The best debates are the ones that emerge organically, and while editing Tajwar Khandaker's exceptional in-depth USC Football State of the Program column last week I realized that he and I had differing expectations for how the Trojans' backfield will shake out in 2025.
That seemed like a good jumping off point to start delving deeper into the more intriguing position groups this month.
With Woody Marks off to the NFL after posting USC's first 1,000-yard rushing season since 2017, and dynamic backup Quinten Joyner now set to have his expected breakout season at Texas Tech instead of as a Trojan, it's more or less a total reset at the position entering 2025.
New Mexico transfer Eli Sanders (himself coming off a 1,000-yard breakout season), JUCO addition Waymond Jordan (recognized as the top offensive player nationally in the JUCO ranks last season), returning backs Bryan Jackson and A'Marion Peterson and incoming freshmen Riley Wormley and Harry Dalton give the Trojans impressive depth at the position this year.
But which of those RBs will end up with key roles on Saturdays?
We debate ...
Tajwar's take
When forecasting the Trojans’ 2025 depth chart, there’s perhaps no position group more intriguing or unsettled than the running back room. In the backfield, the Trojans have achieved more or less a full break from the room as it was in 2024, as the two players who handled nearly 90% of the team’s regular-season snaps at the position have now departed.
It was always evident that Marks would move on after his sensational senior season as USC’s lead back, but most expected Joyner, his electrifying backup, to naturally inherit that role in 2025. Yet Joyner opted to take his talents elsewhere and enter the transfer portal before the Trojans’ bowl game, leaving the team woefully thin at running back for that contest and uncertain in the future of the position for the coming year. As a true freshman, Jackson did well when handed the keys against Texas A&M in the Las Vegas Bowl, but USC still opted to add two talented backs through the transfer portal in Jordan and Sanders.
It’s hard to project right now how Lincoln Riley and Co. decide to manage that group in 2025, but I have my thoughts ...
