LOS ANGELES – Sitting in his office at the end of March, searching for a way to somehow quantify the physical leaps made by the jumbo-sized 6-foot-4 ball of energy in his wide receiver room, Lincoln Riley’s eyes darted to the items on his desk.
Ja’Kobi Lane, Riley described on a Zoom call with media, was “rail-thin” when USC began recruiting him a couple years back. So Riley picked up a black plastic fork sitting on his desk, gripping it by the prongs with his right hand. He looked like this fork, Riley said. The before.
“Now he looks like this water-bottle,” Riley said, picking up a plastic bottle with his other hand. The after.
In a moment of genuine poetry, that bottle had merely a couple of sips of water remaining at the bottom – about 5% full, to represent a player who’d hit just a small sliver of his potential. Lane came into the fall for USC weighing 180 pounds. Now he weighs 195. The combination of sheer size and body control leapt off the page in December’s Holiday Bowl, where then-freshman Lane caught two touchdowns, including one where he simply too-smalled two Louisville defenders in the back of the end zone.
And in USC’s spring game Saturday, Lane popped again, after a spring camp where he continued to ascend as perhaps USC’s top outside threat entering the fall. On a first down on USC’s second series, UNLV transfer QB Jayden Maiava hesitated in the pocket, faked a couple throws before whizzing a rope to Lane on a deep crossing route – about an arm’s length behind him.
As if he was simply stretching, Lane reached behind his body and plucked the toss out of thin air with one hand.
He finished with three catches for 36 yards on the day. His continued development working with incumbent Miller Moss – in a room of young receivers – could lead to a major breakout campaign this fall.
Including Lane’s ascendance, here are four more things the Southern California News Group learned about an intriguing USC program after a month of spring football and a spring showcase Saturday.
1. Miller Moss is USC’s starting QB, but watch out for Jayden Maiava
Let’s be real. Moss threw six touchdowns in the Holiday Bowl; a true QB1 competition never really existed around USC this spring. After months of dancing around the topic, Riley confirmed as much after USC’s spring game Saturday: if they played football today, Moss would start.
“Obviously, that’s no surprise with the number of snaps he’s had in this system,” Riley said of junior Moss.
And after a couple iffy practices to start, Moss had been “lights out” the rest of spring ball, Riley said. But he didn’t look as particularly dynamic as he did in December’s Holiday Bowl, and UNLV transfer Maiava showcased a level of touch and playmaking in his snaps Saturday – running heavy play-action looks – that matched or exceeded Moss.
Maiava threw for 3,085 yards as a true freshman at UNLV last year, and Riley has complimented his poise throughout spring. Even as Moss is the de-facto No. 1, look for Maiava to nip at his heels come the fall.
2. Marcelles Williams, Kameryn Fountain and Elijah Newby could be immediate defensive difference-makers as true freshmen
USC targeted defensive depth in its 2024 class, and it’s paying immediate dividends.
Williams might take the cake as the most-buzzed player coming out of spring camp, the corner out of St. John Bosco notching a highly impressive pick in USC’s spring game. The 6-foot-6 Fountain has already put on around 20 pounds since arriving at USC, and wreaked havoc in the run game coming off the edge Saturday. Newby mainly profiles as an inside linebacker, but showed tremendous speed in chasing and tracking USC quarterback Jake Jensen out of the pocket on one play Saturday; Riley hinted he could wind up moving across a variety of different spots in his Trojans career.
All three could earn meaningful snaps for USC this fall after standout springs, although Newby and Fountain undoubtedly need more years of development.
3. USC has improved size, but still needs more depth up front on both sides
Early in the spring, Texas A&M transfer defensive tackle Isaiah Raikes told media he knew USC had a need for defensive linemen, and he was looking for a situation in the portal where he could “make a difference right away.”
That need up the middle is only more apparent, now, after Raikes hit the portal again for the second time in a matter of months. Bear Alexander is entrenched as a key returner at nose tackle after much conversation about his possible transfer, but he’d been rehabbing an injury for much of spring camp. USC’s best bets next to him at the moment are sophomore Elijah Hughes, freshman Jide Abasiri and Vanderbilt transfer Nate Clifton, who might play more on the outside.
And after an offseason of heavy bulking, Riley asserted Saturday that USC’s offensive line was “starting to look more like what you feel the O-line at USC ought to look like.” But coach Josh Henson is still relying largely on underclassmen for a majority of the Trojans’ depth. USC has clearly committed to playing more physical football entering the Big Ten, but needs a few more pieces and continued development in fall camp to make good on Riley’s vision.
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4. The running-back room and secondary are major points of strength
At first glance, entering the spring, USC’s running-back group seemed thin: just one member of the room, Mississippi State transfer Jo’Quavious “Woody” Marks, had legitimate primary-back experience.
But weeks later, it’s clear the mix is deeper. Marks can fit in a variety of roles as a ball-carrier, pass-catcher and blocker. Sophomores Quinten Joyner and A’Marion Peterson look ready for expanded roles, and freshman Bryan Jackson earned the most reps of all on Saturday, although he struggled with efficiency (13 yards on 10 carries).
And USC’s most standout group Saturday was the secondary, which after two years of inconsistency suddenly looks like one of USC’s greatest strengths under new defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn and defensive-backs coach Doug Belk.
Mississippi State transfer DeCarlos Nicholson, UCLA transfer John Humphrey, and the returning Prophet Brown and Jacobe Covington all look like starting-level corners. UCLA transfer Kamari Ramsey and Oregon State transfer Akili Arnold are immediate plug-and-play starters at safety as veterans. And that’s all even without factoring in returning Holiday Bowl standout Jaylin Smith, who’s been sidelined for much of spring with an injury.
“You got two of the best guys in the business that are coaching those guys,” Riley said Saturday. “And when you have that, you see the results of it.”
