The plan, Jarrett Kingston said, was to go to the NFL after his fifth year at Washington State, but a late-season injury last fall gave him second thoughts.

If he was going to play a sixth year of college football, though, he wanted to make sure he was putting himself in a position to truly boost and maximize his NFL draft potential.

That led him into the transfer portal and now with USC.

"First of all, having a Heisman-winning quarterback always helps. I just knew I wanted to come into a place that already has that side of things -- the spotlight on Caleb [Williams] will ultimately help the offensive line get the spotlight too, just having that exposure as a quarterback," Kingston said. "And then ... a chance to win the Pac-12 championship, ultimately national championship, that's what I wanted most."

The buzz around the program following Lincoln Riley's first season at the helm also played a key factor for fellow offensive line transfer addition Michael Tarquin, who made the move to USC from Florida.

"USC, just say the name, it speaks for itself. Very historic program, a lot of great teams, national championships, and Lincoln Riley now getting here, a great coaching staff, they're trending upward," Tarquin said. "There's a lot of great things happening, a chance to win a national championship and I really wanted to be a part of it."

Landing three offensive line transfers with Power 5 starting experience -- fellow Florida offensive line transfer Ethan White arrives in the summer -- greatly assuaged the natural concerns associated with the Trojans losing three starting offensive linemen after the 11-3 resurgence last year.

In fact, it was arguably the most significant development of the offseason for the program.

"Obviously, those guys have played a lot of football, so the prediction would be that they'd be able to help us, but they've got to come in and earn it," offensive line coach/offensive coordinator Josh Henson said.