As Lincoln Riley put it, at the very least, the USC coaches knew they had to bring in "bodies" to throw at the defensive line depth issues they inherited.

That meant taking a chance on some more under-the-radar transfer targets. In the case of Tyrone Taleni, it meant really trusting their own scouting and projection of what he might be able to do in a different defensive scheme.

At Kansas State, Taleni played just 97 defensive snaps over two seasons. He did tally 2 sacks with the Wildcats but just 5 tackles overall in a very limited sample size. So if he couldn't crack the rotation for a middle-of-the-pack Big 12 team, how was he going to impact a Trojans team that Riley made clear had championship expectations this year?

"Tyrone was a great example of a guy that had limited experience in football, but there was some reps at Kansas State that we watched and really caught our eye," Riley said earlier this week on Trojans Live. "They were doing at the time something very, very drastically different than we do schematically, and watching him, it was like projecting -- all right, we can see where maybe he wasn't a perfect fit in this scheme, but a few of the things he did we said, 'You know what, this could really translate well into what we do and he could be just a better fit for our scheme than theirs.' ...

"I think he's getting better because he didn't play much football to begin with leading up to it, but I think he's also getting better because, in my opinion, he's in a much better scheme for his ability and I think we're seeing that."

Indeed, they are.

Taleni missed Weeks 2-3 with an undisclosed injury, but he's returned to log 16 and 22 defensive snaps the last two games, and vs. Arizona State he collected 1.5 sacks -- all in the fourth quarter.

After tallying 2 tackles for loss and a sack in the season-opener vs. Rice, he very suddenly has 2.5 sacks and 3.5 TFL in just three games this season. He's tied for third on the team in both categories despite playing in a limited reserve role.