ARLINGTON, Texas -- USC coach Lincoln Riley has talked before about how the roots of the Trojans' dramatic turnaround this season can be traced back more than 12 months ago to when left guard Andrew Vorhees decided to delay his NFL departure a year and center Brett Neilon also chose to come back for his fourth season as a starter.

Those two tone-setters -- along with the emergence of Justin Dedich at right guard and the growth of right tackle Jonah Monheim -- provided the foundation for Riley to construct one of the most exciting offenses in college football.

Vorhees finished as an AP first-team All-America selection and Neilon finished as PFF's second-highest-graded center in the country.

Now, the Trojans get an early look at life without those two stalwarts up front as both Neilon and Vorhees will miss the Cotton Bowl clash with Tulane on Monday due to injury.

USC's reshuffled offensive line is one of the major storylines and variables in this matchup -- and even more so for the Trojans' upcoming offseason.

With regard to Monday, the Trojans will presumably go with Dedich at center, redshirt junior Gino Quinones at left guard in his second career start, Monheim moving inside to right guard, and some combination of veteran Bobby Haskins, Courtland Ford and redshirt freshman Mason Murphy at the tackles.

With regard to 2023? Well, there's a long way to go before answering that question, with transfer portal season ongoing and five freshmen offensive linemen joining the program.

But what happens Monday will certainly factor into those evaluations, so let's start there ...