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The winds of change have found a foothold and have been blowing right through Los Angeles all summer. Out goes Clay Helton and interim Donte Williams, and in comes Lincoln Riley and a set of expectations unrivaled in this USC football program since the days of Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart, LenDale White and others under Pete Carroll. However, that doesn't mean that there are zero questions for the new regime to answer as far as the 2022 season goes. It will be a challenging one, even with the loads of additions made through the transfer portal.
With one eye on the opening stages of fall camp and the other on the schedule, let's go through the two biggest questions facing Lincoln Riley's USC Trojans football team heading into his maiden voyage, the 2022 season.
2. Will the portal players jell?
As college football continues transitioning into the new era of NIL and the transfer portal, we've begun to see certain programs fully embrace the idea of bringing in transfers. One such example is USC this offseason, most notably bringing in Caleb and Mario Williams from Oklahoma, as well as superstar wide receiver Jordan Addison from Pitt. Caleb Williams is the surefire starter under center with the transfer departures of Kedon Slovis to Pitt and Jaxson Dart to Ole Miss, respectively, while Mario Williams figures to be one of the top receivers alongside Addison.
Something that remains to be seen, however, is how, if at all, the 20 players brought in from other schools, mesh with the players already in the program. Bringing in a bunch of mercenaries to a well-drilled army may work, or it may not. It might take a few weeks into the season for everything to click, if it does.
However, Trojans faithful, keep the light on, there's no reason to suspect they won't jell together, it's more a question of how quickly. As mentioned it may take a few weeks into the season, but the question is can USC win football games while they figure that out? If so, they could be set up well to contend in the Pac-12, if not, then they could be looking at a record along the lines of 8-4.
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1. Offensive Line
With Caleb Williams locked and loaded under center, the big task for USC then becomes protecting him. The Trojans' line was, to put it lightly, not spectacular in 2021. They'll need to improve to keep Williams on his feet, because when he is he can be electric. However, as seen at times at Oklahoma, when Williams isn't kept on his feet, he can be completely taken out of games.
There's some serious pass rushing talent in the Pac-12, so Riley will likely have to cook up some inventive blocking schemes and/or rollouts for the first few weeks of the season to test out his offensive line a bit. If they make the grade, everything could be roses, but if not, again, USC could be in for a less successful season than they hope.
The Trojans have a relatively easy opening month of the season, with games against a bad Rice team, a not very good Stanford, a depleted Fresno State and Oregon State, so they may have time, but eventually, they'll have to stare down an Oct. 15 trip to Utah to face the reigning Pac-12 champions. If they haven't figured out their offensive line issues by then, the Trojans, or more aptly Caleb Williams, could be in for a world of hurt.
