USC’s improving offensive line faces big test against Notre Dame

It was the lowest moment of the season for USC’s young offensive line, a September nadir that seemed certain to linger long after the Trojans returned from their first Big Ten trip. But two months later, as Lincoln Riley looks back to where the tide started to turn for his Trojans front, the coach points, somewhat surprisingly, to that nightmarish afternoon in Ann Arbor.

“Since then,” Riley said Tuesday, “I feel like we’ve been on a pretty steady incline the entire way.”

Of course, there was nowhere for USC’s line to go but up after that 27-24 loss to Michigan. Against the Wolverines’ vaunted defensive line, the Trojans inexperienced front unraveled. New left tackle, Elijah Paige, looked lost. New right guard, Alani Noa, was benched before half. In all, USC allowed 22 quarterback pressures, the most since Riley became coach.

What once felt like a promising future for the Trojans up front had, in the matter of an afternoon, turned particularly bleak.

Fans turned their ire immediately toward Josh Henson, whose third season as USC’s offensive line coach was professed to be a litmus test of the Trojans’ long-term trajectory up front. But as USC dropped four of five games and frustration over Henson simmered, Riley urged patience. He’d seen the line’s progress with his own eyes, he promised.

“We believe that group can be really damn good,” Riley said in September, “and I expect them to be that way this year.”

Those assurances didn’t really land in late September. But now in late November, with No. 5 Notre Dame and its fearsome front on tap Saturday, there’s no denying the leap USC’s line has made.

“We’ve just gotten better,” Riley said. “We’ve stuck with it. The leadership from coach Henson, from Jonah [Monheim], from Emmanuel [Pregnon], seeing some of these young guys grow up and get better and kind of take some of these challenges and really rise up to them, I think it’s a combination of all that, and it’s been obviously key especially in this stretch of late.”

A strong second half of the season doesn’t erase all of the larger questions surrounding USC’s offensive line. It does, however, appear to have quelled any concerns about whether Henson will return for a fourth season.

Asked about Henson’s performance last week, Riley pointed to the recent success of the rushing attack and the development of several young linemen, noting that Henson had “done a really good job.”

Chief among those successes has been Paige, the 6-foot-7 tackle who turned heads through training camp. But against Michigan, in his first true test at left tackle, Paige looked completely overmatched. His confidence continued to waver in the weeks that followed, as he struggled through what Paige deems “growing pains.”

The middle of this season, he admits, “was rough.” Through one four-game stretch, starting with his single half against Michigan, Paige allowed 15 pressures, the most of any Power Four linemen in the same span.

But Riley kept his faith in Paige, reiterating his belief in the redshirt freshman whenever asked. And within the offensive line room, Henson’s message remained the same with Paige and all of his young, developing linemen: Stay the course.

“Through hard work and through trusting the process, it’s all going to get better,” Paige said, “and it did.”

Over the last month, as USC has won three of four games, Paige has allowed just four total pressures in the process. He hasn’t given up a sack since September.

“He’s just a young guy who had lumps early on, and this is what happens,” Riley said. “You take some of those. You keep battling. And all of a sudden, you look up and the guy is playing at a pretty darn good level. So he’s been pretty good for us the last several weeks, on a really good track, confidence is growing. And I think Josh has been a big part of that.”

Where that track heads from here is still to be determined, with USC set to lose its two most consistent starting linemen in the coming weeks. Monheim is off to the NFL after the season, leaving a gaping hole at the center with no obvious heir apparent, while left guard Emmanuel Pregnon recently committed to play in the East-West Shrine Bowl, presumably signaling his intent to also declare for the draft.

Neither will be easily replaced next season, with little in the way of proven interior depth waiting in the wings.

But Tuesday, during a developmental period at the end of practice, Riley found himself watching his young offensive linemen closely, and feeling pretty good about where the future was headed up front.

“We’ve got a lot of good looking young linemen that are talented and going to be good players,” Riley said. “It’s been a while. Probably well before I was here until that was the case. Like, you’re starting to see a couple of years worth of work and recruiting and development out here.

“I think there’s a lot of guys that are going to be big-time players for us.”