Receiver ‘Chef Tahj’ Washington epitomized USC’s rebuild

LOS ANGELES – Receiver. Number 16. Good little football player. 

In November, the Southern California News Group spoke with an NFL scout on condition of anonymity for a story evaluating quarterback Caleb Williams’ draft stock. In a final question, pivoting away from the Williams-centric questions that have so overshadowed USC’s 2023 season, the scout was asked if there were any potential mid-to-late-round draft picks he saw on USC’s roster after their 48-20 loss to Notre Dame in mid-October.

Senior wide receiver Tahj Washington was the first, and instant, mention.

“Smart, tough, instinctive, athletic, great hands,” the scout said. “Really like the way he played the game.”

“I don’t even know his name, but.”

Sounded about right, then. Outside of a passion for cooking and a golden streak in his hair he recently shaved away, Washington has drawn little attention to himself for three years at USC. He is polite but soft-spoken, a Texas twang masked within short sentences. His perspective is often deceptively simple, built from years of maturation through seeing just about all there is to see in collegiate football, summated by his simple explanation for declaring for the draft last week: “I been in college five years, bro. It’s about that time.”

And yet, in this rebuild under Lincoln Riley that culminated in a purge-the-demons Holiday Bowl win Wednesday night, no Trojan has been more vital. No Trojan has been more central to the heart of the program, the culture that has been spoken of but never consistently materialized, until a group of second-stringers and veterans that truly wanted to be there came into Petco Park and knocked off Louisville in a 42-28 win.

And Washington was right in the middle of it, playing in one final game that held little stakes on paper, trotting out there even as a host of other key Trojans – including Williams – sat to preserve draft stock. And he balled out for one final night, a safety net on Miller Moss’ first two touchdowns of the night, eclipsing 1,000 receiving yards on the year with a 29-yard end-zone grab in the second quarter as he danced in ecstasy.

“He could have had a great case for not playing this game,” Riley said postgame. “But anybody that knows Tahj knew there was a zero percent chance that he was going to sit out this game, and that’s why he’s going to be a great pro.”

He had come from Memphis with minor character questions, but stuck out a rough 2021 season at USC in which he nabbed just one touchdown. He took a backseat to Jordan Addison at times in 2022, but established himself as unshakeable in USC’s receiver room. And even with a horde of young skill talent and veterans vying for snaps, even as the flashier Brenden Rice stole some eyes, Washington stepped fully into an unquestioned role as USC’s top target in 2023 in a year that should earn him some buzz in the first few rounds of the draft.

“We call him the Humble Beast from the East,” mother Shanon Kuykendall said.

The “entire vibe,” as Riley put it, felt different around USC Wednesday night. A depleted roster roared and bellowed and swarmed like they’d never quite done before in 2023, the defense assembling for a sort of sideline victory lap after a late fumble forced by untested safety Anthony Beavers Jr., the Holiday Bowl-themed vat of eggnog dumped on a bemused Riley after the game feeling like a cleaning of the slate.

Washington, both in his on-field presence and in simply suiting up, was crucial to that. So, too, was steadfast center Justin Dedich and safety Bryson Shaw. So, too, were defensive coaches like Brian Odom and Shaun Nua, interim co-coordinators who could well be on their way out with a new regime under D’Anton Lynn; so, too, was safeties coach Taylor Mays, who slid into the now-departed Donte Williams’ role coaching the defensive backs and made a strong case to stay on staff with a tremendous coaching job.

“A lot of really good people on the staff where, they could have turned and tried to go on to the next thing, and they stayed because it was important,” Riley said.

“Honestly, a bunch of guys in the locker room and in the coaching staff that felt that way,” he continued, “and that’s the reason why we won the game.”