USC Spring Camp Takeaways & Storylines with Cody Kessler

0:00Welcome to another episode of the Victory Podcast driven by Audi. I'm your host, Keli Orderum of my co-host and former USC quarterback, Cody Kessler. Cody Springball is back, which means we're back in studio, excited to see you and excited to talk about some football. Yeah, I'm excited. It feels like we've been gone for so long. But at the same time, it weirdly feels like we just did an episode last week, right? I feel like I'm at home though. I've been doing a lot of other things throughout the season at the Super Bowl doing some other stuff with some other shows, but I feel like I'm at home. This is where I belong. I bleed, cardinal and gold. I'm excited to be back for this episode and talk some Spring football for USC. You know, it's funny. We've been gone for so long, but it doesn't, like you said, doesn't feel long. So when planning this episode, I was a little overwhelmed of like, what are we even cover? But since Springball is starting, we're just going to keep it Springball focused for the top storylines.

1:00What are we looking at when it comes to the roster and, you know, depth? We're not going to go full roster right down because if you know us, you know, we can go deep into the deep. We might get there throughout the spring. We got some episodes to work with. Yes, that is a great point. Not today. This is going to be like an overview. Kind of, you know, if you've seen Trojan's live football round table, we kind of ping-pong a little bit of topics and we'll do that a little bit here as well. So that's kind of what this episode will be and then we'll get more detailed as we get further along into the spring. So that's just the general overview of us coming back and starting episodes once again. So excited to dive into it, Cody, before we do, you just want to have a reminder for you guys. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can also watch the video version of this show on the USC Athletics YouTube channel. And you can follow us on our social accounts, VictoryPod USC. That's where you can find updates on our latest episode releases. Also helpful because we've been a little sporadic with our release dates, but that kind of comes with the territory. Hey, also PSA. It's not just me. You cover multiple other sports. Oh my gosh. You use it popular. Well, I'm in throughout the sports world as well. This week in particular, spring and we'll talk about this spring camp is earlier. So it's much more overlapped with baseball and the basketball ball.

2:04So it's Emily and I don't know what data is. We're just here and we're talking some USC sport spin the wheel. We will talk about it. Hey, true Trojan through and through. Doesn't matter to show up and perform. That's all we do. Exactly. Exactly. All right, Cody. Let's jump into it. Like I said, this is kind of a unique spring camp for Coach Riley in the sense that it's the earliest I believe he's had in his tenure here at USC and they've changed the pattern. I mean, going back to I want to say, even when you were at Trojan, Cody, I feel like when I think spring camp, it's a Tuesday practice, a Thursday practice, and a Saturday practice. And now for USC in 2026, it's a Tuesday morning practice, a Wednesday morning practice, a Friday morning practice, and a Saturday morning practice. So it seems like the goal or the thought process was, let's add more practices within the week, but less weeks overall. So I'm curious, Cody, because you've never really experienced this type of schedule. What do you make of one going earlier into a kind of condensing the schedule? Yeah, the first part of that starting sooner. I love that. When you have this mini freshman already on campus, Keeley, they have 31 freshmen already

3:07here for spring ball, which is unbelievable. We weren't anywhere near that when I was playing yet. I mean, you were lucky to get 10 early enrollees to be here for spring football. And normally it was just quarterbacks, maybe some key positions guys that potentially could become starters. But now you have 31 freshmen and also some other newcomers that are here on campus ready to go. Let's get on the field. Let's get hands on. I love that. But from Coach Riley to want to get out there so that these guys can get acclimated with the playbook, with the techniques, with the language, with these new coaches, the more comfortable you can get, the quicker you can do that, you give yourselves more opportunity on the back end to go back and now self scout and prepare. Now when you have really an extended spring, you're going to have practices these next four weeks, then you get an extra workout period with coach Carol. Yeah. As well as player ran practices. And my Ava can now grab some of these young receivers, young tight ends, these young offense alignment. They can go work on the field themselves without the coaching staff. But since they've already got practices done, they can speak the same language. And we can talk saying, hey, on that stop route, I need you at nine with an outside shoulder throw on that end cut, get the 12 roll to 14.

4:07And they think, all right, we already had, you know, 15 practices of that in the spring. Now I can hit the ground running when we go to the offseason, when we go to summer and then ultimately fall camp. I love this by Coach Riley. It's very important with how many young players are on this roster. I mean, they really have almost their entire roster here right now, and we're still a couple months away from season. So this is a great call on his part. And then when it comes to the schedule going for practices a week, it's something different. I'm curious to see how it works out. Like you mentioned, when I was here, it was Monday meetings, Tuesday practice, Wednesday meetings, Thursday practice, Friday meetings, Saturday practice, Sunday off. So you would kind of have this rhythm that you would get into of on off, on off. Now they're going off with two on day off in between and two more on. I like it. I think it's going to help getting all this information early on might be a little bit of an information overload for some of these young guys. I don't care if you had one practice throughout the week. As a freshman, it's going to be information overload, but I promise you on the back. And I think this is going to pay off huge because now essentially you get this extra time and these extra periods throughout the offseason to have them ready to go when season comes around.

5:07So this might be a naive question, but this also is coming from a non-player experience type of person. In the sense that, you know, if you were to go earlier, I would think that you would do that when all coordinators are back. You don't have any new staff members, but there's a new DC on this staff. I feel like in my mind, I would be like, okay, let's give the players more of a runway to, you know, be on the iPad and look at Patterson's defense and get to know it better. So then when we hit the field, they're ready to go. But they've chosen obviously to go earlier. From your perspective, Cody, what benefits does that give them to kind of almost, it sounded like Coach Riley said, we've had enough. We just need to give on the field. And that's exactly the answer I was going to give is meeting rooms are great. Film watching is great. Those are all important, but nothing is more important than getting on the field, getting hands on with the players. I can learn something by watching film sitting in a company chair in shorts and a t-shirt. But when I get out there and live bolts are flying and now I'm having to read, you know, the office of guard leaving. If I'm a linebacker in this new scheme, how to attack downhill. If I'm a quarterback, having the cipher between one high to high, it's a lot more difficult

6:12and helmets and shoulder pads and guys flying at you. I know quarterbacks aren't going to get hit, but that's so much more important than just overloading on film. But on top of that, I can watch film anytime, right? Once practice is done, I can still go back and self scout and now have things on tape from spring ball that I can learn from, especially on the defensive side of the ball. This new system, because it's not just the young guys are going to be learning, you know, this defense, it's also the veterans on this team as well. They're going to learn Patterson's scheme and what they're going to do defensively. So I think the quicker, like I mentioned, you can get on the field, the more beneficial it will be on the back end and it gives you that extended period of time post spring practice where you're still in spring. But now I have those practices. I'm acclimated to the system. I can learn from it, get on the field, play around practices, do these other things. And again, I think that'll pay off big time in the long run. One of the things I've picked up when I first started covering college football was just how much of a difference there is when someone is able to come in the spring versus being a fallen relief. Like guys just said, it was just a complete difference. And so from that perspective and the perspective of not having half your roster come in the

7:13fall, what is it like having, you know, a longer runway of this team and this chemistry? Yeah, being able to be here and this is speaking from experience. Now I didn't play that year or the following year, Matt Barkley ended up staying, but being here in the spring helped me tremendously going into fall camp really because of the time off. That was the most important part is having the spring, which was a lot of information. It was. It's tough. Like I mentioned, it doesn't matter if it's one practice a week, if it's four practices a week, it is tough going from high school to college and getting, you know, comfortable playing at that speed, playing with all these new checks, playing with all these things you got to do mentally, which is why we were so impressed by it to nuke coming in in fall last year. Well, you have your outliers like to new kinds. Sure. A guy I remember was Marquis Slee. I remember him coming in in the fall and not being here for spring, but him running a dig route over the middle and Barkley threw it about 11 feet high and you Matt, you know, over through him a little bit, Marquis climbed the ladder and caught it and I said, all right, a guy could have showed up the day before the first game, pulled on the run three routes and he would have out there and probably won a bullet in the call for word as well.

8:13So you do have guys that can show up late and still make an impact that are athletically gifted, but especially at some of these, you know, key positions for some of these young guys, they're going to have to be starters this year with how many talented freshmen there are with how many talented newcomers there are. There's going to be a lot of guys are going to be starters and also going to be a lot of guys. They're going to still have to contribute, even if they aren't starters so the quicker you can get here, the more benefit it gives you to being able to play fast in the fall. It really does. It's a huge factor, especially on this team when there's a lot of young guys that are going to have to make an impact. But on top of that, you get around the veterans as well. I know this is a young team and there's some young players, but there's also veterans at key positions. You have Jay and my Ava coming back at quarterback at running back. You know, Wayman Jordan coming back, King Miller, another guy at offensive line. Keely, I think this is the first time that they've returned five guys that were starters the previous season. Now, that may switch up a little bit and there's been some injuries and some guys coming in there and compete for some spots, but there's continuity up front, which will help some of these young guys. And on the defensive side of the ball up front, you got Braille and Shelby, Camcroft or John Jarrett, a Bucard, all these different guys, linebacker Stevens, and the back ends,

9:14you got Marcelo Williams, a Christian Pierce. So there's enough veterans on this team that even if some of these young guys are going to have to play, there's leadership. And that starts in the spring that they can learn from that can help them get better and get up to speed quicker. And to your point, I just want to break down the overall class, like sections of the roster right now. 16 seniors, 16 juniors, 25 sophomores, 15 red shirt freshmen, and 31 true freshmen. Now, what's interesting is Coach Reilly made an interesting comment at the end of the first mini availability after practice when he was asked, what's the biggest question you have this spring camera? What do you want answered? And he said, I want to know or I want to accomplish blending the roster well because he was like, a lot of people and, and you know, by numbers, they're correct, art pointing out how young this roster is, but like you just said, Cody, there's experience where you want experience. And Coach Reilly said something to that degree, and I'll just read the quote I have here. He says, we've got a lot of guys that have played a lot of ball here. We've got experience at some positions that you really like to have experience with.

10:15So to me, it's not so much the youth of it, it's just combining all of them together and creating one cohesive unit. And I think outside of any specific side of the ball, that's probably the biggest challenge for us because you like the talent you have, you like the returners. I love the guys we brought in, but we've got to. And then he kind of went into a coach quote mode. He said, one of the best sports franchises of all time said, you're not collecting talent, you're building a team. We've got talent. Now we have to build a team. Yeah. And you were part of that franchise too, Cody, at one point. So that that patriot, so I thought it was just interesting because obviously the marquee storyline is there's a lot of young guys, there's a lot of new faces, but there's experience where you need it and we're really hasn't had it necessarily in his tenure here at USC. As you mentioned, five starting offensive lineman coming back. So it's just an interesting blend. And how do you do that as a team if we had a true freshman quarterback that hadn't played or a young quarterback competition where we didn't have any stability at that position. If we had, you know, maybe a first year center on the team, if we had a first year

11:17left tackle, if we had a first year middle linebacker, if we had no, you know, continuity in the back end at the safety position, if we needed to rely on a freshman on the outside at defense event and didn't have veteran leadership there, I would be worried, but that's not the reality of it. We have key leadership roles on this team right now. And now you bring the younger guys along and we're not talking about just any freshman class. We're talking about the number one recruiting class in the country. We're talking about five stars, four stars, guys that can come in and make an impact right away. And you don't get that fifth star. You don't get that four star. If you're also not very, if a very good player up here as well, you've got to be able to mentally come in and learn a playbook and dissect a defense or dissect an offense and make plays because it's not all just athleticism when you get to the next level. It's also the mental side of things and we have a great, in my opinion, class, when it comes to both physical players, but also mental players that understand how to play the game well. Now you put them around a guy like Gary Patterson and Lincoln Riley and the coaches that are on this staff, are you kidding me? I really believe that these young players can make a big impact one and part of because of how good of players they are, but also because of the leadership of key positions

12:20on this football team. And an interesting, like, underlying storyline and I think coach Riley might have said something to this degree on Jordan's live as well is like hearing from the assistant coaches, these, this class coming in, like they obviously are kind of reverend and respectful to the veterans and the guys who've been here and have the reps, but they also are not afraid to be leaders and to be vocal and kind of set the standard as well, which I find fascinating. I think that's a great sign. Like when you are trying to build the culture that, you know, Riley has laid out as we bring in the high school recruits, we keep the, the SoCal talent. It is a good sign when this number one class is already being like, Hey, we know what the standard is and we're going to help up, like, keep it and not, you don't have to tell us in that sense. And that's a huge testament to coach Riley and Chad Bowden and the rest of the staff as they go through this recruiting process because if you're going out there and just looking at the tape and not doing your due diligence and sitting down with these families and getting face to face with these players and figuring out what type of person you are and talking to their high school math teacher and talking to some of their teachers on campus to find

13:23out the character that they have, then you're not doing it right. And that's exactly what Chad Bowden and Lincoln Riley have done. There's a standard. There's a culture here at USC and they've gone out and made sure that they're bringing guys in that aren't going to be a problem in the locker room that aren't going to be a problem on the field that aren't going to be me first guys, their team first guys. And that's so important when you're trying to build a dynasty both in college and in the NFL because that's the big thing too. When you talk about the combine and that just happened shout out to some of the Trojans that performed really well, but I remember going to the combine, the on field stuff was maybe an hour. Everything else was meetings with coaches, background checks basically of, you know, how did you treat your third grade math teacher, what type of leader were you in sixth grade? Did you get to the front of the line or are you in the back of the line asking you questions about, you know, a bus loses its brakes going downhill, where would you like to be sitting? And the answer is, I'd like to be driving the bus like they want to know the type of character you are because if you don't have high character guys on your roster, then talent means nothing because when things get tough, you're going to fall apart. So I got to give a huge shout out to Coach Riley Chad Bowden, the rest of the staff of

14:24making sure they're bringing the right players both talent wise and personality wise to this roster. Well, you hit on one of the main story lines for 2026 Cody and talking about Jane Mayava, you're three for him here at USC, obviously that some of the big news of this off season was him coming back announcing that he was returning a resigned, if you will. By the way, I knew you're going to I knew you're going to have a take go for the resigning. I love it. I think it's cool for the players. I wish I could have sat up there. You know, you put the shirt on. I love that. Here's my new contract, man. I held the old sign it, but that is wild that we're at the point of college football right now where guys are resigning now, is there a little more insight? How does that work, by the way? Is that, do you know the full breakdown of why it's not the one to ask as far as like the logistics about this because that's about my pay grade? But I know that the like you had to resign your eligibility, like you had to resign things in general, no matter what you were doing, correct? Is this when I was here too? Yes. I thought when I signed my letter of intent, that was good until I'd either transferred or graduated. Look, I don't know the specifics, but I think the main bullet point from, you know, Chad

15:28voted in Coach Riley were, you know, the schools themselves in the transfer portal era don't get to make news because, you know, prior to announcing resigning, there's no really fanfare of being like, hey, our quarterbacks coming back. This is great. He chose to be here and Coach Riley made it sound like there's a right to be here too. Like there's also, like there's a standard if we're going to keep you. And so I think it was more a move to do a positive PR push in the transfer portal era rather than, oh my God, this guy's leaving, oh my God, this guy's leaving that we see across cultural board right now. That's a good point too. I think it also answered some questions for fans who were sitting on the edge of their seats like, is this guy coming back? Is he leaving? What's he going to do? But yeah, no, I think it's, I mean, as a player, I think it's pretty cool. I would have loved to sit there and got the pen and felt like an NFL like Simon, you know, whether it's just saying, hey, I'm staying here no matter what, but sorry to cut you off on that. No, you're good. I'm glad you brought it up because I saw some of these resigning posts. I'm like, was there a threat of them leaving where, you know, were we redoing their scholarship or is it year to year now? What's going on?

16:28But I think there's more a PR move, a positive PR move in that sense, but what I was getting to Cody was you mentioned it, you're three for, for my auva at USC in Lincoln Riley's offense. This is your bread and butter, Cody, what are you expecting from my auva, what are your expectations? Yeah, they're through the roof. They have to be. I mean, I love that USC is bringing Jay and my auva back. I love that he decided to come back. I think that was a smart move by him. Things going to be a good NFL quarterback one day. I just think he needs one more year of experience before going to that next level. And obviously being under Lincoln Riley, there's no better place to learn as a quarterback. But this is it. This is a huge year for Jay and my auva expectations are through the roof as they should be. And USC is one of the teams, which is a rarity in college football nowadays. It's returns. They're starting quarterback. You don't lose them to the portal. You don't lose them to the NFL and, you know, an era of college football where there's no stability, really, a lot of positions. We have stability at the most important position and that's Jay and my auva now. Some of the things that I think he can continue to improve on and what that next step really looks like for him, protect the football. The jump he made from 2024 to 2025 and I know that 24 season only played four games, but

17:33there were times when he was very loose with the football and put the ball in harm's way. The jump he made in 2025 was huge. I thought he was a lot better with his decision making, a lot better with knowing when to throw it away, when knowing when to go down with the football, knowing when to take off and run, which I think he can still do a little bit more of using his legs, but I loved his decision making and that improvement he made from his sophomore year to his junior year. That's got to be even better this year going into a senior season. I expect that to be the case as well, like I said, working under Lincoln Riley. The next thing I think he can continue to improve on is just his accuracy, right? The timing of playing within this offense, playing within rhythm. When he had a strong base and his eyes were on the right spot and he's going through progression and he's loaded and ready to go, I'll put him up against anybody in the country. There were just times some, you know, and this happens as a young player as you as your first year starting in a system, but where your eyes are a little late, your eyes might not be in the right spot. You're falling off and you don't need to lose some of those throws and that got him a couple of times throughout the year. We might have under thrown some throws or missed some throws that I know he can make. I wouldn't be saying this if I didn't think he was a top tier quarterback that can make all these throws, but him being a perfectionist in the quarterback that I know he is, he's

18:36going to want to correct some of those things, but that's what the off seasons for. Now you have a full year to self scout, to watch tape, to get on the field, to work with your personal quarterback coach, to work with some of these receivers on your own time so that when spring ball comes around, when season comes around, you can hit the ground running. He makes the same jump he made from 24 to 25, going into this year, sky's the limit. He could be the best quarterback in the entire country. He's already one of the best returning quarterbacks in the entire country, but I'm excited to see that next jump for him because I think the sky's the limit. The biggest thing I will say though for Jay and my off this year, the biggest step that he needs to take is he's got to be better on the road at home last season, 16 touchdown passes, only two interceptions on the road, eight touchdown passes and eight interceptions. Now with that being said, the road games were a lot tougher last year, right? We played Illinois on the road, Oregon on the road, Notre Dame on the road. I also counted the bull game as a road game, but those are the games you got to excel. Those are the games where you've got to take that next step and be that player, that quarterback that protects the football that's going to go out there and have ice in his veins to make

19:38those big time plays. And he showed flashes of that against Illinois after that mistake. He came back and led them to what should have been a win against Oregon hung in that game because of some big time throws he made. Notre Dame made some big time throws early on. It's just some of those crucial mistakes against good teams that you can't make. So that's got to be some of the things he's got to improve upon. But I'm all in on Jay and my off I have been for the last couple of seasons. I really think last year, even though there were some highs, there were some lows playing against the competition that he played is going to be so beneficial going into this year. I really feel like nothing's going to phase him and I saw some clips to already of him at the practice field throwing the ball around. Maybe in more of a vocal leader, you could hear him on some of those clips. I think that's going to be huge. So it's going to be a lot of pressure on 14 shoulders, but I know he's a guy that can handle it. What is the next step with chemistry building? If you lose guys like Jacobi Lane and McCoy Limon because obviously they make anyone's life easier when they're catching the ball. Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because that's going to be another huge factor. It is, you know, you lose McCoy Limon. You lose Jacobi Lane. Who obviously you're going to go play at the next level.

20:38So I wish them nothing but the best, but that's the frustrating part of the quarterback when I lost Nelson Aguilar. When I lost Marquis Lee, you know, but the great thing about USC is you have that next man up mentality. And I think two new kinds is a guy that can step up and be that next man up and we'll talk about the receiver position more in a second. But for Jay and my Ava this spring is you've got to get on the same page with those guys. When practice ends, your day doesn't end. You're out there for at least another 30 minutes, getting extra throws with the receivers. Pied in another position we'll talk about, but you lose your safety, you know, valve and in Lake McCree who didn't get enough credit last year. I know Limon and Lane got all the praise, but Lake McCree was so solid and would bail Jay and my Ava out on some of these scramble drills and some of these situations. When he could get him the football, so you lose Lake McCree there as well. So you get your running backs back, but yeah, you're going to have to get up to speed really quickly with these other receivers. There's going to be some true freshmen. I think you're going to play. You have some guys that are veterans on this roster that are also going to play some transfer guys that are also here as well. So yeah, it's going to be a big challenge this off season, but the fact we're starting spring quicker. The fact that we're already on the field, the fact that those guys are already on campus

21:41is going to be huge. Helping Jay. My Ava get comfortable with some of his new weapons. Well, you mentioned it. This wide receiver room has just changed dramatically and it is, I feel like encompassed by the fact that to new kinds wasn't even here this time last year. And now he heading into the fall 2026 season. He's the guy with the most experience, most reps left at wide receiver, which is pretty crazy. But he is going to be out or limited this spring, which kind of leaves me. I'll come back to the wider series, but just now that we're here, Riley did mention the injuries and who will kind of be either, either limited or out this spring. So one of them, like I said, to new kinds, two offensive linemen with Justin Taunew and Killian O'Connor. And then on the defensive side of the ball, there's Chase and Johnson, John Tess Williams and Christian Pierce, who will be out this spring, which some big names on the defense as well. So we'll talk about that when we get to that side of the ball. But obviously for Tanook, we know what he can do to a certain degree, but this is a huge opportunity for everyone else left in the wide receiver room. Yeah, absolutely. And if I'm a guy on this roster right now that's been here, I'm first in line on these

22:43routes. I'm first in line on these one on ones. I'm going out there to say I can step up and be that playmaker because we know what to new kinds can do to an extent, right? Yeah. 500 yard receiving last year, a couple touchdowns, but we saw flashes of that big play capability in the Notre Dame game, a couple games throughout the year, where I said, all right, that might be the next man up. That's what you have to have here at USC, but with him out throughout the spring, which is never a good thing, but it could be a little bit of a positive thing for some of these other guys to get reps with the ones, you know, you have Corey Sims, who came in with the new kinds last year guy that I was very high on a taller, bigger receiver who's already starting to make some plays on the first couple days of spring that I've seen on the video break down to a promise. We don't get to say anything that we see at practice, but you also have Zacharias Williams, who's a guy that I was very high on coming from Utah at some injuries last year. So we didn't get to see his full potential. So those are two guys that could step up this year and make some plays because they've already been in this system and they can take that next step. Hopefully, you see that this upcoming season, a transfer player to keep your eye on, Tarell Anderson coming from NC State 6200 pounder at 630 receiving yards last year and

23:46five touchdowns. I think he could fit very well on this scheme. And then some of the incoming freshmen, I think, can compete this off season. The first one's Trent Mosley, Luke Weaver's another guy, but the one guy in this class that I think they can make immediate impact and step up. And obviously he's got to go through the process and learn the offense, but Kaden Dixon Wyatt coming from modern day. I was watching his tape at modern day. I was watching Mark Bowman as well. Those are two good players. We'll talk about him in a second. But Dixon Wyatt, the skill set that he has, the speed, the size, the quickness, his ability to go up and catch the football to high point the ball is body control in the air. And I just saw a clip of a touchdown pass from Jayden, my Aval where he had to spin around and make the catch and get his feet down on the back of the end zone already on day one or day two is rare to do as a freshman. So I'm excited about his future, even with the new kinds out for the spring, even with losing McCoy, lemon, Jacobi Lane, which are two guys that are impossible to replace. I still think there's a lot of talent in this room and they're going to get a chance to compete this off season. Hopefully, makes some big time plays this year on the offense side of the ball. Well, you mentioned him and I want to get over to the Titans.

24:46Another group that is kind of just a restructured room in that sense. But speaking of Mark Bowman, I just want to tell you what coach Chad Savage said when I asked him, what does Mark Bowman bring to the Titan room? Dead pan just straight to the point. He said everything. Love it. So I'm curious from you, Cody, when you were watching film, what did you see from him? Yeah, I agree with what Chad Savage says. I really think Bowman is an all around Titan. I think he can be a big time playmaker in this offense. Really where he excels and what his superpower is, is that he's a positionless Titan and what I mean by that is that he's not a guy that you just stick at the line of scrimmage every single play where his hands and the dirt and he's in a three point stance. You can put him at the end of the line, but you can also put him in the slot and you can put him in the middle of a three by one wide receiver set and then you can put him outside one on one and he can win against a safety against the linebacker and also against the cornerback because of the speed and the quickness that he has. He's almost a glorified wide receiver who also can be physical like a Titan. It's a valuable weapon to have in this offense. I'm excited about his future. I think he can make big time plays in the fall.

25:47He's going to have to step up with some of the guys that are gone in that room and I think Chad Savage is going to do a great job of helping him develop and hopefully he can get up to speed with Jade my half of the spring. But as you alluded to Cody, this is an interesting position room in the sense that it feels a little restructured. Obviously you lose like McCree heading to the next level, walker lines and enters the portal and then you kind of have three sections in my mind of how I'm dividing this position room. You have transfers coming in. You have a true freshman coming in and then you have guys who've been here and so it feels like in some ways it's an equal opportunity who can make the most of the moment. Yeah, and you know, you think of Lincoln Riley's offense. You think of running gun and air raid and taking shots down field with lane and with lemon and getting the run game going and doing all these different things. The Titan room cannot be overlooked and I've been on record pounding the table of getting the Titans more involved in this offense and that's something that happened last year because Lincoln Riley runs a ton of 12 personnel. But now you lose Lake McCree like you mentioned in Walker lines who were two big time players last year. Someone's going to have to step up. But I think there are guys on this roster in that room that can fill that void and I

26:50think they can mix and match some of these combinations to where you can have two run blockers. You can have a pass catcher in Bowman and then a big physical player like Walter Matthews in there as well. So it's going to be interesting to see how coach Riley, you know, navigates having some new faces in that room and some guys are going to have to step up. But again, this is an important position room. So we're going to learn a lot throughout the spring, I think, and how they work well under Chad Savage. Now two rooms of question marks we just talked about, but one that we know that the faces in the names for the most part is at running back women Jordan, very excited to see him in year two. As far as his recovery, Cody, I know we still that's kind of TBD. We haven't seen him on the field, run full speed yet, at least we haven't. What are your expectations for him given what we saw from him in his first year here at USC? He's his expectations are to be the best running back in college football. He has that skill set. He has that ability. I think, you know, his stealing, both in college and the NFL is so high. I mean, last year before he got hurt, he had 88 carries, 576 yards and five touchdowns. He was average in 6.5 yards per carry and he was doing it against good defenses, making

27:52guys miss him the whole. He's patient as vision to with the guard tackle pulling around. He just fits so well in this offense. The sky's the limit. The stick season. I mean, obviously the injury don't want it to hinder him, but sometimes that can play a little bit of a factor, especially when it's a lower body injury for a running back. But with how hard he's worked with getting to know him, with I know how hard he hit the recovery process and the training room and all that, I expect him to be back to 100 percent. Maybe even 110 percent because now he's going to have even more of a chip on his shoulder to say, Hey, you remember who I am? Remember what I did last year before I got hurt? He was one of the best running backs in the country through the first five, six games of the season before his injury against Michigan. If he would have kept it up, I still believe he could have been a first team, you know, maybe all American at least first team big 10 by the way that he was playing. He had that potential. So yeah, the sky's the limit for him this upcoming season, you know, getting to talk to him on Trojan's live, like I mentioned, getting to know him a little bit. I know the mental side of things are going to be there. I feel really comfortable number two being back in the backfield. We got to hear from King Miller on Tuesday and a lot of the questions were like, have you

28:53processed what this past season was like for you? And I think it was such a window into his mentality because he was like, a lot of people came up to me and we're saying, like, wow, that was crazy. And I guess it was, but I always believed in myself and like, and that's his story. He bet on himself. He wanted to prove that he can, you know, be at USC, whether it's by walk on or otherwise. And so I thought it was just interesting. He was in that mindset of like, this was too big. So I expected this. So in that sense, what do you expect from King Miller and you're two in that sense? Yeah. I'm glad you brought that up. And when we were talking to him on Trojan's live, you could just see that that nothing phases him. And that was evident throughout the season, I mean, getting thrown into that position against Michigan against a good football team, sold out crowd at home in the call of CM. And now you become running back one right away because of two injuries. And then you produce like you did the rest of the season. I just think was big time, speaks volumes about this kid and the confidence that he has. But I'm excited this year now because we didn't get to see a lot of it last year with a two-headed monster with Wayman Jordan and with King Miller.

29:54I expect Lincoln Riley who did a lot of it last year to have some more two-back sets this season, to have King in the backfield with Wayman at the same time to use some of those misdirections to not know if two is getting the ball or now number eight, if eight's getting the ball as well. I know it's low. He said 30 is always going to be in his heart. Yeah. I'm like, but that's like the walk on number, like keep it going. No, I know. He had a great reason. You know what? Oh, yeah, he said his dad. His dad was number eight. So he wanted to wear number eight. But you go play like you did. You can wear whatever number you want here. Well, maybe not some of the retired ones. But you can make the number change that that is fair. But yeah, I'm excited to see the way that Lincoln Riley uses both Wayman Jordan and King Miller in the backfield. I anticipate them to run some of those two-back sets, have them on the field at the same time, which is going to put a lot of stress on the defense and find some big time plays that way. And then one more thing, Cody, I want to touch on the offensive line room before we move over to the defense, which arguably is the top story line this spring. I just had to point out that I think in the time of us podcasting together, I've never mentioned this word with the offensive line, continuity, returning faces in the starting

30:57lineup for USC. I think for the first time for coach Riley, this is big for USC in that sense. Well we have actually used the word continuity before talking about the offensive line in past seasons, but it was, how do you build continuity because there's so many new faces in there? But that's not a problem that USC has this year. That is such a beneficial thing on the offensive side of the ball, both for your play collar and Lincoln Riley to have that stability up front, but also as a former quarterback. I look at it through Jay and my eyes. That's a great feeling to get up there and spring ball or even in the off season and see Elijah Page and Tobias Raymond and Alani Noah and Killian O'Connor, Justin Talonu, two guys that are dealing with injuries this spring, but to still have them on the roster, you just take a big sigh relief knowing that you have five guys up there that you can trust and that have played a significant amount of football here at USC. But at the same time, when you sign up to come to USC, even if you're a veteran starter or you're a rookie player, you are coming to compete. It is always a competition day in and day out. Nothing is given. Everything is earned and there's some talented players in that room that want to go get and earn a starting job.

31:58Now it's going to be tough to compete with some of these veterans, but there's some guys that keep an eye on him. One that I want to point out real quick before we move on is Kenai Pepe, who is a true freshman. They came in. He's a five star recruit number one offense alignment in the country. He's six, seven, three hundred and twenty pounds. And I know you mentioned you saw him in the off season and just were blown away and thought he was already an NFL caliber player. I saw him pregame once and I was like, who is this person? Because is he retired? Who's that is that? Yeah. So one of those guys where you are immediately like, that's someone different. Like I've littered Williams. You were like, that guy. That's a great point. That guy is different. I thought the same thing about Leonard when he got here on campus. Yeah. So in my mind, it's kind of similar in that sense. And that's what you want to have. Obviously, there's an eye test and he has a type of guy that you come in and say, all right, that's a starting tackle. That's an NFL caliber player. But at the same time, there's a developmental process too. So you don't want to crown him right away. Same thing with Bowman. Yeah. Same thing with some of these younger players. Yeah, they're great high school players and they have a ton of potential. And me, maybe being biased as a trojan, I think they're all going to get there.

32:59But you also have to go out there and go against the camp Crawford. You got to go against a Braille and Shelby and some of these other really good defensive players. And today, I have a series in the middle and block jawed Jarrett to where you're going to have some welcome to college or welcome to NFL moments like they call them. Yeah. And it's a matter of time before you get up to speed. But yeah, I don't, you know, I don't want to crown any of these freshmen yet. But I am very excited about a lot of these players. And Kenai Pepe is definitely one of them. Well, like I mentioned, Cody, the main storyline this off season was USC getting a new defensive coordinator and Gary Patterson, a Hall of Fame coach. Hall of Fame. Say it again for the people in the back. Hall of Fame coach here at USC defensive coordinator, Gary Patterson, talking about being overwhelmed about what to talk about or long time where we haven't podcasted Cody. I haven't gotten your thoughts about having Gary Patterson on USC staff now. Take it away. What do you think about this hire? Yeah, this was a huge hire by Lincoln Riley in this USC football team to be able to go out and get a guy like Patterson to join your staff as a defensive coordinator. And the pedigree and background that he has just speaks volumes about Patterson in the

34:00way that he believes in Lincoln Riley and everything that he's building here at USC. Also shout out to Jim Cohen. I got to give her credit to she is instrumental in these hiring processes and, you know, she gave coach Riley the resources he needed to be able to go out and get the guy that they wanted, which was obviously Patterson to coach the defense and coach Riley mentioned that before. He said we tried to get him fired and we wanted to talk to him before wasn't quite ready and he's an all in or all out type of guy. So now that he's all in and he's ready to go, he was first on our list. And now we got him here at USC. But for those of you that don't know what Patterson has done in his past or aren't familiar with what he's been able to do at the college level, been coaching since 1981 has a ton of experience. A lot of people probably are familiar with them from TCU is a head coach there for 20 plus years, won 181 games, which is 35th all time in the history of college football, won six conference championships, was coach of the year, multiple times, and also has just built a powerhouse at TCU while he was there and was known for a lot of the great defenses that they had as well. And he was instrumental in building those defenses. So to bring a guy over like that to USC, Vibbal is huge and I'm very excited to see

35:03what he can do for this program. The thing that was interesting to me or I feel like most valuable and there's obviously multiple things. But across the board, you know, I went into by the way, a Cody deep dive on Patterson. I was like, you know, Cody's off to this thing. We really get into the, I was watching like tape of like 10 years ago and it was like let's go. The HS like, not the VHS. Okay, wait a minute. I know, I know, I know. I was playing college football 10 years ago. We weren't. I was in college. Yeah. No, no one's using VHS film. I'm just saying it was like very grainy from the back of a conference room. He's talking about what he does. And so anyway, I wanted to be proud because I tried to pick up the mantle that you have. So anyway, were you doing film cut ups to in there and I wish with the laser and all so you know what? This was so funny to me and I thought of you immediately when he said this in his intro press conference. He said part of the reason why he did like a Amazon prime show talking about football was solely because it gave him access to the all 22. And I was like, this is a man after Cody's heart.

36:04I love it. He was like, I got to do like all the film study Sunday morning. He's a ball coach, man. Yeah. Like there's people that just and I'm guilty of this. It just eat, sleep and breathe football and we can't help it. I mean, I go home. I say hi to my wife. I spend time with my family. But then when I have some free time, I'm in there watching film of stuff that probably I'm not going to ever going to talk about just addicted to it. That's the guy I won't run in my defense. I love that. Yeah. And so what I was saying is like what I think is most valuable is one, he's just a film junkie football nerd with to love the passion. But everyone across the board said that he's always been able to get the most out of his players. He's a great talent evaluator and he can make the most of what he's given, which you know, TCU is not always at the top of the recruiting charts. So he was able to really work with what he has and he said he's really excited to work with the talent that USC has because he said he's never had a front this big before. So he was like, there's some new things that I might be able to do thanks to obviously the talent here. Yeah. And two things that really stood out to me first was the way that Lincoln Riley talked about him.

37:04He said, I've gone against a lot of defenses. There were some that really gave me trouble and Gary Patterson takes a backseat to no one in that category. So that's going to be awesome for them to be able to lean on each other and learn from each other. They've already done like a nerd deep dive. I feel like if you were a coach, I would love to be a fly on the wall listening to Lincoln Riley and Gary Patterson talk offense and defense and X's and those apparently they had a full breakdown where Riley was telling Patterson the tells of how we knew what to do against you. And like, and what was kind of like it was just fascinating and I want to be like, oh, invite me next time. Yeah. I won't say anything. Let me go. That's fun. It just seems fascinating. I mean, you got one of the best offensive minds in all of college football and you got one of the best defensive minds in all of college football on the same step. I, what I wish we could watch is practices. I wish we could, well, everyone can watch them. But I wish you could see the ones versus ones iron sharp and iron going Riley versus Patterson, but that's just going to help them get better and better. But the other thing too, a couple of things that that Gary Patterson said and throughout spring, we'll get a little bit more deeper into what he does defensively and talk more things

38:05when it comes to a schematic standpoint. If we have time, if people want to hear that, I don't know if they want to hear it. I'm sure they will. They love nerd buddy. A couple of things you said initially that I thought were important. The first one is that, you know, his ability to mix things up. He said, I can do different things with the front, but I also can mix it up in the back in as well. My front's not always going to dictate what we do in the back end. So I can stop the run and worry about the past at the same time. Yeah. That is so important, especially the college level, why RPOs? So many people do RPOs. If you're focused on stopping the run up front and you can do it with a six man box or even a five man box, and then I can play coverage on the back end and know that they're both handled. That is so important. I love that he's going to bring that over to USC and be able to incorporate both a run stopping front, but a secondary that can get out to the past as well. Another thing that he said, and this is kind of what Danton Lynn had talked about, and he mentioned, you know, keeping some of the stuff that they've been doing well the last couple of years, I think is important, right? They're blending. You want to predicate your defense to the players, not force them to adjust to your scheme. And he's really good at obviously spending time with players and knowing what works best for them because of his experience. But he said, communication is key.

39:07That is going to be huge and that's something that USC has been working on the last couple of seasons, but they have fallen short at times against Notre Dame getting out of with you know, gap integrity up front in the run game. And there were some other examples throughout the year. Last year we talked about them dealing with bunch formations, which is a huge thing to communicate with in the secondary guys running free. And that was against some of the lesser opponents as well. So him obviously emphasizing communication is huge. The other thing too I love is the versatility, you know, I want a bunch of positionless players they can play all over the field. You're not just a D end, you're not just a linebacker, you're not just a corner. You're going to be a nickel. You're going to be a stand-up outside guy. You might be a mic. You might be a Sam. You might play a three-tech. I want guys that can mix or move around and I can mix and match guys to fit. You know, for this scheme to put us in the best position to be successful. So I love that. Another thing I think is important for Gary Patterson too and you already mentioned this is he's proven that he can develop guys and that is so important for two reasons. One, guys that are here can develop into becoming great players in college, but also at the next level in the NFL, but two guys that aren't here yet. You bring in their parents and players on recruiting trips and their high school coaches

40:10and they say, how are you going to develop my linebacker, my defense event, my safety? Will you go listen to Gary Patterson talk and look at his track record and how he's developed guys? That'll tell you everything you need to know. And then the final thing he said, I thought was most important and got me most excited as he says, my main priority, the number one thing we're going to do first, stop the run. You have to stop the run if you want to play great defense. That's something that USC, I think, could have been better at the last couple of years. Some of those losses, they struggled against the run. The fact that Patterson came in and said, that's what we're starting with day one. That's my main priority. And then everything else coverage and earning the right thrust or pasture after that will play secondary. I think it's so important. If you can't win in the trenches and stop the run, then you don't have anything on defense. He's in the right conference. He's in the right conference. Stop the run. Absolutely. That will be fascinating to watch for sure. And he brought some people with him, one of them being Paul Gonzalez. I, to be completely honest, didn't fully know much about him. I tried to do obviously my research, but when I got to sit down and talk to him, I came away so impressed just because he's almost like Patterson in the sense

41:12that like both very detailed, oriented, very much teachers, but I asked him, like, what did you pick up so far from the safety play from last year? And he was like, we need to get better at tackling angles. And what was fascinating to me, he said, we need to learn how to take care of our bodies. And so, you know, and there were issues with injuries and whatnot. And so clearly he thinks that the stand-in needs to be raised with rehab, pre-hab, all the things that the guys do and now the weight room and the training room. So I just was fascinated with his approach. And it was cool to see the relationships he's made already with this staff because when I talked to Trevon Reed, Gonzalez was a corner's coach at one point under Patterson. So Gonzalez has been teaching Reed, kind of the ins and outs of being a corner's coach in Patterson's defense. So it's just like so many new faces, but I really came away with my interviews and press with Paul Gonzalez. So curious to see what he'll do with the safeties. And that's a room where with Christian Pierce being out for the spring due to injury.

42:14It's kind of a wild, well, less in that sense. Yeah. And before we talk about the safeties real quick, I just want to say too, if you're a coach on this staff, if you're an offensive coach and you're learning from Lincoln Riley, if you're a defensive coach learn from Gary Patterson, the sky's the limit on what you're going to be able to do in this. I mean, the information you're going to retain the notes that you're going to be able to take. Oh, yeah. So important going forward. I mean, we really do have one of the best offensive minds and one of the best defensive minds in all of college football. And they're on the same staff. So again, I know obviously it's got a translate to wins. It's got a translate to production on the field. But right now in the off season, having those two coaches, I'm really excited. But yeah, I do want to touch on that real quick, the safety position. You know, the first guy I'm looking at, obviously, is Christian Pierce because it's been a trend here at USC. You know, it was Kalen Bolt. And then he leaves and then Kamari Ramsey takes over. He's next in line. And now Kamari Ramsey's gone. So who's that next man? Up in my opinion, Christian Pierce has to be that guy. Now it's unfortunate. He's going to miss most of spring, but he has the potential both with his ball skills, both with his physicality, the way he can cover the way he can stop the run.

43:16Just he's in all around safety that I think can fill the shoes, which are big shoes of fill, though, of a Ramsey of a bullock type and be that next big time safety in the back end. And then another guy that came on strong last year to keep an eye on at that safety spot is Kennedy Urlacker. He got thrown in there because of some injuries. This is a huge opportunity this off season for him to build off of that. Had a great interception against Oregon, had some big time hits throughout the year. I think he's going to be a guy that benefits within this defense and this scheme. Working on some of those attacking goes because we know he can make the hit. We know that he can cover. It's just being a little bit more consistent. But what a great opportunity. This spring, fortunately, with Pierce out, but for Urlacker to step up as a leader in the back end with a safety and bring some of these young guys along as well. Another question mark for me is just the corner room solely because, you know, there's guys who were promising and then got injured, profit brown, being one of those out of school and being one of those. But then you also have a young room. Some freshmen definitely coming in and trying to make a name for themselves. And then you have a transfer in Carrington Pierce, who's actually Christian Pierce's brother. So he comes from Oklahoma State.

44:18So it's an interesting room in the sense that again, I feel like there's an opportunity. And I feel like it's an annual tradition for us, Cody, to say who's going to be that stand that lockdown corner for USC. I think the guy right now that's the leader in the clubhouse, in my opinion, is Marcelus Williams. You know, he had an up and down year last year. He got targeted a lot too. The teams, they were trying to pick on him for good reason. He's a young player and you expect that to happen. But, you know, I thought he did a great job of handling the adversity. Of, you know, getting thrown into the fire, but not allowing hit to break him, you know, because there were times that he gave up some big plays and gave up some big receptions. But he'd also bounce back and make some big plays of his own. And that's what you want to see as a young player. It's not going to be perfect. You're going to have some mistakes early on. And for those young players that make mistakes, you know what I say to that? I say good. Let's learn those now. Let's figure those out now so that next year, the following year, when I become a veteran, I already have that experience on what works well. What doesn't work well? So I have a lot of eyes right now on Marcel's Williams. There's going to be a lot of pressure on him to step up and be that lead corner.

45:20This season, I think he can do that. Another guy you mentioned that I'm excited to have back. I've been a big believer in Prophet Brown, especially at that nickel position. I just love the way that he plays football, man. He's a type of guy too. He'll give up a big play, but then he'll come back and make a big play. He never gets rattled. Great mindset. I think he's a great leader in that room. So hopefully he'll be back to 100% this year. Alex Graham, big time recruit. Had some injuries last year, played towards the end of the season. I think he'll step up and be a guy this year too. Another guy to keep an eye on too. Some of the young players, Albert Hill. But I know he goes by rock, correct? Is that his nickname? Yes. Albert Hill the fourth, but I saw that he goes by rock. So I want to make sure is that what he prefers is rock hill? Is that everyone calls him? Yes. So the funny thing is there's especially with this class. There's a lot of big names. That's their name. Yeah, there is. So definitely have a cheat sheet for like, okay, this is this guy. Yeah, yeah, okay. Well, the more we get to know, I'm going to call him rock right now, because that's what it says on there. But he is a young talented quarter. One of the best corners coming out of Ohio. One of the best corners really in the country from last season. If he can develop and get up to speed in this scheme, I think he can compete for a corner job this year.

46:22Maybe even playing the nickel a little bit or have him move around. And then another guy that I'm excited about, unfortunately, he had a season ending knee injury last year. But John Tes Williams, someone you mentioned at the beginning of the episode. He was an absolute stud last year at Iowa State before he got hurt, play man, play zone. He's very smart, very savvy corner. He can come up and tackle as well. So hopefully he can get healthy. I don't know how much we'll have him this season, depending on how that knee injury or that knee recovery comes. But yeah, no, he's a guy to keep an eye on. Hopefully if he can get back out there and get healthy. But it's going to be an interesting question. I think this is going to be a question that we'll probably discuss throughout spring, throughout fall, and ultimately maybe even in the season. But hopefully a couple guys solidify that spot. Well, I'm sure this comes as a surprise to no one, Cody. But we are getting deeper into the roster. I always just think in the same thing. We can't help it. Look, we love USC football. You know, there's a lot of new things to just get into the detail. In our defense, though, there's 31 new freshmen. There's a bunch of new faces on this roster. There's newcomers all over all over the field. I mean, it's on both sides of the ball.

47:22It's the era of college football, where you don't have a lot of, you know, continuity with your roster. So I mean, I literally have the roster. Zoom in on that. Yes. Also, it's color coded. There you go. Yellows are Turner. Pink is fresh. You're like me back in my highlighter days. Oh my gosh. I mean, I like the whole page of the nose. To that point, look, look, I think it is important though to mention some of the names that keep an eye on. Obviously, we can get a little more in depth. As season or as spring ball goes on, we have time. What names get brought up, we can get a little more in depth on them and some storylines that pick up. But this is basically just getting to know everybody. And like, if you know me, I'm going to give everybody their flowers. I want to make sure you know everything you need to know about USC football. Front seven, take us home. Front seven, yeah, let's finish there. That's a good spot to finish. Yeah, I'm going to start up front defensive line. Deans, I'm curious to see what that rotation looks like with Patterson's defense. Now, obviously his main priority is going to be stopping the run. So I expect a lot of size and USC has that up front. But looking at the guys that are returning of Braille and Shelby. The guy who's been a veteran in this scheme or have been in the veteran on this football team.

48:22Cameron Crawford, another guy. John Jarrett dealt with some injuries last year. He's going to be instrumental as that that defensive tackle, the nose tackle, that shade player up front. Yeah, it's going to have to stop the middle of this defense. And then today, I have a series really stepped up last year. Jakeem Stewart, another guy as well. That's been playing well, Floyd McCard. So there are a lot of returners to get excited about. But then some of the newcomers, first and most obvious is Luke Wafel, who was the number one defense event in the country last year. He's one of the best players in high school season ago. One of the top recruits in 2026. And for good reason, I went back and watched some of his tape as well. I watched the Navy game. Some of the highlights that they had from the All-American game. He was going to be in that game too. Yeah, he is a good player. He's going to be a problem off the edge. Again, it's just going to be how quickly can he get acclimated. But it's not just him. You know, you got Winfield as well. Jamie and Winfield, another player. He was the number two defense alignment in this 2026 class. He's going to be more of an interior guy, I think, with his size 6, 2, 3, and 30 pounds. Paramount with Jaw Jarrett. Paramount with today, I have a series on the inside. That's how you stop the run. You get players like that Tom Tom.

49:24Another guy that you can throw on the inside. And then also you have Simote Katoanga. Another incoming freshman 6, 4, 255 pounder. I think a guy that can play inside, can play outside, 4 star recruit. That's why the other day when Lincoln Riley on Trojan's live was talking about, you know, we have the pieces. This is the depth that you want, especially with the defense. This is why we've got great returners. We've got guys that have been here before. We've got veterans in that room. But we also have a lot. And I mean, a lot of talent with these freshmen. You also got a newcomer and a transfer players arrive at Fisher coming from Penn State. So there is depth in that room. There's size in that room. That's why when Gary Patterson says that this is the beefiest, the strongest defensive line. The most size that he's had up front with the defensive line. Really, he's ever worked with. It's because of players like this that are on the roster. Which is just exciting. Like it is. If you put that talent in Gary Patterson's hands, what is that equation equal to? We will see. The big thing, Keely. And I'll keep touching on this throughout the spring is, you know, these freshmen are going to have to play. They're either going to have to be starters

50:24or they're going to have to be rotational guys. Now, I think they got guys that can come in and be impact players from day one. But the biggest question is, how quickly can they get comfortable and get acclimated with the playbook and then make them plays on the field? But you've got some high-end recruits that can be impact players for sure. Last but not least, looking at linebackers, 10 guys in the room, six returners, one portal addition and three freshmen. Looking at Desmond Stevens, he kind of reminds me. He's like a akin to Christian Pierce in the sense that he was the new guy on the scene as a starter last season. And now he's one of the most experienced, not in this defense, obviously, but as a veteran in this group. He's the leader. Desmond Stevens, this is Desmond Stevens' year. You know, we saw flashes last year of how good he can be and he can be good. He really can. But then we also saw times where, you know, he was still learning and getting used to the speed of college football and getting used to playing in the big 10 and, you know, down after down, being that bruiser at the inside linebacker position. Now that he has a full year to self scout, I really think he's going to take that next step. In 2026, you also got some other returners

51:26in Jaden Walker, who I'm very high on. I actually like Jaden Walker. I think he can be a breakout player next year. No, the flashes we saw from him, I was really excited. And he started and he earned more opportunities towards the end of the year. I really think he can be a guy that can step up and then you got two other veterans on this team with Tamir Robinson and Elijah Nuby. Two other guys don't sleep on those guys, man. When you have guys that have been in that room, have learned from these coaches, have, you know, got acclimated to college football. That's the word I've been using all day acclimation, right? That's what's so important, though, is, and I flash back to me, like who I was my first year as a freshman, or even my first year starting as a sophomore to the jump I made my junior year. It was just unbelievable because of the comfortability that you have. Just some guys get there a little bit quicker. So that's going to be something that's important is, you know, can these veterans that don't have a ton of experience get up to speed and be big time playmakers next year. I think there are guys in that room that can be. And then some new faces to keep an eye on throughout the spring. The first one is Talonoa Eli, incoming freshman from Hawaii. He's got good size, good versatility. I think you can move them around

52:26at different spots at that linebacker position. And then the other one is Devon Bryant, who's a transfer player from Washington, had over 60 tackles last year with the Huskies. It's good to have someone that has some experience in that room as well, paired up with some of these veterans. So yeah, it's a room to keep an eye on. It's going to be interesting how it plays out, but I can't wait to see really how this entire defense comes together under Gary Patterson. Alrighty, Cody. I'm going to say that this is the end of episode one for us. There's so much more we can talk about, but that's the exciting thing about this spring in particular. It's very intricate as far as the roster details, the storylines, the staff, the new staff. There's so much we can talk about, and I'm excited. We have us spring to talk about it, but that's going to wrap it up for our first episode back in 2026 together. But Cody, wrap us up. Take us home. Yeah, no, look again, I'm so excited for USC football. I really feel like this is going to be a big year for the Trojans. Lincoln Riley's fifth year. You bring it all the fame we're in like Gary Patterson. You've got all these new faces, a ton of talent, full for three turners, and some newcomers on this roster. Sky's a limit for USC football, but it starts right now. I know the season's a while away,

53:28but these next four weeks with spring ball are going to be so important. And we're going to be back next week to update you on everything that you need to know. And I'm going to try not to run through a brick wall as we talk to USC football. I'm excited, man. I love it. It's a great time to be a Trojan. And there's big things to come. I truly believe that for USC this season. Alrighty, you heard the name. We'll be back next week. Glad to be back. Glad to be back. Missed you guys too. Yes, exactly. Glad to be back. And we'll see y'all next week. That's Cody. I'm Keely.