University of Southern California Trojans
2021 Preseason
As I started working on the incoming frosh's academics, I noticed we took a big hit in coaching blocs. Leland Shepard isn't nearly as likable as Clarence Ackeman was, so we'll have about 20 fewer blocs to allocate this year.
Hopefully that won't be a problem.
Most of the academic management was just a case of tweaking the upperclassmen around. This year's freshmen aren't quite as well rounded academically as we have had in years past. They're not bad mind you, just not the grade A student-athletes we've come to expect.
Once summer workouts rolled around, it seemed apparent that this year's team was going to be far different than last year's squad. No more Big Bobby Burgess at LT, no more 40 carries a game J.B. Wilson - no Ed Kidman. Kenny Finch is really going to have to step it up a notch and become a leader.
Kenny will be calling the signals for his second season. In the backfield with him will be redshirt senior Ike Daugherty. Ike has a lot of talent but just doesn't have the stamina JB did. So I think we can expect to see the workload a bit more evenly distributed this year. At Wingback is redshirt junior Alf Snyder. Snyder has the potential to be an explosive player - but likely not this year, Wingbacks are hardly ever explosive. Backing them both up and likely to get a decent share of carries is redshirt junior Jeff Thompson, another very talented back.
Kenny Finch will probably throw a bit more this season - though you'll see our running backs featured a lot more with a new screen package we put in. Aside from our backs, Kenny will be throwing to freshman wideout Britt Wells. The kid from Hawaii is just that special that even in a wishbone offense I think you'll see Britt be a difference maker. Our starting Tight End will be sophomore Fred Hastings - known more for his run blocking than anything else. Dustin Wynn and Ricardo carley will also likely see some time there.
Our offensive line is pretty solid - though Burgess is irreplacable. Anchoring the line will be 5th year senior OC Gino Lyubashevsky. Gino has really developed into one heckuva lineman and should have a very good season. On his left - the clear strength of our line, will be redshirt senior OG Des Connell and redshirt senior OT Nate Dillon. If we're playing well, expect to hear those two names called a lot this year. Over on the right side is 5th year senior Brian Barton, probably the weakest link in the line. And to his right is freshman OT Mario Harper. Harper has the potential to be an outstanding offensive lineman and once Nate Dillon graduates we expect Mario to move over to LT. But he could be a key player this year if he works at it.
Defensive Coordinator Leland Shepard inherits a very strong defensive line, anchored by first year starter, redshirt senior Mel McWilliams. Mel is a major run stopper and should give opposing runners headaches all season. Flanking Mel will be returning starters at DE, 5th year senior Wally Knight and redshirt senior Floyd Jeffers. We expect to see Knight and Jeffers piling up the sacks this season.
The linebacking corps is easily the weakness of the defense - the main reason we brought in Leland Shepard to help develop some of our LB recruits. Only redshirt senior ILB Walt Whalen is above average for a major college program. He's joined by redshirt senior Monty Garcia on the inside. Monty has the potential to be a lot better, but just didn't get the work on his technique he needed to improve the past three years. On the outside will again be walk-on 5th year senior Wayne Biakabatuka. Wayne's worked hard as a recruited walk-on and easily deserves a scholarship. He's actually not too bad. He's gotten as good as he is going to get, but for now, that's a lot better than some of these high potential kids that are in the wings. On the other side is junior Ken Kariya. Kariya's development has been painfully slow and he shouldn't be starting, but he's qwhat we've got right now. I'm hopeful that given a year or two Leland Shepard will have this unit built back up to where it should be - and I should note it's not significantly worse than last season's unit, which helped us win a national championship.
The secondary is once again very strong. At shutdown corner will be redshirt senior Brad Knight. Knight has all-world talent - but rarely can play more than 50% of snaps - he just doesn't have the endurance to stay out there. Over at the other corner will be redshirt sophomore Mario Barber, who is really going to be a special player. Backing them up quite ably as our nickel back will be redshirt junior Justin jacobs, who will also see a lot of action subbing for Knight.
At the safety positions we have two of the best in the nation in senior Lawrence Abdul-Jabbar and redshirt senior Jared Esparza. Not a lot gets by those two. They are ably backed up by redshirt junior Stephen McElroy and redshirt sophomore Amos Carpenter, both of whom will play major roles for us in the future.
On special teams, 5th year senior Xavier Eason returns as our Punter while freshman Burt Givens takes over the placekicking duties from the graduated Rod Gardner. Returning punts will be CB Justin Jacobs and Chris Knight, while Knight and Mario Barber will be returning kicks. It's a difficult call whether to use Knight as a return man, but he's so explosive, and we have the depth at corner that using him some here makes sense.
Whether we contend for another PAC-10 and national championship this season will largely depend on the performance of QB Kenny Finch. Last season we only turned the ball over eight times all year. Finch is going to throw a little bit more this year, and we don't have J.B. Wilson to pound at opponents like we did last year. So we're expecting a lot out of Finch. The challenge will be if he can live up to that kind of pressure.
Tailback Ike Daugherty is a question mark. How much of a load a runner with his limited endurance can shoulder remains to be seen. We've got plenty of depth behind him, but we'd like to see him make an impact - no, we need him to make an impact. We're also looking for WB Alf Snyder and WR Britt Wells to be in positions where they could make a difference.
Defenseively we've got the same M.O. as we always do. Stop the run, pressure the quarterback, and let the secondary chase down the bad guys. We've got a defensive line that's good enough at getting to the quarterback we don't have to expose ourselves by blitzing much, and that always helps. And our secondary is top notch.
Life after JB should be interesting.
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2021 USC Roster
Code:
The College Years
The University of Southern California Trojans
2021 Roster/Scout Overview
From the Desk of Lester Stargell, Lead Scout
Player # Pos Elig Current Estimate Future Estimate
Casillas, Eddie 18 QB Sr 49 64
Felkey, Anthony 13 QB So* 38 65
Finch, Kenneth 1 QB Jr* 55 92
Kluge, Thomas 5 QB Fr 24 84
Ratto, Vinny 2 QB Sr* 32 89
Daugherty, Ike 24 RB Sr* 76 100
McChane, Andrew 48 RB Fr 44 54
Snyder, Alfred 25 RB Jr* 66 69
Thompson, Jeffrey 47 RB Jr* 67 76
Vance, Billy 40 RB Sr 58 59
Walker, Skipjack 36 RB Sr 54 66
Gardiner, Warren 31 FB Fr 48 89
Horie, Tyrone 28 FB Jr* 39 95
Washington, Spencer 45 FB Jr 54 72
Merchberger, Joe 32 FB* Sr 35 51
Carley, Ricardo 97 TE So* 41 71
Griffin, Arnold 96 TE Fr 28 56
Hastings, Fred 82 TE So 46 54
Wynn, Dustin 80 TE So 41 61
Dresselhaus, Graham 84 TE* Sr 8 8
Leavitt, Joel 81 TE* Sr* 12 28
Mogolov, Conrad 89 TE* So 19 66
Freeman, Phillip 3 WR So* 25 58
Hartl, Oliver 83 WR Sr 38 53
Jacobs, Glen 7 WR Sr 48 65
Myers, Al 86 WR Sr 41 61
Wells, Britt 6 WR Fr 49 100
Westbrook, Marty 9 WR So* 33 80
Linquist, Kevin 85 WR* Jr* 19 27
Burroughs, Adam 51 C Fr 22 58
Leong, Dexter 50 C Sr* 25 77
Long, Dana 53 C Sr 47 62
Lyubashevsky, Gino 56 C Sr 75 75
Woodson, Josh 57 C So* 40 98
Barton, Brian 65 G Sr 32 74
Connell, Desmond 68 G Sr* 76 90
Deason, Chester 74 G So* 16 62
McConnell, Gus 61 G Fr 6 81
Warkentien, Desmond 66 G Jr* 11 47
Berry, Kurt 78 T Sr 39 50
Dillon, Nate 69 T Sr* 79 81
Gash, Ryan 64 T So* 12 87
Grodin, Peter 67 T Jr* 28 89
Harper, Mario 76 T Fr 37 100
Eason, Xavier 8 P Sr 80 94
Grbac, Calvin 11 P Fr 17 86
Terry, Ronald 12 P* Sr* 2 2
Givens, Burt 14 K Fr 49 99
Gillespie, Tony 19 K* Fr 2 2
Jeffers, Floyd 72 DE Sr* 75 99
Knight, Wally 91 DE Sr 79 83
Lew, Austin 70 DE Sr* 55 100
McIntyre, Shaun 77 DE So* 45 70
Whiting, Conrad 95 DE* Jr* 2 22
McWilliams, Mel 98 DT Sr* 52 100
Shepard, Jim 94 DT Fr 35 100
Norton, Lawrence 75 DT* So* 12 34
Andersen, Vince 43 ILB Jr* 30 73
Frias, Broderick 93 ILB So* 42 89
Garcia, Monty 41 ILB Sr* 59 75
Nadeau, Walter 52 ILB Fr 37 100
Oben, Moe 92 ILB Sr 50 70
Sly, Casey 58 ILB Jr* 29 79
Whalen, Walt 49 ILB Sr* 90 91
Blackston, Matt 42 OLB Sr* 41 80
Kariya, Kenneth 90 OLB Jr 34 73
Pritchett, Jessie 46 OLB So* 22 90
Warren, Russell 99 OLB Fr 25 100
Biakabutuka, Wayne 55 OLB* Sr 49 49
Barber, Mario 37 CB So* 60 100
Cheng, Walter 23 CB Jr* 48 96
Garcia, Marvin 22 CB Fr 30 74
Jacobs, Justin 35 CB Jr* 59 61
Knight, Brad 26 CB Sr* 89 98
Abdul-Jabbar, Lawrence 38 S Sr 91 91
Brennan, Jon 29 S Sr 46 57
Carpenter, Amos 44 S So* 60 97
Esparza, Jared 20 S Sr* 83 83
Kinsey, Mel 34 S Jr* 53 84
Knight, Chester 30 S Fr 44 100
McElroy, Stephen 39 S Jr* 65 99
Swafford, Howard 27 S Fr 44 100
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2021 Preseason BCS Rankings
Code:
The College Years
Preseason, 2021
BCS Overall Rankings
School Record Conf Comp Poll Loss Sched Total Rank
Florida 0-0 SEC 1.00 1.00 0.00 2.04 4.04 1
Virginia 0-0 ACC 2.00 2.00 0.00 0.32 4.32 2
**Southern California 0-0 P10 3.00 3.00 0.00 1.88 7.88 3
UCLA 0-0 P10 4.00 4.00 0.00 1.92 9.92 4
Iowa 0-0 B10 5.00 5.00 0.00 0.48 10.48 5
Michigan 0-0 B10 6.00 6.00 0.00 0.52 12.52 6
Penn State 0-0 B10 8.00 7.50 0.00 0.72 16.22 7
Rice 0-0 WAC 7.00 8.00 0.00 3.44 18.44 8
Syracuse 0-0 BGE 9.00 8.50 0.00 1.48 18.98 9
Georgia Tech 0-0 ACC 10.00 13.50 0.00 0.16 23.66 10
Boston College 0-0 BGE 11.00 12.50 0.00 1.32 24.82 11
Alabama 0-0 SEC 12.00 12.50 0.00 2.28 26.78 12
Texas A&M 0-0 B12 14.00 12.50 0.00 1.24 27.74 13
Hawaii 0-0 WAC 13.00 11.50 0.00 3.32 27.82 14
Wisconsin 0-0 B10 15.00 13.50 0.00 0.80 29.30 15
California 0-0 P10 17.00 19.50 0.00 1.72 38.22 16
Marshall 0-0 MAC 18.00 16.50 0.00 3.80 38.30 17
Toledo 0-0 MAC 19.00 18.50 0.00 4.08 41.58 18
Pittsburgh 0-0 BGE 20.00 20.50 0.00 1.40 41.90 19
Miami of Ohio 0-0 MAC 16.00 22.50 0.00 3.84 42.34 20
Air Force 0-0 MTW 21.00 22.50 0.00 2.52 46.02 21
Louisville 0-0 USA 22.00 21.00 0.00 3.04 46.04 22
Notre Dame 0-0 IND 23.00 19.50 0.00 4.56 47.06 23
North Carolina State 0-0 ACC 26.00 22.50 0.00 0.28 48.78 24
South Carolina 0-0 SEC 24.00 23.50 0.00 2.16 49.66 25
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