Football spring game: What to look out for

Despite going 11-3 in the 2022 season and making the Pac-12 Championship game, the USC football team has much to fix if they want to compete for a national championship in 2023.

Spring ball was an opportunity to start to work on those problems and it will all come to an end Saturday, when the USC football team takes on the USC football team for the Spring Game. 

The format of the game, similar to last year, will pit the offense against the defense for one half of football, Head Coach Lincoln Riley announced on Trojans Live. The defense will start with 21 points and the offense will try to catch them. The defense still has the opportunity to score more points through certain actions like forcing turnovers or getting a safety.

There are many questions surrounding this football team, so here are some questions to consider during this year’s spring game:

How improved is the defense?

There is no true way to answer this question from one half of exhibition football, but it will give fans a glimpse of what is to come. The Trojan defense gave up a whopping 29.21 points per game last year, and that number rose to 41.25 points per game across their last four games of the season.

While the Trojan offense was able to boast 41.36 points per game across the entire season, the defense must improve in Alex Grinch’s second year as USC’s defensive coordinator if the Trojans have any hope to compete for a national championship. The coaching staff has signed eight incoming freshmen and six transfer portal players on the defensive side of the ball this offseason to kickstart those improvements. Only 10 of the 16 players are currently enrolled at USC though, meaning only those 10 have a chance to appear in the exhibition game.

Sophomore defensive lineman Anthony Lucas, a transfer from Texas A&M, is one of the defensive additions who has the chance to start come the fall. The defensive line, which has to replace the 13.5 sack production from NFL draft-hopeful Tuli Tuipulotu, brought in four new faces aside from Lucas for the spring. This weekend will show how Lucas and the other additions might help change this defense. Look out for No. 6 come Saturday.

The linebacker room saw some new additions as well. Senior inside linebacker Mason Cobb, a transfer from Oklahoma State, and freshman inside linebacker Tackett Curtis will both compete for significant playing time, especially since junior inside linebacker Eric Gentry has been out all spring after getting ankle surgery earlier this year. Riley said earlier this spring that the linebacker room would need to step up and produce this upcoming season, and both Curtis and Cobb could be a part of that.

What’s going on with the skill positions?

Saturday will begin to answer who will claim the starting spot in the talented — and crowded — wide receiver and running back rooms.

To start with the wide receivers, returning members include junior Mario Williams, redshirt senior Tahj Washington and senior Brenden Rice, who put up a combined 2027 receiving yards last year. The team also brought in freshman Zachariah Branch, freshman Makai Lemon and junior Dorian Singer, a transfer from Arizona. Branch and Singer are the most likely to usurp the veterans, as Branch was higher-ranked than Lemon out of high school and Singer has significant experience coming from Arizona. 

The Trojans have to replace former-Biletnikoff winner Jordan Addison, another USC draft hopeful who’s expected to be a high first-round pick, and they certainly have the talent to do so. The question is, which players will be the ones to fill Addison’s shoes.

The running back room has the same problem as the wideout room, albeit a good problem. USC brings back redshirt senior Austin Jones and sophomore Raleek Brown, while adding redshirt junior MarShawn Lloyd from the transfer portal out of South Carolina. Earlier this spring, running backs coach Kiel McDonald said himself that he does not know whether he will have a featured back or run the room by committee, so this question might not be answered until the fall.

Which Helton-era players will step up?

While Riley and Co. have brought in their own guys, there are still holdovers from Clay Helton’s tenure at USC. Many of these holdovers are in position groups surrounded with question marks. Players like junior defensive lineman Korey Foreman, who helped seal the Crosstown Showdown this past season with an interception in the closing minutes, junior inside linebacker Raesjon Davis, redshirt sophomore defensive back Ceyair Wright and redshirt sophomore wide receiver Kyron Hudson are just a few of the players recruited by Helton’s staff who will be expected to step up this year. Saturday might serve as a preview of which players will take a leap forward.

Just as much as the team needs freshmen and transfer players to step in and play big roles, it also needs players who have been on the squad, but did not see much playing time last year, to come in and make an impact.

Who’s going to backup junior quarterback and Heisman trophy winner Caleb Williams?

Over the offseason, the Trojans signed five-star quarterback Malachi Nelson, who enrolled early with the school. With that much talent, it will be hard for the coaching staff to put him anywhere except right behind Caleb Williams. But redshirt sophomore quarterback Miller Moss is still in the fold. Another Helton holdover, Moss backed up Williams last year and saw limited action with 14 pass attempts and 159 passing yards. 

If there is ever a reason Williams needs to leave a game or miss time, Riley and the rest of the coaching staff will need to make a decision as to who replaces the Heisman winner. Since this game is offense versus defense, the first ‘winner’ of the backup quarterback battle will be the one who comes into the game once Williams’ day is over.

Many of the storylines listed here are not only something to watch for at this Spring Game, but also throughout summer practice and into early fall. While aspects of these questions may be answered Saturday, most of the answers will only become clear when USC takes the field for the first time of the 2023 season Aug. 26 against San Jose State.