Tidbits from Day 5 of USC spring ball

The USC Trojans are through Day 5 of 2025 spring ball and WeAreSC has some tidbits from viewing the open portion of practice and hearing from head coach Lincoln Riley and players.

* Add wide receiver Makai Lemon to the list of USC players not fully going this spring, and with the Trojans in no hurry to rush them onto the field. Riley said Lemon is dealing with a hamstring issue and the hope is that he’s going by the end of spring ball. Defensive end Anthony Lucas and defensive tackle Keeshawn Silver are in the same boat as Lucas continues to come back from an injury that ended his 2024 season midway through and Silver deals with a knee issue that Riley said they knew about.

Center Kilian O’Connor could be out the remainder of spring as Riley said he suffered an injury “the other day in pass rush.” Riley said O’Conner will “most likely” be out the rest of spring but not beyond that.

Riley said there are no injury issues at this point that will linger into the fall.

* Riley was asked about lessons learned last season, USC’s first in the Big Ten. While the head coach said he’d mentally turned the page to 2025, he did specifically mention road games and travel as things that caught their attention.

“Going on the road in this conference is like really, truly going on the road,” Riley said. “It’s real atmospheres, it’s good teams, it’s big challenges. We’ll take a couple of internal notes on some of the travel. Obviously that’s heavily affected by what time you play and all of that, but I think when you’re traveling a bit more you pick up on some things that you think you can do better there.”

USC was 1-4 on the road last season, it’s one win coming by six points against UCLA at the Rose Bowl. The Trojans lost at Michigan, Minnesota, Maryland and Washington. This fall, USC has road games at Purdue, Illinois, Notre Dame, Nebraska and Oregon.

* USC continues to host some notable recruits this spring and Thursday also featured some prominent high school coaches, including St. John Bosco head coach Jason Negro and former Cathedral and Warren head coach Kevin Pearson. Bosco assistant and former USC player Darnell Lacy was there as well. Four-star edge Zach Groves was in attendance as USC continues to look for more defensive linemen in this 2026 class.

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