All eyes were on USC left guard Emmanuel Pregnon during pregame warmups last week vs. Rutgers, as he had been formally designated as questionable for the game with an unspecified leg injury.

But there he was, his right knee/leg noticeably wrapped up, going through pregame with the rest of the first-team offensive line to not only playing 42 snaps (until the 42-20 win was comfortably in hand) but finishing as PFF's highest-graded offensive guard (82.2) in the country last weekend.

"We didn't think he was going to play," coach Lincoln Riley said this week. "He was actually the other guy we honored as the Trojan MVP along with Devan [Thompkins]. We got the injury report, we thought he was pretty doubtful early in the week. Credit to our training staff, those guys did an awesome job getting him ready, and I do think it shows his progress because we made the comment to the team that I don't know that he would have been in shape or been as mentally tough [last year] to be able to not just play but like play well, and he kind of went in there like it was nothing -- like, I'm just going to find a way to overcome it.

"It was just cool to see, man. He's progressed a ton, played very well. He's had a good stretch of games here the last few weeks. You always seeing just examples of that toughness, that commitment to what we're doing."

Pregnon, a fifth-year senior in his second season since transferring in from Wyoming, is USC's highest-graded offensive lineman this season by PFF (73.1) while allowing just 7 quarterback pressures and 0 sacks while committing just 1 penalty all season. The only game in which he allowed multiple pressures was the win over Wisconsin and he's given up just 2 over the four games since -- including a clean sheet last week vs. Rutgers.

As Riley said, Pregnon not only found a way to play for the Trojans but played as well as he has at any point in a generally strong season.

"The toughness and the grit that he have, the brotherhood that we have in our group -- just to come out and give his all and play with us, he did some great things to open up some holes. ... That just shows what kind of player he is," running back Woody Marks said.

Said quarterback Miller Moss: "Really proud of him. I think it speaks to his growth as a player and how far he's come since he walked in the door here. Not only did he play but he played extremely well and has really come forward as a leader in our offensive line room. So, really proud of him, and the more people that can fall in line with people like that and attitudes like that the better we'll be as a team."

Pregnon is a great example to emulate in a lot of ways. He was a lightly-recruited two-star prospect out of Denver back in the 2020 recruiting class, ultimately signing with Wyoming. He didn't play at all in 2020 or 2021 before taking over as Wyoming's starting right guard in 2022 and impressing enough that he was a coveted target in the transfer portal with a slew of offers from bigger programs.

Since arriving at USC last year, he's been remarkably steady. He allowed 13 pressures and 0 sacks all of last season, but 5 of those came in one rough night at Oregon. He was flagged for 7 penalties last season and has cleaned up his discipline in that regard with just the 1 flag so far this fall.

"I honestly felt I've progressed the most in just how I view the game and how I come out every day," Pregnon said this week. "Back to perspective and mindset and things like that, they can change the whole landscape and trajectory of how you play, the attitude that you come with, the energy that you bring to others around you. That definitely helped. And the coaches and strength staff and everybody around you helps you with that."

So how did he summon the resolve to surprise even his head coach by playing vs. Rutgers?

"You know, injuries are injuries, man. Shoot, they hurt, yeah, for sure. But it ain't nothing. I believe you gotta get the job done whatever and however it takes, so that's what I did," he said.

"... No matter how hard you hurt, you've got to push yourself to keep going in life. I feel like football is a game of life and it's a testament of how you're supposed to attack life as well. You might get injured or something bad might happen, but you've got to push yourself to move on and keep fighting."

Perhaps the most stressful part of the whole experience was climbing the ladder and holding the sword after the game as one of the stars of the night.

"I thought I was going to fall through that thing," he joked.

Here's a closer look at some of Pregnon's best moments vs. Rutgers that contributed to his national-best offensive guard PFF grade last week.

3:08 left in the second quarter on the 50-yard line: Pregnon is able to down block his defender completely out of the play. If he didn’t do that, the defender is coming straight for Miller Moss to blow up the play. Instead, Moss is able to throw a swing pass to Zachariah Branch, who takes it for 22 yards and a first down.