The big issue for the 2023 USC football team was their defense. The Trojans have already moved on from defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, and they have signed D'Anton Lynn from UCLA. USC still has a lot of work to do in terms of getting their defense ready for next year, but the Trojans took another step in the right direction on Thursday with a big defensive line commitment.

Four-star defensive lineman Jide Abasiri was originally committed to play for Minnesota football, but he decommitted, and he will now play for USC football. He announced his commitment to the Trojans on Twitter on Thursday morning.

Jide Abasiri is a four-star recruit on On3, but on most other sites, he is rated as a three-star. He is the #283 player in the 2024 class, the #29 DL and the #4 player in the state of Minnesota. Abasiri currently attends Prior Lake High School in Savage, Minnesota. He was originally planning on staying in his home state, but he is now heading far away to sunny California.

This is a big pickup for USC. The Trojans lost a little bit of recruiting momentum during their underwhelming season as they saw some decommitments and not a lot of commitments. This could help get the ball rolling again, and it is especially big that it is a defensive player. The defense has to be the main focus for this coaching staff during the offseason. This season showed that it doesn't matter how good you are on offense, you need a good defense to win football games.

USC has one more game this year before the 2024 season, which will be Abasiri's freshman year. The Trojans are taking on Louisville on December 27th in the Holiday Bowl. The game will kickoff at 8:00 ET, and it will be airing on Fox. It will be at Petco Park in San Diego, California, and USC is a 7.5-point underdog.