USC’s defensive troubles only increase with Zion Branch out for the year
LOS ANGELES — Makai Lemon is a receiver. Just that. Only that.
Sure, he certainly can play both ways, as former high school coach Ray Fenton will attest, Lemon was once a standout wideout/cornerback at Los Alamitos High. USC knows that. But head coach Lincoln Riley made clear earlier in October, when he was asked: the freshman would play wide receiver as a Trojan.
Except Lemon was working with a handful of USC’s cornerbacks doing defensive drills in a mid-October practice. Not a position switch, though. A contingency plan, as Riley explained, a break-glass-in-case of emergency amid a cornerback group that had seen injuries at one point or another to three – Christian Roland-Wallace, Domani Jackson and Jacobe Covington – of its top four members.
“We’ve had to get a little creative at times,” Riley said then.
Creative, case in point: Lemon freewheeling across the turf in hitting drills. It had been difficult, Riley said, to build consistency with an injury-plagued cornerback group; the bug in the secondary hasn’t let up in recent weeks, with Covington and starting safety Max Williams both sidelined the past couple of games.
And in recent days, they’ve been dealt the most devastating blow yet. After redshirt freshman safety Zion Branch crumpled and had to be helped off directly to the medical tent in Saturday’s game against Cal, Riley said on Tuesday that Branch “had a procedure” done that morning and has been ruled out for the season.
“Just terrible luck, but I mean that kid is so – he’s so headstrong and so positive and so driven, he’ll come back way stronger from it,” Riley said.
It’s a story inscribed with suffering, a kid who has drawn glowing reviews from anyone in a USC hat or jersey while working his way back from a knee injury that scuttled his true-freshman season. During fall camp, Riley specifically singled out Branch as the most impressive performer in the Trojans’ first scrimmage; he’d “earned the respect of our guys,” safety Jaylin Smith said.
Enough, when Williams went down, to seize an opportunity against Utah and run with it, a 6-foot-2 hurricane out of the second level who was an instant difference-maker in USC’s run defense. In 140 snaps this year, Pro Football Focus credits Branch with 19 total tackles – and zero missed tackles, a stark positive across a defensive unit whose own players are well aware of individual cogs not “doing their job,” as linebacker Eric Gentry said Tuesday.
USC now loses that flame as quickly as it first sparked, Riley confirming Tuesday that Branch’s injury was “related” to the knee injury he’d worked back from last year. And suddenly, the depth chart in the secondary looks rather slim – down Branch, likely down Williams, perhaps down Covington.
“We’ve got to be ready to proceed without all of them,” Riley said, “and we’ve got a plan together that we feel confident about that we can play well Saturday.”
Bit inopportune, considering who is up on the calendar. USC won’t face a passing attack better than Washington’s this season, lefty Michael Penix Jr. bombing away to a host of game-breakers, Washington in the top-10 in the FBS in yards per completion. USC’s defense, by flip, has given up the second-most passing touchdowns in the FBS; their fate Saturday will rest on the backpedals of cornerbacks Christian Roland-Wallace, Domani Jackson and nickel back Jaylin Smith, who made a game-sealing pass breakup against Cal but has surrendered a 69% completion percentage on his targets, according to Pro Football Focus.
“Couldn’t be more disappointed in myself and the inability to organize to be more sound on it,” defensive coordinator Alex Grinch said, when asked Tuesday about surrendering explosive plays. “So, yeah, you’re constantly looking at calls, obviously, you’re looking at personnel. We gotta get it fixed, and we gotta get it fixed fast.”