{"id":452703,"date":"2026-09-03T23:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T23:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/452703\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T23:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T23:54:10","slug":"usc-freshman-luke-wafle-just-scratching-the-surface-with-strong-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/452703\/","title":{"rendered":"USC freshman Luke Wafle ‘just scratching the surface’ with strong debut"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It was still just the first quarter of his first college football game at USC<\/a> when Luke Wafle<\/a> offered a first glimpse of his staggering potential. The freshman defensive end tossed aside a San Jose State tackle with one swift move, then steamrolled a running back standing in his way. In the process, San Jose State\u2019s quarterback was forced from the pocket and Wafle, now sprinting from the other direction, nearly forced a safety.<\/p>\n

It would\u2019ve been an eye-opening sequence for any pass rusher, let alone a true freshman. But at USC, those who have watched Wafle for months now say it\u2019s basically what they\u2019ve come to expect from the Trojans\u2019 top defensive prospect.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a very special player,\u201d said linebacker Desman Stephens II.<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably the most talented freshman I\u2019ve gone against in my time here at USC,\u201d said left tackle Elijah Paige.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust a beast on the field,\u201d added defensive tackle Floyd Boucard. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t play like a freshman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wafle played just 23 snaps in his first game, but he made the most of them. He was the Trojans\u2019 highest-graded defender, according to Pro Football Focus, with two pressures on 13 pass rushes and two stops on the other 10 in the victory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And when USC takes on Fresno State on Friday night, chances are he\u2019ll get even more reps to wreak havoc.<\/p>\n

\u201cA young man like that brings a lot of excitement on the other side of the field,\u201d defensive tackle Kameryn Crawford said with a smile.<\/p>\n

He called it \u201ca crazy feeling\u201d just to play along the defensive front with Wafle.<\/p>\n

The freshman\u2019s presence alone should help change the trajectory of a Trojan defensive line that\u2019s fallen short of expectations the last few seasons under coach Lincoln Riley<\/a>. USC\u2019s top pass rusher from a year ago (Crawford) had 5 1\/2 sacks last season, while no one outside of Tuli Tuipulotu has had more than 6 1\/2 in a single season under Riley at USC.<\/p>\n

Wafle might change that this season. That certainly looked like the case last Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing I liked most about him Saturday is he didn\u2019t hesitate,\u201d Riley said. \u201cHe was around the ball. He was around the quarterback. He made some plays for us, obviously, and he was really close to making a bunch of others. And I think that\u2019s just scratching the surface of how good this guy can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"USC <\/p>\n

USC defensive end Luke Wafle (94) pressures San Jose State quarterback Luke Weaver (3) during the first quarter of the season-opening game last Saturday at the Coliseum.<\/p>\n

(Ronaldo Bolanos \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Even beyond Wafle, Riley has reason to feel good about his defensive line. Namely because it\u2019s as deep as it\u2019s been in his five seasons at USC. Two of the Trojans\u2019 better linemen \u2014 Jahkeem Stewart and Braylan Shelby \u2014 didn\u2019t play in the win, and the unit still looked like the strength of the defense.<\/p>\n

Whether those reinforcements will be back Friday remains to be seen. Both were listed on USC\u2019s second depth chart of the season after being absent from the first, suggesting they could suit up.<\/p>\n

Safety issues<\/p>\n

The reviews coming out of last week\u2019s debut for USC\u2019s defense were less glowing for the secondary, which gave up three pass plays of 20 yards or more in the second half.<\/p>\n

Most of those coverage busts came from USC\u2019s backups at the position, but it does beg questions about the depth in the Trojans\u2019 defensive backfield.<\/p>\n

Riley acknowledged that the Trojans \u201cneed a couple of those guys to play a little sharper\u201d at the safety position, primarily. Redshirt senior safety Prophet Brown said that he tried to put his arm around those young players this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody is perfect,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThe greats aren\u2019t perfect. But they do learn from their mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

How much USC\u2019s secondary will be tested this week by Fresno State remains to be seen. The Bulldogs are breaking in a new quarterback, junior Jayden Mandal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was still just the first quarter of his first college football game at USC when Luke Wafle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[11155,6308,3317,178874,5562,32698,11491,88,90,89,178870,178872,36900,178871,23138,3533,178873,178869],"class_list":["post-452703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-defense","tag-field","tag-friday-night","tag-last-few-season","tag-last-week","tag-lincoln-riley","tag-quarterback","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-single-season","tag-strong-debut","tag-surface","tag-talented-freshman","tag-trojans","tag-usc","tag-usc-freshman-luke-wafle","tag-wafle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452703","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=452703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}