Inside the Trojans' Huddle: Outlining the biggest concerns for USC football heading into 2026 season

Yeah.

I would imagine it's probably going to be similar to everybody else's.

At least it'll be one of them.

And it's just, you know, you – USC, the last few years, I mean, we can even go back before Lincoln Riley and it was starting to happen before that.

It just seems like teams could run the good teams, especially good teams on the road.

But it happened at the Coliseum as well.

Could just run it down USC's throat and it's seemingly whenever the hell they felt like it.

And, you know, I believe just in glancing at some of the stats, it was – I think that Notre Dame averaged seven yards a carry on the ground against USC in South Bend, Indiana.

And shockingly, if it wasn't for a – Was it a kickoff return? Yeah, kickoff return right after USC scored a touchdown.

That may have been a different season.

I'm not saying it would have been, but I mean, it was like, shockingly, USC was actually in that game despite that.

And it was 4.4 yards of carry at Oregon.

It seemed like it was six yards of carry there too.

I just think the interior defensive line, maybe we could even, like I could even say the front seven, need to do a little better.

And, you know, you brought in a bunch of young players, and I know it's young players, they're inexperienced, but I think there's enough of these young players who are maybe a little bit on the older side, hold back age-wise, that they're a little bit more mature than your average true freshman coming in, like a Dylan Wafel and a Tom-Tom Tapui and guys like that.

I just think there's enough of these extremely talented, young defensive linemen, plus the Now, Zariah Fisher and Alex Van Sumeren when those guys were added to the transfer class, I think it was kind of like a big meh for USC fans.

They looked them up and was like, what the hell are we taking these guys for? I don't know.

I just have this sneaky suspicion that those guys are going to be vital to USC's success on the defensive line.

Maybe not so much in stopping the run with Zariah, but I'm really high on Alex in watching his film from Michigan State and just think that he's going to fit right in there.

He obviously is taking on a big leadership role at USC being in that they, they have in the big 10 media day, but that is my, my major concern heading into the season.

And, you know, and they won't be eased until they start playing some games against good competition.

But I think that, you know, it's, it's hard to not get better all things considered, but that's number one for me.

I think that's a, A fair one, and run defense is something USC has struggled with on and off the last several seasons, and it's obviously very important when you're playing in a conference like the Big Ten, having those big bodies up front, which USC has obviously gotten bigger over the last couple of years.

Very excited to see what this young group of defensive tackles does this season, specifically just referencing the interior, guys like Jakeem Stewart, Floyd Bucard, Tom Tom, jamie winfield as you mentioned so that young core but what those veterans do and yeah alex van sumerin is someone who has seen his stock rise you know since spring camp as someone who's going to be very important for this front with those two years of big 10 starting experience greg mark any of you guys also share the run defense that make your list