USC football redshirt tracker and forecast

USC is at the point of the season where the coaching staff has to make some decisions on either burning or maintaining players' redshirts, with the NCAA allowing guys to play in up to four games without exhausting a year of eligibility.

Some of those decisions have already been made with five games down now, but many others remain.

Asked during the bye week if he had made any firm calls on those matters, coach Clay Helton said it was something he and his staff were evaluating at the time.

"Some kids have already passed the four games that we're committed to playing for the rest of the year. Some guys are sitting at two, three, four games and still have a game available. But when we hit that four-game mark, we sit down with guys to be able to say, 'Here's where we are,'" Helton said. "... I have a huge database sheet that I get each Monday that has players' total number of plays for the season, for each game, offense, defense, special teams and I look at their contribution and what they're doing.

"Once we commit to a kid that it's his opportunity to play the whole season then we're trying to garner enough reps for it to be a quality season where they can get hopefully 100 plays or more on tape whether that's offense, defense and special teams."

That last point is an interesting one to keep in mind as we break down the potential redshirt candidates.

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