In taking over a wayward 4-8 USC football team, Lincoln Riley knew he needed to turn over the roster and bring in fresh talent, more depth and some true difference-makers.

But just as importantly, he needed to bring in players who could lead the equally-significant culture change he knew the program needed.

In Alabama linebacker transfer Shane Lee, Riley was able to check both boxes (and any others there might have been), all from the first conversation they had.

"I was out recruiting, we got on the phone, we had a great talk. It was a different talk than maybe a lot of guys that we recruit, whether high school guys or transfer. This one was obviously we were looking for a guy we thought could come in and be a great contributor on defense and at the linebacker position. But certainly as we started putting together this roster, we started thinking more about who are some of the key guys who could come in and really spearhead this from a player perspective and lead," Riley recalled.

"And as we started talking I talked a lot about that and he talked about what he was looking for both from a situation as a player and all of that, but a big part of his decision was an opportunity to come in and be a leader and be at the front of the room and be responsible for that from a player perspective. And it just clicked, man. That's the best way I can say it. Exactly what we wanted and needed was exactly what he wanted and needed."

Indeed, Lee is an especially interesting component to USC's rebuild both on and off the field.

Despite arriving on campus in January, Lee is already one of the most respected figures in the Trojans locker room, and it was no surprise he was voted one of four team captains.

Teammates and coaches have talked about him so effusively since the spring that they might as well have been telling tales of a folk hero.

Riley shared a specific example of Lee's leadership last week while talking with reporters.

"We had a little accountability session right when he got here. When we got done with the physical work that night and our players came up -- and he had just got here, he hadn't been here more than two or three days and still didn't know a lot of the guys on the team and all that -- and he jumped right in the middle," Riley said. "It was one of those moments where the team needs to step up, and to have the courage and the presence to go do that around a bunch of guys that you don't even know yet, you just got here two or three days ago ..

"And when he talked, our guys, their eyes got big. And it was like, 'Oh, this is what it's supposed to sound like, this is what it's supposed to feel like.' And I thought that really set the tone for who he is as a leader and the impact that he's going to have on the program this year."

Again, though, that's only part of what the Trojans need from Lee. The linebacker play has been consistently maligned by fans in recent years and is a significant reason why USC has experienced an overall defensive erosion that reached its (hopeful) nadir last year with the worst statistical defensive season on record in program history.

Riley and Co. are hoping Lee can help with that too, of course.

This is where he is especially interesting. Lee was a top-50 national prospect and the No. 2-ranked inside linebacker in the 2019 recruiting class, out of Baltimore, Md. He signed with Alabama and got thrust into the starting lineup as a true freshman due to an injury at the position, and he went on to finish second on the team with 86 tackles while adding 6.5 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks, an interception and 2 forced fumbles for an 11-2, top-10 team.

But he then played just 65 defensive snaps over the next two seasons.

It's just like Riley framed it -- everything that USC needed this offseason mirrored what Lee needed. The Trojans needed a fresh start after the Clay Helton Era, and Lee needed a fresh start where he could get on the field again and prove himself to set up his football future.

He doesn't really talk about that, though -- about himself, about what this season means for him personally. I tried again at Pac-12 Media Day, in a one-on-one conversation, hoping he might expound on the personal stakes in all this, asking him what he hoped to show this year to NFL scouts and anyone else looking to see what he does as a senior.

Nope, he wasn't going to go there. It's just not his way.

"I want to show people that the Pac-12 can play defense," he responded instead. "I want to have a good defense out here, as well as Coach Grinch and Coach Odom. That's what we're here to do -- we're here to set the standard for what USC football means and defense is a big part of that."

It's easy to see why the leadership label has been so inextricably tethered to Lee since he arrived. It's easy to see why he carries a presence in the locker room, even though he isn't the biggest of talkers.

And starting Saturday, it will be most interesting to see how Lee the linebacker impacts USC's defense on the field.

To this point, he's been everything Riley and USC needed -- and potentially, maybe it works both ways.

"I've told him since he's been here, I want him to err on the side of aggression. If we get to the end of this year and he was somehow too aggressive as a leader, we'll take that. We can't live or survive with the opposite of that. He can't be passive. He's got a great perspective," Riley said. "He's not a guy that has a million words, but when he talks it's very impactful, it's very well thought out, very intentional. And you feel it with our guys when he speaks up. And he's got great experience and he's got a great desire to not only have a great year individually, but most importantly to him is he wants to be a part of a championship team and he wants to be a part of the reason that the culture here was established in a very positive way.

"So he's been an ideal leader here. We're very fortunate that our worlds kind of collided and that we were both kind of looking for the same thing at the time."