Does USC stick with its youth on the offensive line, or turn back to the portal?

LOS ANGELES — When USC first began recruiting offensive tackle Tobias Raymond in the dawn of Lincoln Riley’s regime, he weighed all of 250 pounds. New offensive line coach Josh Henson saw clear potential in a 6-foot-7 frame and plucked the kid out of Ventura.

Raymond was a project, a tall kid who hadn’t garnered overwhelming buzz out of high school. But USC needed projects. When Riley and Henson first entered, the coffers of the Trojans’ O-line were close to empty. Three years later, just three linemen on the roster they inherited are still with the program. The staff knew, Riley said, that Raymond would need at least a year of reps to seriously compete, a fairly underweight lineman entering the program.

As measured this spring, Raymond now weighs 315 pounds.

“It was just, a lot of eating,” Raymond said a couple weeks ago, with a shy grin.

Two years later, the frame is ready. But USC needs everything else ready, too. They need Raymond to provide genuine depth, and need fellow 2023 class-mates Elijah Paige and Alani Noa and Amos Talalele, and USC might even need true freshman Justin Tauanuu. After two years of attempting to develop offensive-line classes and plug temporary holes with transfers, USC is in a precarious position this spring with its offensive line, forced to either toss a life vest into the portal for another instant starter or entrust Miller Moss’ protection to a handful of largely-untested underclassmen.

In simple terms — there is not one single point of returning, tested strength at any point on USC’s offensive line, the program’s most glaring problem area as spring football winds to a close. The brightest spot comes at center, where former left tackle Jonah Monheim has taken up the mantle from Justin Dedich and Brett Neilon before him; Monheim has drawn glowing reviews from coaches and players alike this spring, after spending some time in the offseason training with Neilon.

“I’m super excited for him,” last year’s center Dedich said at USC’s Pro Day. “He’s going to be a beast center.”

Beyond Monheim, though, there’s a question mark at nearly every spot — and at the backups behind them.

Emmanuel Pregnon likely slots back in at left guard, a transfer who was serviceable last year. As presently constructed, right guard is shaping up as a battle between sophomore Noa, redshirt freshman Talalele and senior Gino Quinones, who is coming off a season-ending injury. Redshirt-freshman Paige, who took 36 snaps last year, is set to fill Monheim’s void at left tackle. Right tackle is so up in the air between Raymond and vet Mason Murphy that Henson tabbed Raymond as the leader for the job in late March, only for Riley to emphasize two weeks later that Murphy had taken the majority of reps with the starters.

“For right now, if we played today, he’d certainly be the starter, no question about it,” Riley said of Murphy, nearly identical to what Henson had said of Raymond two weeks earlier.

Freshman center Jason Zandamela’s transfer last week — the highest-ranked offensive lineman in the class of 2024 — only thins the number of bodies in the room. At the start of spring camp, Riley said the depth at USC’s tackle spots “was a little bit of a concern,” prompting the possibility the program might look to add talent in the spring transfer portal. In the wake of Zandamela’s departure, that possibility became certainty, USC simply needing help both at tackle and on the interior.

What they aim for, ultimately, will represent either a full commitment or a step back from the front-building philosophy Riley described in December: stockpile young talent, and slowly taper usage of the portal. After USC slotted in three transfers — Pregnon, Jarrett Kingston and Michael Tarquin — into starting roles on their line in 2023, the unit too often crumpled against a variety of defensive fronts. And Riley and Henson haven’t been shy this spring about driving a bus over the previous year’s approach.

“Last year, I felt like, at some spots, there was just disconnect where we couldn’t energize each other. And I’m not talking about me – I’m talking about the guys in the room,” Henson said in late March.

“I don’t know that we ever completely gelled as a unit,” Riley said a couple weeks later. “One, I think it starts with your older players. Your older guys, they have to play their best. They have to be great leaders. They have to set the tone. And I think at times last year, that did not necessarily happen all the time.”

It’s inevitable USC adds a name or two on the line this spring. But after Riley and Henson so thoroughly detailed last year’s shortcomings, USC will likely still look in large part to younger pieces to play key roles on the line. That could start with Raymond at right tackle. It will almost certainly start with Paige at left tackle, who had a fantastic game protecting Moss’ blind side in December’s Holiday Bowl.

“He’s kinda established himself as that guy at left tackle for us,” Moss said of Paige Tuesday, a wry smile creeping into his face. “I feel very safe back there with him.”

And no matter what movement occurs in the next two weeks, USC’s line will rely heavily on the youth movement, an inevitable step in the rebuild that can only be corrected by continued development.

“We’ve got young guys for our depth, so,” Henson said in late March, with the slight air of a man resigned to his hand. “It is what it is.”