Stop us if you've heard this before -- USC's defense is more talented and deeper than last season and that is cause for optimism that the much-maligned unit could be improved this year.

I may or may not have copied that directly from what we would have written a year ago about the Trojans' defense.

Head coach Lincoln Riley sat around a table with a handful of reporters last January and was so compelling and convincing that the offseason additions, which at that point didn't yet even include Bear Alexander (the most significant of all the incoming transfers), were going to transform the defense and solve many of the issues carried over from 2022.

We all know how that turned out ...

But there is obviously a different wrinkle to it all this time.

This isn't new talent and more depth playing under the same broken scheme of former defensive coordinator Alex Grinch. No, this is new everything.

In just a couple short months, we've heard plenty of notable recruit feedback about the excitement for new defensive coordinator D'Anton Lynn, who came from the NFL ranks to perform a 180-degree turnaround across town at UCLA this past season. Add in LBs coach Matt Entz, who a head coaching job at FCS power North Dakota State to become a position coach for the Trojans; DBs coach Doug Belk, who was the defensive coordinator at Houston; and defensive line coach/co-DC Eric Henderson, who was well established with the NFL's Los Angeles Rams.

Those staff changes are the biggest reason for renewed optimism on the defensive side for USC, but the offseason roster additions do indeed help address major needs and provide a substantial influx of depth in the secondary.

We broke down the Trojans' offensive outlook last week, projecting our depth chart for spring practice (which doesn't have a start date yet but will likely launch sometime in March). It's a little bit harder to project this defense, given that Lynn and the staff will be making fresh evaluations on all the players and what we knew from last year may not apply the same way in 2024. Also, there is just a lot of competition ahead at linebacker, edge rusher and throughout the secondary.

But we'll take our shot nonetheless at making sense of where things stand entering the spring.

Manoah Faupusa, one of the defensive recruits who visited last weekend, noted that Lynn told him the Trojans will run a 4-2-5 defensive scheme, so we'll work from that basis. Granted, they more or less ran a 4-2-5 under Grinch (and under Todd Orlando, etc.), but we'll swap out the "rush end" spot for a second traditional defensive end as we try to fit the pieces together here.

Defensive end

1. Nate Clifton, redshirt senior

2. Anthony Lucas, junior

3A. DJ Peevy, redshirt freshman

3B. Lorenzo Cowan, freshman

3C. Jide Abasiri, freshman

Defensive tackle

1. Bear Alexander, junior

2. Solomon Tuliaupupu, redshirt senior

3A. Devan Thompkins, redshirt sophomore

3B. Deijon Laffitte, redshirt freshman

Arriving in the summer: Freshman Carlon Jones

Nose tackle

1. Isaiah Raikes, senior

2. Elijah Hughes, sophomore

3. Kobe Pepe, redshirt junior

Defensive end

1. Jamil Muhammad, redshirt senior

2. Braylan Shelby, sophomore

3A. Sam Greene, redshirt freshman

3B. Kameryn Fountain, freshman

Outlook

USC made a clear priority of adding to the depth up front. Riley is also hoping to transfer the size of the Trojans' defensive linemen through the offseason program, seeing the gains made by the start of spring will provide some more insight as to h. ow the pieces fit together and who looks poised to rise above the competition.

Because as should be clear from the projected depth chart above, there is abundant competition at the edge spots in particular.

The 6-foot-5, 280-pound Clifton, who had 5.5 sacks at Vanderbilt last season, and Jamil Muhammad, who had a team-high 6.5 sacks for USC last fall, look like the presumptive favorites to lock down starting jobs, but nothing can be assumed with a new staff. And it's likely these spots are heavily rotated if the rest of the talent on the roster proves itself in practice. Anthony Lucas and Braylan Shelby are the prime breakout candidates after relatively quiet 2023 seasons. The former top-100 national prospects are also prime candidates to transfer their bodies through the offseason program after playing lean last season.

The rest of that defensive end group is inexperienced and hard to project at this point. Most likely, someone from that mix emerges as another option on game days, but the bulk of that group should looking at a developmental year ahead.

On the interior, the Trojans' depth is still a concern and adding an additional defensive tackle from the transfer portal after the spring should be a top priority. We've been told veteran DT Stanley Ta'ufo'ou chose not to use his final year of eligibility here, so Texas A&M transfer Isaiah Raikes needs to prove he can be the guy at the nose tackle spot next to Bear Alexander. Our breakout candidate is Elijah Hughes, who really flashed in his limited reps as a true freshman.

One other note -- we really didn't know where to slot Devan Thompkins, who was listed at 6-foot-5, 255 pounds last season and a more natural body type at defensive end. But for simple roster balance, USC needs one of those guys to fit inside and he's the most likely depending on what he makes of the offseason strength program. We also slotted veteran Solomon Tuliaupupu on the interior even though he was a defensive end entering last season before getting hurt.