There is no hiding it: USC is a starry school. There is nothing Trojan fans love more than seeing a future face of their sport suit up in cardinal and gold and begin to grow their legend. Just in the last few years, think Caleb Williams, Evan Mobley and Skylar Fields. Whether their time in Los Angeles has culminated in glory or heartbreak, a rotating handful of names tends to dominate discourse about USC sports.

While Trojan legends are certainly worth celebrating, the majority of them play team sports and would be the first to tell you that from their teammates to USC medical staff, the hard work of countless others was key  to their success. Some of that is just cliches and press conference jargon, but it is also ultimately very true.

Think back to last March, when we were watching the national superstar of Juju Watkins grow. In the Pac-12 championship game, Stanford collapsed on Watkins, who shot 2-15 and had just 9 points. It was a combined 39 points from graduate guards McKenzie Forbes and Kayla Padilla, along with 18 huge boards from then-sophomore center Rayah Marshall that led the Trojans past the Cardinal to secure their first Pac-12 title since 2014.

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That doesn’t make Watkins any less of a superstar — we all saw Lebron in the 2011 NBA Finals — but it does mean that we miss out on highlighting more Trojan greatness by repeatedly platforming the same players.

So I am going to start taking a look at players who you may not see on ESPN but are putting up wins on the board for USC, starting with a player who just arrived on campus, but is already making a big mark.

Senior linebacker Easton Mascarenas-Arnold made the move to SoCal this summer after three years, 37 games and 159 tackles at Oregon State. Transferring alongside his stepbrother, redshirt senior safety Akili Arnold, the duo have already emerged as leaders on the new-look Trojan defense.

Before the season started, Head Coach Lincoln Riley announced that his captains would be named on a game-by-game basis, and the opportunity to lead the Trojans out would have to be earned each week. Both Arnold brothers were named captains for the season opener against LSU, and Mascarenas-Arnold was one of only two players — alongside redshirt junior quarterback Miller Moss — to be selected by Riley for both of the first two games of the season.

“I think that’s just a big honor, I was kind of shocked too when [Riley] announced my name the second time, that was pretty dope,” Mascarenas-Arnold said in a postgame press conference after USC’s win over Utah State. “But I think it’s a big responsibility to be noticed like that by my coaches and by my peers, and with that responsibility comes a lot of people’s eyes on me.”

Mascarenas-Arnold has transitioned into his leadership role seamlessly, both on and off the field. Through two games, he has 13 tackles, a pass deflection and an interception. But the numbers don’t begin to cover it. His presence in the middle of the Trojan defense has consistently provided calm and toughness, two things that unit has largely been without during the first few years with Riley at the helm.

Standing at just six feet flat, Mascarenas-Arnold doesn’t have the freakish size of senior linebacker Eric Gentry, but he is still a hulking presence at 231 pounds and always seems a step ahead of everyone else on the field. With Mascarenas-Arnold, Gentry and redshirt senior linebacker Mason Cobb, the Trojans have finally formed a versatile, gritty linebacker group that can instill fear in opposing offenses.

Gentry and Cobb have grabbed the most headlines so far, both making crucial plays in USC’s upset win over then-No. 13 LSU, but the immediate leadership and three-down competency that Mascarenas-Arnold has provided is even more crucial to the Trojans’ early success. You may not see him on the gameday program this weekend, but you are likely to see him wreaking havoc on the Michigan offense — with an enormous smile on his face.

Henry Mode is a sophomore writing about underappreciated Trojan athletes in his column, “Unsung Heroes,” which runs every other Tuesday. He is also a sports editor at the Daily Trojan.