{"id":203943,"date":"2026-03-04T14:27:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T14:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/203943\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T14:27:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T14:27:13","slug":"usc-kicks-off-spring-football-practice-with-influx-of-young-talent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/203943\/","title":{"rendered":"USC kicks off spring football practice with influx of young talent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When 32 freshman football players filed excitedly into the meeting room at John McKay Center in January for their first official meeting at USC, each new Trojan from the nation\u2019s No. 1 recruiting class<\/a> in 2026 was asked to stand up, share their name, number, position and an interesting fact about them.<\/p>\n

This was pretty standard fare, as far as ice-breakers go. Albeit with one notable difference from past years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was abnormally long [this year,] for sure,\u201d senior offensive lineman Tobias Raymond said, with a laugh.<\/p>\n

As USC<\/a> opened spring practice on Tuesday, a cursory glance through its spring roster would tell you just how much the Trojans will need those freshmen to find their footing \u2014 and fast \u2014 in a season likely to be defined by their development. Nearly half of the players in attendance for Tuesday\u2019s first day (46 of 103) were either freshmen or redshirt freshmen. That\u2019s almost triple the current size of USC\u2019s junior or senior classes (16).<\/p>\n

If the Trojans have any hope of making the College Football Playoff for the first time in five tries under Lincoln Riley<\/a>, an influx of 18- and 19-year-olds will play a major part.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of new guys,\u201d Riley said Tuesday. \u201cGetting a look at these people, seeing where they\u2019re at in terms of their development and where they\u2019ve gotta go, I think the evaluation process is going to be really important.\u201d<\/p>\n

At no position will that be more critical than pass catcher, where USC must replace its top two wide receivers, Makai Lemon<\/a> and Ja\u2019Kobi Lane<\/a>, and top two tight ends, Lake McRee<\/a> and Walker Lyons<\/a>. In their place steps a deep crop of young talented options, all hoping to emerge this spring.<\/p>\n

There will certainly be no shortage of opportunity for USC\u2019s four incoming freshmen receivers (Kayden Dixon-Wyatt, Trent Mosley, Luc Weaver and Tron Baker) and two incoming tight ends (freshman Mark Bowman and junior college transfer Josiah Jefferson) to make that impression. In addition to the void left by Lemon and Lane\u2019s departures, the Trojans will also be without their top returning wideout this spring, as Tanook Hines will sit out the entire session following an offseason procedure.<\/p>\n

Hines, who\u2019s only a sophomore, could probably use the next five weeks of spring to develop, considering how much of the Trojans passing attack is likely to rest on his shoulders this fall. But Riley said he thought Hines\u2019 absence could actually be \u201ca blessing in disguise\u201d for the rest of the room.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll these guys, they\u2019re going to get a ton of reps and they all need them,\u201d Riley said. \u201cWhat a phenomenal opportunity for all those other guys to develop and to take advantage of those reps. We\u2019re going to need that.\u201d<\/p>\n

That directive has been clear enough to USC starting quarterback Jayden Maiava<\/a> since the Trojans\u2019 fleet of freshmen arrived on campus. Maiava has spent much of the past two months trying to build a connection with young players on both sides of the ball, taking them out to dinners, watching film with them, walking through the playbook and even conducting players-only sessions on the practice field.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big impact for the guys I\u2019m going out there with,\u201d Maiava said Tuesday. \u201cJust letting them know I care about them and I care about their success. I want the best for them, and I want them to know that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his third season as starter, Maiava won\u2019t have the benefit of one of college football\u2019s best pass-catching pairs at his disposal. He\u2019ll also enter 2026 on the shortlist for the Heisman Trophy \u2014 and all the pressure that comes with that.<\/p>\n

Offensive coordinator Luke Huard said last month that Maiava has had \u201ca tremendous sense of urgency\u201d since the end of last season.<\/p>\n

Raymond, who will snap to Maiava as a center this spring, said the quarterback\u2019s communication has improved \u201cexponentially.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing when someone is down or seeing when someone has a good play and picking them up or congratulating them, but also getting on people when they do something wrong,\u201d Raymond said. \u201cIf he sees something, he calls it out. If he sees something good, he calls it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Receiver isn\u2019t the only spot where freshmen will get a serious chance to compete next season. On the offensive line, five-star offensive tackle Keenyi Pepe \u2014 at 6-foot-7, 330 pounds \u2014 already looks quite capable of contributing on a Big Ten front. The same could be said of edge rusher Luke Wafle \u2014 6-foot-6, 265 pounds \u2014 and defensive tackles Jameion Winfield \u2014 6-foot-3, 325 pounds \u2014 all of whom were five-star prospects.<\/p>\n

Still, it may take some time for that young talent to show through, with USC also breaking in both a new defense and special teams concepts. But for what the Trojans will likely lack in experience this spring, they\u2019ll make up for, in some part, with depth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve never had a spring practice, none of us in all of our years, that we\u2019ve had this high of a percentage of your full roster already here for spring,\u201d Riley said. \u201cWhich is a huge advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s still the small matter of getting all those newcomers to jell. But on that note, Riley thinks talk of USC\u2019s youth movement overlooks how many talented players are returning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve kind of gotten painted on the outside as just this crazy young team,\u201d Riley said. \u201cLike, we do have some really good youth, and I know that class has gotten some attention in terms of how that recruiting process played out, but we\u2019ve got a lot of guys that have played a lot of ball here. \u2026 You like the talent that we have, you like the returners. I love the guys we brought in. But like one of the best sports franchises of all time said, \u2018You\u2019re not collecting talent, you\u2019re building a team.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got talent. Now we\u2019ve got to build a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Injury report<\/p>\n

In addition to being down its No. 1 receiver, USC will be without two of its returning starters on the offensive line this spring. Center Kilian O\u2019Connor and right tackle Justin Tauanuu will sit out while recovering from surgical procedures. Left tackle Elijah Paige didn\u2019t practice on Day 1 of spring ball, either.<\/p>\n

Cornerbacks Jontez Williams and Chasen Johnson and safety Christian Pierce won\u2019t participate this spring, either, Riley said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Running back Waymond Jordan was limited to start spring ball, as was defensive tackle Jahkeem Stewart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When 32 freshman football players filed excitedly into the meeting room at John McKay Center in January for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[4472,30810,94485,48,52,51,32698,47,50,49,1741,39393,28998,94483,94484,94481,94486,23138,68,3533,94482],"class_list":["post-203943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ball","tag-freshman","tag-influx","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lincoln-riley","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-lot","tag-maiava","tag-makai-lemon","tag-new-guy","tag-spring-football-practice","tag-spring-roster","tag-tanook-hines","tag-trojans","tag-tuesday","tag-usc","tag-young-talent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}