USC junior wide receiver Makai Lemon is a man of few words yet many yards.

Five weeks into the season, Lemon leads college football in receiving yards by more than 50, with a total of 589. When asked how he felt about the statistic after Tuesday’s practice, Lemon responded in his typical fashion: “Just blessed to be in these opportunities, just gotta keep stacking.”

Recently, Lemon has had to shoulder extra weight as USC (4-1, 2-1 Big Ten) competed with its other top receiving option in junior Ja’Kobi Lane limited, just one of the string of injuries plaguing the now one-loss team.

In Saturday’s last-minute loss to No. 22 Illinois (4-1, 1-1 Big Ten), Lemon did everything in his power to push the Trojans to victory, going for 151 receiving yards, a career-high 11 catches and two fourth-quarter touchdowns. That’s without his 75-yard touchdown that was later called back due to an ineligible man downfield penalty on redshirt senior center J’Onre Reed.

Before the season, an ESPN poll had Lemon as the fifth honorable mention on its top 10 receiver list. Now, the USC junior has earned first-round NFL draft pick buzz and is currently only truly contested for the top wideout crown by Tennessee (4-1, 1-1 SEC) junior Chris Brazzell II, who has 58 less yards on four fewer catches but also has seven touchdowns to Lemon’s five.

“He’s a guy that we feel like can do a lot of different things well on the field, and that allows us to use him in different areas and be creative,” USC Head Coach Lincoln Riley said in a post-practice news conference Tuesday. “He’s improving. He works hard out here. Football’s important to him, and he just keeps getting better and better.”

Lemon taking over without Lane

A frequent pairing, both redshirt junior quarterback Jayden Maiava and Lemon attributed their connection to one-on-one offseason practices and building a personal relationship outside of football.

“I’m blessed to have Jayden put the balls in the right spots,” Lemon said in a post-practice news conference Tuesday. “I just got to go up there and make the play.”

Lemon’s presence has been especially impactful after an injury to Lane forced him to miss USC’s Sept. 20 win over Michigan State (3-1, 0-1 Big Ten) and play limited snaps against Illinois, catching four passes for 39 yards.

Lane went for more than 90 yards in back-to-back wins against Georgia Southern University (2-3, 0-1 Sun Belt Conference) on Sept. 6 and Purdue (2-2, 0-1 Big Ten) the following week, headlined by a jaw-dropping one-handed catch in the former match, but Lemon has picked up a lot of the targets recently.

“He’s just a warrior, man, a guy that’s willing to lay it all on the line for the team and the program,” Riley said of Lane in a news conference after Saturday’s game. “You appreciate guys like that.”

Lemon has gone for more than 120 yards in three of USC’s five games and hasn’t had less than 63 in any single contest. In the two games since Lane’s injury, Lemon put up a combined 298 yards and three touchdowns.

But Lane isn’t the only impact player hurt on a USC football team still recovering from its first loss of the season.

O’Connor to miss at least two games

Redshirt junior center Kilian O’Connor will miss at least the next two games after leaving Saturday’s game in the second quarter, Riley said after Tuesday’s practice. Riley didn’t give a specific timetable for the return of redshirt sophomore left tackle Elijah Paige, who missed the entire game against Illinois after sustaining an injury during the Michigan State game the week prior.

Reed, whose penalty cost Lemon a touchdown Saturday, took over the snaps for O’Connor. Riley praised Reed’s performance and said the bye week will prepare him to take over O’Connor’s spot.

“He came in and operated us pretty well. It was good to get him some reps,” Riley said of Reed on Tuesday. “He made a couple of mistakes, but all in all, we still moved the ball really well when he was in there.”

Coming into the season, Reed was the presumed starter for many after he started 25 games at center for Syracuse, but he was initially beaten out in what Riley previously called “a good battle.” O’Connor previously said he learned a lot of technical skills from Reed and attributed some of his improvement to their competitive battle for the starting spot.

“[Reed’s] a great player, a veteran guy. He knows what he’s doing out there,” Maiava said in a post-practice news conference Tuesday. “He sees the game a little different than everybody else. He’s seen different looks, and he’s been a part of other programs, obviously, and played a lot of ball.”

‘All gas, no brakes’

USC was also without redshirt junior safety Kamari Ramsey on Saturday, who was ruled out with food poisoning hours before the game, significantly impacting the Trojans’ secondary.

“All of a sudden, you wake up on game day morning. You’re playing in five hours, and your best secondary player can’t play,” Riley said after Saturday’s game. “It’s unfortunate.”

After the game, speculation of a mass food poisoning spread, which Riley dispelled Tuesday, saying it wasn’t widespread despite “a few” players appearing in the game that “didn’t feel 100%.”

“It’s part of road ball. No excuses, we’re not an excuse-making program,” Riley said Tuesday. “I don’t want to make it out like we had some widespread, 50-people [illness]. That’s not what it is. We had a few people, a few staff members, that didn’t feel tip-top shape.”

With a big game against No. 20 Michigan (3-1, 1-0 Big Ten) coming up Oct. 11, which could decide USC’s playoff fate, Lemon described the bye week as “all gas, no brakes” for a team hoping to right the ship.

“We got to bounce back in the bye week,” Riley said after Saturday’s game. “We’re not a very healthy football team, so we got to do a good job and get some of these guys’ bodies back.”