If USC football was listed as a stock on the New York Stock Exchange, analysts would slap a BUY rating on it right now. The Trojans are trending up and their prospects for 2021 are bullish.
Troy is coming off consecutive seasons where improvement was evident on and off the field. After a bounce-back 8-win season in 2019, USC started off 5-0 in last year’s pandemic-shortened campaign and won the Pac-12 South Division title before falling by a touchdown in the Pac-12 Championship Game.
Since then, USC signed a Top 10 recruiting class (including the nation’s No. 1 recruit) while also retaining 16 of last season’s starters on offense and defense (including a Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback), plus the punter and kicker. Among the 26 newcomers--14 of whom are enrolled for this spring semester and will participate in spring practice--are 4 collegiate transfers.
In all, 97 squadmen from last year are back, including 14 who are repeating their senior years as allowed by an NCAA rule enacted because COVID-19 shortened the 2020 season. On USC’s 123-man 2021 roster, 61 players saw game action last year and 41 have started at least once in their careers.
“We were very proud of our team last season, winning 5 games in a row, getting to the Pac-12 Championship Game and being a win away from the College Football Playoff while navigating through the pandemic,” said Clay Helton, now in his sixth full season as USC’s head coach. “But we were sick with the way it ended in that Pac-12 Championship Game. What that did, however, was create a very hungry team and coaching staff for 2021.
“We saw what kind of team we were able to build last season and then in the off-season we saw the results of our recruiting and the staff additions we made. That should lead to a very dynamic 2021 season. It is an exciting time for Trojan football.”
USC’s potent offense—which in 2020 averaged 416.7 total yards per game, including 319.3 passing to rank 11th nationally, and 33.3 points—brings back its top passer and top 2 rushers along with 9 players who caught a pass last year and 4 starting linemen. Quarterback Kedon Slovis, a 2-year starter who has completed 70% of his career passes for nearly 5,500 yards and 50 TDs and already is in the Top 10 on USC’s career completions chart, is a leading Heisman nominee after an All-Pac-12 first team season in 2020 when he led the nation in completions and was in the Top 20 in passing yards, total offense and completion percentage. Wide receiver Drake London, another 2-year starter, will be among the nation’s top receivers; he has 72 career receptions with 8 TDs, including 33 catches for a team-high 502 yards last fall. USC sports a pair of 1,000-yard career rushers in tailbacks Vavae Malepeai (1,503 yards with 17 TDs) and Stephen Carr (1,329, 12). Tight end Erik Krommenhoek has 24 catches and 12 starts in his career. Four-fifths of Troy’s offensive line is back: 3-year starting guard Andrew Vorhees (he was on the left side in 2020), 2-year starting center Brett Neilon, 2-year starter Jalen McKenzie (he was at right tackle last year after playing guard in 2019) and Liam Jimmons, last year’s right guard.
Other offensive players returning with career starts at USC are tailback Kenan Christon, wide receiver Bru McCoy, tight end Josh Falo and offensive linemen Justin Dedich and Courtland Ford.
The Trojan defense, which last season allowed its third fewest average total yards (369.7) and second fewest passing yards (216.3) since 2009 while averaging 2.7 takeaways a game (its best since 2005), welcomes back 18 of its top 21 tacklers from 2020, as well as its leaders in sacks, tackles for loss, pass deflections and forced fumbles. Outside linebacker Drake Jackson, who has 17 career tackles for loss (with 7.5 sacks), is one of the nation’s most dominant pass rushers. Safety Isaiah Pola-Mao has 121 tackles and 5 interceptions in his career, while cornerback Chris Steele—a 2-year starter like Jackson and Pola-Mao—has 9 career pass deflections. Both inside linebackers are back: Kana’i Mauga (116 career tackles), another 2-year starter, and Ralen Goforth. Defensive lineman Nick Figueroa sprang onto the scene last year while leading Troy in tackles for loss (7) and sacks (3.5), as did fellow lineman Tuli Tuipulotu, who was a Freshman All-American second teamer in 2020. Safeties Greg Johnson and Max Williams, who shared starts at nickelback last fall, both return.
Others on defense back in 2021 who own USC career starts are inside linebackers Jordan Iosefa, Palaie Gaoteote IV and Eli’jah Winston, cornerbacks Isaac Taylor-Stuart and Dorian Hewett, safety Chase Williams, defensive linemen Brandon Pili, Caleb Tremblay and Jacob Lichtenstein and outside linebacker Hunter Echols.
Australian Ben Griffiths, whose 46.4-yard punting average was the highest by a Trojan since 2003, is back for his third season as USC’s punter. Parker Lewis, who won the kicking job as a true freshman last year, was 20th nationally in field goals and had touchbacks on nearly 60% of his kickoffs. Damon Johnson, a 2020 Mannelly Award finalist, will long snap for a fifth season.
“I feel really good about our team in all phases of the game,” said Helton, who has coached the Trojans in 5 bowls games, with a Rose Bowl victory in 2016, and 3 Pac-12 Championship Games, including a win in 2017. “Our offense is hard to defend and features one of the nation’s premier quarterbacks, an outstanding receiver corps, some veteran running backs who are now healthy and most of the line coming back. Our defense improved tremendously last year and should continue that way in 2021, with one of the country’s best secondaries, some fierce edge rushers and some solid play up front and at linebacker. Our special teams were terrific last year and we expect more of that this season; the punter crushes the ball and our kicker performed very well as a true freshman.”
Helton added two new faces to the fulltime Trojan coaching staff in 2021: Clay McGuire takes over as offensive line coach after doing similar work in such Air Raid-style offenses as Texas Tech and Washington State and Seth Doege was elevated from offensive quality control analyst to tight ends coach. Cornerbacks coach Donte Williams, voted the Pac-12’s top recruiter the past 2 seasons, was given the added title of associate head coach. The remainder of USC’s assistant coach roster and responsibilities remain intact: Graham Harrell (offensive coordinator/quarterbacks), Todd Orlando (defensive coordinator/linebackers), Sean Snyder (special teams coordinator), Craig Naivar (safeties), Keary Colbert (wide receivers), Mike Jinks (running backs) and Vic So’oto (defensive line).
Helton also brought in Robert Stiner as the director of football sports performance. Stiner helped Notre Dame to a pair of College Football Playoff appearances in the past 3 seasons and also has been on the strength and conditioning staffs at Cincinnati, LSU and Mississippi State.
Although USC lost just 6 starters from 2020, they were impact players (4 were All-Pac-10 first team selections last fall). Safety Talanoa Hufanga, who had 203 career tackles, was an All-American first teamer, the Polynesian Co-College Player of the Year, the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year and a Lott IMPACT Trophy finalist in 2020 when he led USC in tackles (62), interceptions (4) and forced fumbles (2) to rank in the national Top 20 in those categories. Wide receivers Amon-Ra St. Brown (11th on USC’s career receptions ladder with 178 catches, including 16 TDs) made the 2020 All-Pac-12 first team after having team highs in receptions (41) and TD catches (7, including an NCAA record-tying 4 in the opening quarter versus Washington State), while Tyler Vaughns (33 grabs with 3 TDs in 2020) finished third on USC’s career receptions list with 222 catches and 20 scores. Alijah Vera-Tucker, a 2020 All-Pac-12 first team choice when he won the Morris Trophy, started at left offensive tackle last year after being the left guard the previous season. Marlon Tuipulotu was a 3-year starting defensive lineman who had 104 tackles in his career, including 23 last fall when he made the All-Pac-12 first team. Olaijah Griffin was a 2-year starter at cornerback with 14 career pass breakups. Others gone include Matt Fink, who completed 67.3% of his passes while serving mainly as the backup quarterback (he had 1 career start), tailback Markese Stepp (505 career yards with 6 TDs) and placekickers Chase McGrath (32 field goals, 118 PATs in his career while starting in 2017 and 2019) and Michael Brown, who filled in when McGrath was hurt early in the 2018 season.
USC, which for the first time since 2009 will play all its regular season games on Saturdays, has a demanding 2021 schedule. Besides playing 9 Pac-12 opponents, Troy’s 3 non-conference foes were ranked in the final AP Top 25 poll last year. The Trojans, however, do play 7 of their 12 contests at home in the Coliseum.
USC opens in the Coliseum on Sept. 4 of Labor Day weekend against defending Mountain West champion San Jose State. The teams last met in 2009. The Trojans remain at home the following week to start Pac-12 play with a visit from Stanford on Sept. 11. It will be the Pac-12’s first game of the 2021 campaign. USC then travels to Washington State on Sept. 18, its first trip to Pullman since 2017. Troy returns home on Sept. 25 to host Oregon State. The teams have not played since 2018 (and not in the Coliseum since 2017). The Trojans begin October play by traveling to Colorado on Oct. 2, then are back in the Coliseum on Oct. 9 to battle Utah. Following a bye week, USC returns to action on Oct. 23 when it goes to South Bend for its traditional intersectional clash with Notre Dame, a 2020 College Football Playoff semifinalist. Arizona comes to the Coliseum on Oct. 30 before the Trojans embark on a two-game road trip to open up November, playing at Arizona State on Nov. 6 and at California on Nov. 13. USC concludes its regular season with a pair of home contests, first facing crosstown rival UCLA on Nov. 20 and then independent BYU on Nov. 27 of Thanksgiving weekend. It will be the first time since 2009 when it played Arizona that USC will end its regular season against a team other than UCLA or Notre Dame and the first since 1999 (when it hosted Louisiana Tech) doing so against a non-conference foe other than Notre Dame. The Pac-12 Football Championship Game will be on Friday, Dec. 3, in Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nev.
“Between the always-tough Pac-12 opponents and 3 outstanding non-conference teams, this schedule gives us an opportunity to create an unbelievable resume,” said Helton, who has guided the Trojans to 12 victories over AP Top 25 teams in his 68-game career, including 3 in the Top 5. “Each week will be a challenge. We’ll need to bring our ‘A’ game every time we take the field.”
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March 27, 2021 at 02:16AM
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2021 USC Spring Football Outlook - University of Southern California Official Athletic Site
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