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While everyone looked to Alijah Vera-Tucker as soon as the Pac-12 announced it would indeed play a fall season, curious if the redshirt junior offensive lineman would reverse his decision to opt-out and focus on the NFL, the Trojans' projected left tackle said the decision wasn't immediate for him.

"It took a lot of thought, talking with my family, friends and coaches. It definitely wasn’t something I thought about as they announced the fall season was returning," he said Tuesday morning on a Zoom call with reporters, his first time being asked about his return since announcing it on Twitter last Tuesday.

"But after a lot of thought, I thought, why not? Why not come back and compete with my brothers, compete for a Pac-12 championship? Nothing really changed. The reason I came back [after] last year was to do the same exact thing. The only difference between this year is obviously COVID and a late start date. Once I kind of looked at all that, looked at the pros and cons, I just thought it was a good idea to come back and compete with my brothers."

Good idea is one way to put it. "Relief" might be the way many inside the program would describe it, as USC was already left to replace both starting tackles from last season, had no experienced tackle depth remaining and was then going to lose its only obvious replacement at LT if Vera-Tucker -- who was a standout at left guard last season -- didn't choose to play this fall.

"I feel really good about where we’re at at offensive line. Especially with AVT coming back, that was really important for us," offensive coordinator Graham Harrell said Tuesday. "For one, he’s a great football player. And two, he’s played a lot of football, and he’s makes us better at that position. He adds depth at that area. But we've got to try to find our best five and get them out in whatever order we can."

That's the other key point, indeed.

While Vera-Tucker's return solves one major issue, it wasn't the only missing piece to the puzzle the Trojans need to sort out this preseason.