AndPayAttentionToRubio’sAnswer

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      1. MG, CNN just called Trump showing the president of South Africa evidence of leaders calling for a White genocide and stealing their land an “ambush” of “debunked conspiracy theories” Trump literally brought all the evidence and played it. CNN saw it and are still denying it. Unreal. And this South African leader just doubled down just now on killing the whites.

        https://x.com/frank144/status/1925292809621561527

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      4. Gabby —CNN coverage of world news is one continuous joke….. [at least that’s the way their 500,000 lost viewers saw things]….

        #NowThatViewershipHasDippedBeneathAMillion,TimeToGoHome

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