This is a pivotal season for USC's football program, to state the obvious.

The Trojans rebuilt their recruiting momentum over the last year and a half, but they'll need to perform on the field to back that up in this 2022 cycle. And, of course, every season is a critical one for head coach Clay Helton to combat doubts and show that he can turn a highly-talented roster into a Pac-12 champion and beyond.

But factoring into both of those broader contexts, it's very much a pivotal season for offensive coordinator Graham Harrell, now in his third year at USC.

In replacing offensive line coach Tim Drevno with Clay McGuire this offseason, Harrell brought in another assistant coach from the Texas Tech tree, intrinsically familiar with the nuances of his offense and how the blocking schemes and running game best mesh. (The narrative being that there was a disconnect between the operation up front and the overall scheme previously.)

Essentially, the Trojans are fully all-in on Harrell's derivation of the Air Raid. Every single offensive position coach aside from WRs coach Keary Colbert -- who has done fine on-field work with the receivers in recent years -- possesses a Texas Tech, Air Raid background now.

More to the point, Harrell also has an abundance of weapons to maneuver and use creatively to help the offense.

That would seem to be the most significant evaluation point for the offensive coordinator this year -- how much creativity can he show to maximize a talented backfield that goes five deep (including finding a use for Kenan Christon's elite speed), to utilize dynamic hybrid tight ends like freshman Michael Trigg and Texas transfer Malcolm Epps (presently injured), to get star junior wide receiver Drake London free from double teams and to incorporate a variety of useful skill sets within the receiving corps.

"We're trying to marry up what the best personnel groups are. Is it going to be 11 (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR), is it going to be 20 with those backs (2 RBs, 0 TE, 3 WR), is it going to be 10 (1 RB, 0 TE, 4 WR), is it going to be 12 (1 RB, 2 TE, 2 WR) with the number of tight ends we have?" Helton said earlier this preseason.

There is a case to be made for all of those options, honestly, meaning USC should be able to capitalize on that versatility.

"I don't know how teams will play us, to be honest with you. I think that we're running the ball right now and that takes the pressure off those receivers, and with the talent we have I think we can put people in binds and that's the goal," Harrell said this week. "We'll figure out a way to attack them however they play us, and like I said, regardless of what they try to do we're going to try to execute at a high level and that's the whole philosophy of what we do."

The other main question for Harrell's offense, of course, is what he hinted at in that comment -- whether the run game will actually be a factor in a way it most certainly was not last year, when the Trojans ranked 120th nationally at just 97.33 rushing yards per game (the second-worst total in program history).

Again, that's the main reason McGuire is here, and everyone wants to know how the offensive line and rushing attack looked in the preseason.

Well, it's hard to know when they're going up against the same defense every day. How good is the defense? Same dilemma.

The Trojans have broken some nice gains most practices, they have converted some short yardage opportunities and they also were shut down a couple times near the goal line in the last scrimmage (not all being run plays). Until they play an actual opponent, it's perilous to extrapolate what any of that actually means.

In the meantime, we have Harrell's assessment ...

"I think they're doing a lot of good things, and I think that for the most part everyone's on the same page. That's as important as anything with that, because like I said we have some really good running backs back there. If we can just all be going to the right people and kind of get some cover up there those guys can make everything else right," he said, again reiterating the notion that everything was not on the same page in that regard previously.

"To me, that's the sign of good running backs -- it's not going to be perfect but you've got to make them right at times. As you saw today, there were times there was an extra guy standing there and they make [the offensive line] right [by creating yards]. That's their job and they like that. They want to do that, all of them do that at a high level and they're really going to help us because they're playing at a high level."

With all of that said, let's take a closer look at what we've learned about this Trojans offense through the preseason -- position by position.

Helton announced the quarterback depth chart Thursday, with Jaxson Dart winning the No. 2 job over fellow freshman Miller Moss.

It was the expected decision. Moss elevated his performance this preseason from the spring and added some intrigue to the proceedings, for sure, but if fall camp practices were scored like a boxing match, Moss would have won a couple rounds, Dart would have won a couple rounds and the rest would have been about even.

The difference is that Dart performed best in the two preseason scrimmages, not to mention the spring game and spring practice overall.

"Where Jaxson had a leg up a little bit was in live action," Helton said in announcing the news. "That's how it was evaluated was really when the ball was put down in scrimmage-type atmospheres or live action, that's what I needed to see and he was a little more productive in those situations than Miller. Obviously, both guys are elite. Both guys will continue to compete."

The hope for the Trojans, though, is that particular competition was and will remain more about the future than the present, and that incumbent third-year starter Kedon Slovis has his best season yet in Cardinal and Gold.

There seems to be a range of opinions about how Slovis has looked this preseason, but that may stem from one's expectations for the QB coming into the year.

Those who have real concerns coming off his inconsistencies in 2020 and a lackluster spring can easily focus on the bad interception he threw in the second preseason scrimmage and reinforce their doubts.

Meanwhile, those who believe Slovis has compellingly explained the legitimate reasons behind some of his 2020 unevenness while more importantly explaining why he feels different physically (and mentally) now, who give him credit for nonetheless ranking sixth nationally in passing yards per game last season (320.2) and being near flawless in the clutch moments of the Trojans' three wild comeback wins, can draw enough from his preseason to double down on their optimism.

Perhaps it's clear which of those two sides we land on ...

Slovis has shown no signs of the wobbling passes that sounded the alarms of concern last fall. He's had no problem pushing the ball downfield and has delivered several impressive deep completions, including his best pass of the preseason Tuesday when he hit K.D. Nixon for a 45-yard touchdown down the seam (with tight coverage from cornerback Chris Steele). Nixon has not shown great proficiency at winning contested plays downfield in his time at USC, going back to the spring, but on that pass Tuesday he didn't even have to adjust as the ball dropped in perfectly while he maintained his stride into the end zone.

Questions to Helton and Harrell this week about how Slovis has grown and improved over his time at USC led mostly to comments about intangibles and leadership.

"As a freshman he was really, really impressive, and the biggest growth for him I think over the years has not necessarily been poise but his willingness to get on the unit when he has to," Harrell said. "That's part of your job as a quarterback and I tell him that and emphasize that to him is holding teammates accountable and stuff like that. It can be uncomfortable, but it comes with being a quarterback. I think that's probably where he's grown the most."

Fair enough. We'll direct our evaluation more to the tangibles, though.

Based simply on watching him throw the ball this month, there's every reason to believe that Slovis can recapture what he showed as a freshman -- 71.9 percent completion rate, 3,502 yards, 30 TDs and 9 INTs -- and maybe even improve upon it.

"To be honest, that first season was spectacular and if anything he's getting back to that, in my eyes," wide receiver Drake London said this week. "Obviously, he's grown in many ways mentally and physically, so you could say those things have changed, but I think he's getting back to those ways where he's just going out there and playing his game and balling out."

QB depth chart:

1. Kedon Slovis, junior

2. Jaxson Dart, freshman

3. Miller Moss, freshman

As it relates to Slovis and the offense at large, though, so much hinges on the offensive line and what it's able to become with a new position coach and likely two redshirt freshmen first-year starters at the bookend tackle spots.

If one listens to the coaches, it was all positive, all encouraging this preseason. Our evaluation was a little different, as the QBs rarely seemed to have much time to operate in the pocket. It's actually easier to buy into the notion that the run game/run blocking will be improved than it is to feel confident about the pass protection.

Again, though, is that a product of going against a very talented USC pass rush every day that features a potential first-round draft pick in Drake Jackson, a five-star phenom in Korey Foreman, a steady stalwart in Nick Figueroa and prime breakout candidate in Tuli Tuipulotu, led by an aggressive defensive coordinator in Todd Orlando who spent a lot of camp working on blitzes? Or will the unit struggle against any above average opponent this season?

We won't know until we see it play out one way or the other.

But McGuire makes a compelling case for why the optics of the preseason may indeed be somewhat skewed.

"Like I said, we're going against that one unit and it's pass rush drill and they know it's pass, we got to dang near be perfect in all the fundamentals and then we still got to have great effort because it's just that hard to block those guys," he said this week. "So it's great work for us. Like I said, I think if we can go out there and compete against those guys, it's a great opportunity. It's a great kind of ruler, a point for us to gauge where we're at. So I think we've done some good things. I definitely think we've got room to get better, too."

Replacing first-round NFL draft pick Alijah Vera-Tucker at left tackle is a major challenge for a second-year lineman like Ford, and it's hard to imagine he matches AVT's elite performance immediately. But there is a lot to like with Ford, who is both strong at the point of attack and athletically mobile. It surely won't be flawless, but he's shown enough to inspire optimism that he will continue to develop and could be a very reliable left tackle into the future for the Trojans.

Helton hasn't announced a starting right tackle yet, but all indications are that it should be fellow redshirt freshman Jonah Monheim (over incumbent redshirt senior Jalen McKenzie). Monheim got the vast majority of first-team reps toward the end of the preseason and drew comments like this from McGuire ...

"You kind of got to keep reminding yourself he's just a freshman. But I think he's done a really good job in there. Like I said, he's been extremely consistent. I think you know exactly what you're going to get with him out there. I think he's one of the better guys we have in the run game right now. He's probably, you could argue, maybe the smartest kid we have on that O-line, too," McGuire said. "It's pretty sharp, what he knows, kind of his football IQ. ... I mean, he gets the calls, he knows exactly what he's doing, he's able to see what the defense is doing and get a picture of how his opponent's going to play."

It won't be perfect, but Monheim has every quality needed to be a successful college offensive tackle. And given McKenzie's struggles there last season, he could very possibly provide an immediate upgrade.

Both young tackles had their challenges against the likes of Jackson and Foreman this month, but that's going to happen to a lot of linemen this season. Expect Ford and Monheim to get better and better as the season goes along.

On the interior, there are no surprises as redshirt seniors Andrew Vorhees at left guard, Brett Neilon at center and Liam Jimmons at right guard return as starters.

The hope in all of this is that the true difference-maker is McGuire and that aforementioned cohesion up front that everybody indicates is improved this year.

So we asked McGuire what the main difference is in what he's asking the linemen to do this year.