USC: Who do you lose for next year? What can we expect for the first game?

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Walker WR (contributor)

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Walker started every game this year

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Klinke OL (starter)

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wasn't even on the team this year

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Askew OLB (starter)

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that's somewhat questionable. We probably started half the games without a SAM at all and Sanders, Mastrogiavanni and Baggs also started at least one game at SAM. The position was a complete clusterfrick from the first play this year (which was like a 30-yard pass bc the SAM didn't even cover the FB out of the backfield).

We're also probably going to lose at least 1 more OLman to the NFL.

Shep Klinke lost his starting spot in 2011 to Ced Ogbuehi and never regained it.

Losing:

Shaw QB (Starter)
Patrick OL (Starter)
Ellington WR (Starter)

Clowney DL (Starter)
Quarles DL (Starter)
Sutton DL (Starter)
Hampton CB (Starter)
Legree CB (Starter)

We will greatly miss Shaw but we hope Thompson can step in without too much dropoff. Ellington is a loss in leadership and talent but we have a lot of WR talent in the wings.

Defensive losses will be the biggest impact, losing 3 starters on the line and top 2 corners. Lots of talent waiting to prove themselves on the line, lots of ?? at corner.

This thread has a chance to be a sporting, informative, interesting thread. Thank you so much as I'm seriously considering the trip to SC for the entire Labor Day weekend with this game as the anchor

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This thread has a chance to be a sporting, informative, interesting thread.

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Give it some time, someone will screw that up.

We've got some talent and depth at defensive tackle. Philip Dukes and Kelcy Griffin were fairly high touted recruits. Gerald Dixon Jr. started this year. Defensive end will be a problem. Mason Harris and Darius English are very quick who could be good pass rushers, but at 225 lbs, they are not every down players. I don't think that will hurt us that much against your style of offense, but we will get pounded on off tackle runs against teams like Georgia or Florida. After them we are thin and inexperienced although we have some talented guys.

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Who is replacing the DL losses?

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We've got some JUCO d-linemen that are supposed to step in, plus some guys that we've been grooming for a few years such as Mason Harris, Darius English, and Gerald Turner. Harris has shown some promise, but he's really kinda small. DE is a big dropoff from last year, to be sure. There's talent, but not a ton of experience or size.

I think the offense will be fine, and Thompson should do well in the starter's role. No, he's not the bionic commando that Shaw is, but he's led the team in tough moments before, and the players trust him. WR returns Shaq Roland, Damiere Byrd, and Pharoh Cooper, with some inexperienced talent underneath them. I expect Roland to be one of the best WRs in the league next year. Tailbacks return Mike Davis and Brandon Wilds, plus David Williams comes in off his redshirt freshman season. Lots of talent there.

The corners are going to be very untested, and that is actually very concerning. I haven't been impressed with the recruiting at that position this season, and it's a glaring position of need. Us and UGA go after a lot of the same players in the secondary, and they've been winning those battles. Frustrating.

Linebackers and safety/spur will be the heart of the defense. They were young and thrown into the fire this season, which is why they looked so bad against UGA, but really came on at the end of the year. Skai Moore and Kaiwan Lewis are studs, and could certainly contend for all-SEC honors.

We'll probably be built a lot like UGA was this year, for better or worse. A very high-powered offense, with a very questionable defense. However, I have a good deal of trust in the defensive coaching staff, and I think if anyone can make something out of nothing, they can.

The ceiling for this team is an SEC championship appearance, but the floor is probably an 8-4 type season. The best thing that this team has going for it is that its early season tough games are at home, where USC has been unbeatable for the last two and a half seasons. If they can stretch their legs going down the heart of the schedule, they can be hard to handle headed into the Clem5on week.

Depends on who is starting at QB next year. If its Thompson or Mitch then the offense will look pretty different than what we've seen since 2010. If Nosovitch earns the job then it will be similar to what we've seen with Shaw starting. Nosovitch is thicker than Shaw and runs the read option well but probably not as quite as fast. He has a bunch of Pennsylvania state records for QB and is probably overlooked by most USC fans as they either expect Thompson since hes a senior to start or Mitch since he was highly rated coming out of HS

On defense were replacing a lot on the dline and at CB but the dline has some experienced backups that should earn starting stops and several highly touted JUCO and true freshmen coming in the class of 2014.

CB will be an adventure next year. Only returning 3 scholarship players and none with any real experience. Still in the running to land 3 big time CB recruits in Wesley Greene, DJ Smith and Chris Lammons in addition to 2 we already have committed, but both that are committed suffered ACL injuries this year and probably would benefit from redshirt years- especially Al Harris who wont turn 18 until hes already on campus.

Best case scenario is it turns out like our LB unit did this year with a rough start but steady improvement as the year goes on. Definitely will be some chances to put up some passing yards early on

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You should also add CB Ahmad Christian to that list, Wasn't he a starter?

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He may have gotten a start. I think we settled on Legree/Hampton at CB and Elder/Williams at S w/ Golightly at Spur, though.

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No he was the first CB off the bench though and would have been a starter next year for sure, which makes his transfer more frustrating

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Dude wanted to play baseball, and Holbrook didn't have any room for him with the Yardcocks. I hate that he gave up his starting spot on the football team, but if he wanted to be on the diamond, not much we could really do there. You can't split time and expect to play baseball at USC.