Trojans plan to shuffle O-line in final weeks of spring camp
Through the first three weeks of USC spring football, the Trojans’ offensive line rotations have mostly been stagnant.
Like last year, Jalen McKenzie has manned the firstteam right tackle with Brett Neilon at center and Andrew Vorhees and Liam Jimmons at the two guard spots. The lone newcomer is Courtland Ford filling in Alijah Vera-Tucker’s old position at left tackle.
Behind the first team has been a collection of redshirt freshmen and some veterans like Justin Dedich and Liam Douglass. But rarely have the two teams intertwined.
According to new offensive line coach Clay McGuire, that’s been by design as he evaluates his new players. But with two weeks left in camp before summer, McGuire expects to employ more of a mix-and-match approach.
“We’ve got six practices to make it uncomfortable,” McGuire said Tuesday morning. “We’re going to flip-flop some guys, put some guys in different positions, and kind of reorder the lineup a little bit, just to figure out and see who our best 5-8 guys are.”
McGuire came to USC from Texas State with the hope that he would be more compatible with the Air Raid offense run by third-year coordinator Graham Harrell. McGuire was a coach at Texas Tech when Harrell was the Red Raiders’ quarterback and both served under Mike Leach at Washington State together.
The Trojans’ linemen feel like McGuire is helping them with techniques in the Air Raid. They have a different approach when they get into their pass blocking sets, and are having an easier time identifying changes to their run blocking schemes at the line of scrimmage.
“I think that’s helped tremendously to have a mentor like that that’s been in the offense for years and years,” Neilon said. “I think technique-wise, what we’re doing really fits this offense. And also how we’re identifying things. It’s really going to benefit us a lot.”
So far, the results have been shaky. The defensive line has frequently gotten the best of its offensive counterpart this spring, and the offensive line surrendered eight sacks in last weekend’s spring game.
But McGuire says he likes the position group’s current trajectory, and the players understand their importance to the team’s success in the fall.
“The offense goes as we go. We’re the thing that keeps it running,” McKenzie said. “That’s the biggest point of pressure we keep on ourselves, keeping our accountability to our teammates and doing our jobs within the offense and doing our jobs to the standards we hold ourselves to.”