USC OT Jalen McKenzie talks Drew Richmond's arrival, added competition
With veteran right tackle Chuma Edoga moving on to the NFL, the presumption was that redshirt sophomore Jalen McKenzie would be the favorite to fill that void in 2019.
That may well still be the case, but the arrival of Tennessee graduate transfer Drew Richmond adds another wrinkle there.
McKenzie, who made two starts last fall spelling Edoga while playing in all 12 games overall, discussed that added competition after USC's player-run practice Tuesday.
"We have a saying over here that we are thankful for any and every opportunity to compete. That's what we say when we're about to play a formidable opponent, so that's how we operate out here. It's really nothing new," he said. "When I first came here I was competing with Chuma Edoga. He was the No. 1 offensive lineman in his class. I remember him as a kid, I was watching his highlights. It's 'SC.
"My freshman year I was blocking Uchenna Nwosu every single day the entire year. So when you go here, you're not surprised or new to competition. It's life."
In this case, McKenzie is also not new to his specific competition. He and Richmond actually had familiarity with each other well before the fifth-year senior ever ended up on USC's radar.
"I've known Drew actually since I was like 16 years old. Drew went to school with my brother [Kahlil] at Tennessee. I was young, I would go up there to visit my brother, I'd see Drew," he shared. "So I've known Drew for years so this is actually kind of crazy and funny. It's just weird knowing how long I've known him and now coming full circle."
McKenzie said he spent time with Richmond on his recruiting visit to USC back in the spring, and the presumption is that Richmond -- who started all 12 games at right tackle for Tennessee last season -- will be competing at that same spot, with redshirt senior Clayton Bradley also in the mix. Incumbent left tackle Austin Jackson is a fixture on the other side of the line.
Overall, USC will have three new starters on the offensive line after also losing left guard Chris Brown and center Toa Lobendahn.
Redshirt sophomore Alijah Vera-Tucker had an impressive spring and is probably the favorite at left guard, while redshirt sophomore Brett Neilon will continue to battle redshirt freshman Justin Dedich at center and junior Andrew Vorhees returns as the favorite at right guard after starting 20 games there the last two seasons.
"[Offensive line coach Tim Drevno] has told us from the get-go, he tells everybody on the line, everybody in the room knows that when Aug. 1 hits that it's a competition for every spot. Nobody's spot is safe no matter what you think," McKenzie said. "That's what coach Drevno says so that's what you have to go with."
The right tackle spot could be the most interesting of those competitions, though.
Richmond made 25 starts over the last three seasons for the Vols, but he had his struggles last fall for a team at the beginning of a rebuild.
McKenzie, meanwhile, started the Cal and UCLA games last season and had a very insightful response Tuesday in discussing what he learned from his experiences last fall.
"I would say just experience in a sense of, not with knowing the playbook, but in a sense of knowing different game situations that you can read before anything ever happens. Now I had two starts, I played in a bunch of games," he said. "It wasn't my first time seeing it, obviously I'd seen it in practice, but when you have game film and other types of film that you can go back and watch -- football isn't being reinvented -- you see the same things and see the things you've got to focus on in your technique.
"So that's really been it. Taking a change from trying to learn everything and perfect it to seeing what you are good at, what you're not good at and honing in on your technique. That's been the difference. You see little steps, little twitches in your game that, ok, I'm going to pinpoint that this week.. That's the difference going into this fall camp and going into last year's fall camp. … Now it's, I know how it feels to be in a game, I know how it feels to mess that up, so now in practice every time I do this I'm thinking of the one time I didn't do this as well as I could have, or I should have did this a different way."
McKenzie comes from rich football bloodlines, of course, as both his father Reggie McKenzie (a linebacker) and his uncle Raleigh McKenzie (a center) had long NFL careers.
Jalen McKenzie is trying to forge his own football path now, and 2019 could be a pivotal season for him depending on how that fall camp competition goes.
In addition to feeling more advanced from a mental preparation standpoint, McKenzie also talked at length about the impact new strength and conditioning coach Aaron Ausmus has had on him and the rest of the offensive line. He noted that for the first time in his USC career he was able to stay the same weight while still changing his body.
"That's the other thing that AA helped with, getting a plan and getting a set goal -- and inching towards it, it didn't happen overnight," he said. "… Once you get to the point your body has changed, you can feel it. The biggest thing I think I changed was like my core strength. I had to fix that a lot. That's another one of the takeaways I took away from my game. I would see myself win and lose late because of my core strength, so I was like OK, I need to get that better."
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