USC Football Releases OFFICIAL Depth Chart vs LSU | USC Trojans Football

welcome back to another episode of rock boys football massive day for the USC fans late Thursday night Lincoln Riley USC releasing the first official dep chart heading into week one against LSU and this is an exciting day for USC fans because you look at all the turnover that's gone on with this USC program not only the coaching staff but all the new players all the different you know position battles that we saw play out during the last couple months now we get answer like now we get a feel for what this USC team is going to look like Sunday night against LSU now want to get into I think a few things that we kind of knew but then a few surprises that were kind of thrown into the step chart as well now before we get into it as always the USC fans it it's been a blast talk in this program All Summer Long the amount of support y'all continued to show it it means the absolute world if y'all do enjoy the content consider subscribing to the channel much more importantly would love to hear you kind of your biggest takeaways from this USC depth chart and without further Ado let's get into it and I want to start not normally we normally would start at the quarterback spot and kind of work our way down I want to start in the defensive back room where I'll kind of put my hand up and say a lot of the USC fans in the comment section you guys were right I thought John Humphrey De Carlos Nicholson coming in through the transfer portal I kind of penciled them in to be starters in the stanland defense and you look at Jaylen Smith and you look at jacobe Covington a lot of you guys saying hey they played really good football towards the back half of that year specifically in the bowl game against Louisville those kids can play and I we always knew that they were going to be deep and competitive in the quarterback room but I kind of chalked up to Carlos Nicholson and John Humphrey as being the starters and you know I still would expect to see both of those quarterbacks play week one against LSU but I think that says more about Jaylen Smith and Kobe Covington because I look at it and say I know John Humphrey is a really good football player I me gave up only a 54% completion percentage last year in in uh in coverage only missed 6% of his tackles I know D Carlos Nicholson coming over from the SEC is a good football player because we've seen it with our home two eyes in one of the best conferences in the country so you look at Jaylen Smith and Jobe Covington beating those two out and say those guys must be damn good football players and so if I'm USC like kind of quietly excited to see some of the guys that were on this team last year winning starting roles heading into 2024 I think it also speaks a little bit to the cross training that we've seen D and Lenn dogel talk about I think Jaylen Smith was kind of penil in in the preseason to play that nickel quarterback spot now I'm a massive fan of greedy Vance I'm not surprised he kind of won that battle I think greedy Vance is going to be a dude for USC but because you you cross train your guys you can say hey if Jaylen Smith's one of our best cornerbacks we'll get him on the field we'll teach him how to put the boundary that's exactly what USC did I think that's going to be a really fascinating position to watch because we kind of talked about it if there's the most important matchup in this football game I think it is you know these cornerbacks holding up on Islands against really good LSU wide receivers because I would foresee d Ling getting really aggressive in terms of the allocation of bodies into The Tackle Box to stop an LSU team that is going to want to run the football behind a really good offensive line so these quarterbacks are going to be tested it's going to be a huge game for them against some good wide receivers and it kind of fired up to see guys like jacobe Covington and Jaylen Smith went out for some starting jobs going to the linebacker spot no real surprise we kind of knew the three main linebackers of this defense Easton mascarenas Arnold Mason Cobb and Eric Gentry it's nice to see Desmond Stevens and Elijah newbie kind of make that two 3 because I think those are really good freshman that probably don't play a ton week one I don't know if you want to go up against an NSU defense that's going to give you a lot of different looks and play true freshman that being said I would certainly keep my eyes out on both of those young backers because I think they're really good now moving to the defensive line I don't think we're surprised by Jamal Muhammad and Anthony Lucas starting at Ed you're going to see a lot of bril and Shelby I think one of the bigger takeaways for me was Devin th Tomkins going to play that ad Ral at the defensive end spot we kind of heard a lot of talk about him being 285 pounds and working on the inside I think two takeaways here one maybe USC feels a lot better about the depth on the inside of the defensive line that a lot of people gave them credit for because if they did not feel that way they'd probably play Devin Tomkins on the inside and maybe specifically for this match up against LSU where you know LSU wants to run the football maybe it makes sense to go with a bigger heavier handed Edge rushing unit like a guy like Devin Tomkins who is becoming very strong at the point of attack he's not quite big enough to play on the inside but at 285 pounds he can certainly be that heavy-handed edge rusher that can be a really big presence in the Run game I don't think we're too surprised about the defensive and depth chart it's nice to see cam Fountain May kind of that depth chart list on the inside I think the biggest probably surprise would be the designation with Gavin mayor and bar Alexander Barry Alexander is going to play the most on the inside of the defensive line and I think if you're reading into it positively Gavin mayor is ready to go like we're gonna give Gavin mayor the or designation with our best defensive linemen on the football field I think that speaks a little bit more to Gavin Mayer than it does bar Alexander like look we know what be Alexander is yes did Lincoln Riley say he needs to find a little bit more consistency yeah absolutely but we know that Gavin mayor now is going to come in and probably give you some really good reps on the inside of the defensive line you talk about you know kind of formulating a two deep here I think you got five guys you trust right Baron Gavin Nate Clifton Kobe Pepe and Elijah Hughes G abisara I think the jury's still out I'd be surprised if we see a ton of him against LSU week one but if you can go into that matchup with five guys that you kind of feel good about it's a heck of a lot better than we were feeling five months ago about the inside of the defensive line where was Bob bar Alexander Elijah Hughes and Nate Clift and we weren't even sure if he was going to play on the inside and so I think for USC fans you're probably feeling a little bit better there now that's probably some of the bigger I wouldn't even say surprises but bigger storylines of this official dep chart coming out moving to the wide receiver spot I'm not too surprised to see a couple ores with Kiron Hudson who I think is a really good football player just kind of getting Dr out by four extremely talented sophomores Kyle for getting the orage Kobe Lane maybe a little surprising I would think that has a lot more to do with hey we know Lincoln Raley probably wants to rotate six or seven wide receivers and I think this depth tread is just telling us the six or seven guys are going to be the the four sophomores and then Kyon Hudson Kyle Ford and I would probably project Jay fair to play a decent amount of football for USC week one against LSU we've talked about this we think USC is going to play a lot of four wide this week you kind of look what I kind of view what Colorado just did against North Dakota State kind of similar to what USC is going to do where one you look at your personnel and say look we want to get these wide receivers on the football field because they're our best players they're our most dynamic players on offense and again it's not a shot at guys like Lake McCree it's a little bit just more given respect to the amount of talent I think's in this wide receiver room but I think more importantly I think for going up against the defense like LSU you want to get them in space and you look at Colorado why they had so much success on the offensive side of the football they said hey we're going to play Four wide we're g to make you operate in the secondary in space that's where this LSU secondary struggled in 2023 and so I think that's what USC is going to be trying to do on this against this LSU defense Sunday night in Las Vegas you move to the offensive line no surprises there right the four guys that we knew were starters are starters I think the big question is who do we see at Right Guard I would guess it's going to be Alani NOA but you got some two two really big bodies right Alani Noah to or Os tal tal talat I hope I said that name right those are big big bodies at Right Guard two guys that we feel pretty good about one of the questions I saw on Twitter was not a USC fan was saying I'm concerned about the depth at tackle for USC I think that's probably fair right you have two retro freshman that haven't played a ton of football during their collegiate career I think for people within the USC program and I mean obviously knock on would if somebody were to go down at the Tackle Spot I would be extremely surprised if they just didn't kick Jonah back out the tackle instead of play the right sh freshman and so if you do have to get into your dep at tackle he Jonah we're going to take you from Center we know you can play both sides of the tackle spots at a very high level and we're going to to fill in with Ken or Gino at Center that's kind of what I would project this USC offensive line rotation to be I look at this offensive line and say specifically on the left side I think it can be a really good unit and I wouldn't be surprised if USC really leans on that unit running the football Miller Moss starting quarterback Woody marks starting running back not surprised I think you're going to see kind of that a one a1b in terms of Woody marks and Quinton Joiner I think the last surprise was the tight position where you don't see Joey Olsson even on the depth chart you true freshman Walker Lions he's getting a nod um it's surprising Joey Olson was one of my guys in the offseason it sounded like he had a phenomenal offseason where he maintained the athleticism he had in high school put on some weight I wonder if we see Joey Olson a little bit down the line again it's a lot to ask for a true freshman to start at tight end because there are a lot of different responsibilities and parts of the game that you kind of have to be accountable for at at at the tight end spot and so you don't normally see a ton of true freshman unless you're freaky like Brock Bowers you know starting early and playing early as a freshman tight end and again I again not a shot at Lake McCree I just I'd be surprised if we see the tight end position a ton in this football game just because I think USC wants to get this LSU secondary in space those are kind of the big surprises wanted to hop on talk about what we saw I think the position battles that we were curious about we get our answers with no or shout out to Lincoln riy no board designations or nothing we're just going to tell you who we're going to play I think that's better for the fans I'm I wish as a Michigan fan like Michigan doesn't do that and it's frustrating so for USC we got some answers now it's time to go play football Sunday night really excited for that game we'll close it out there again appreciate you guys rocking with the fellas if yall do enjoy the content consider subscribing to the channel appreciate you guys and we'll talk to y'all later