USC football coach Lincoln Riley challenges the veteran offensive line

USC’s offensive line never came together as a unit in 2023. I asked Lincoln Riley during his weekly press conference Saturday about the offensive line’s performance last year. He said there were games when the division struggled and lost: UCLA, Notre Dame, and Oregon.

“Yeah, we had a few games last year where we didn’t play enough, you know, a few games. that we lost,” replied Riley. He explained that the games were for Notre Dame and at home against Washington and UCLA. “We certainly did not play well enough in those games to win. We had a great time but we were too inconsistency.”

Line problems started before the season started. USC had to replace two big pieces that anchored the veteran unit in 2022, All-America left guard Andrew Vorhees and perennial starter Brett Neilon at center. USC was fortunate in 2022 to bring in Bobby Haskins as a grad transfer from Virginia to help shore up the line.

The hope was to slide Justin Dedich from right guard to center in 2023 and bring in players from the gate. It began to fall apart when second-team All-SEC pick Ethan White, who transferred from Florida, suffered an injury that kept him out of USC. He retired in health before reaching college.

Riley went on to explain what went wrong last year, and the Trojans’ offensive line didn’t come together as a cohesive unit.

“I would agree, I don’t know that we ever have designed as a unit. I think so it starts with your senior players. Your elders, your leaders have got to play their best; they have to be great leaders: they have to keep sound. I think last year that was not necessary every time.

“So you know there’s Jonah (Monheim), you’re there talking about (Emmanuel) Pregnon – some of the guys who have now he played some pictures for us. Mason Murphy, you need those guys to step up.”

Veterans will need to step up. Members of the class of 2023, who were freshmen last year, are looking for leadership as they compete to play this summer. During the press conference, Riley named all five offensive players from that class: Micah Banuelos, Elijah Paige, Alani Noa, Amos Talalele, and Tobias Raymond. Riley relies on the strong leadership of the upperclassmen to bring this group together.

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