LOS ANGELES — When Raesjon Davis was little, he visited a USC practice and told Pete Carroll his dream: he was going to be a USC Trojan, and he was going to one day be a first-round draft pick.
“Well,” legendary head coach Carroll responded, as Davis’ father Rashad once recalled to the Southern California News Group, “I don’t know if I’ll be here that long.”
That was the dream, since Davis was 4 or 5 years old. He, indeed, long outlasted Carroll, arriving at USC in 2021 under Clay Helton’s regime and staying for Lincoln Riley’s. And for four years, Davis remained in USC’s program even as the opportunity didn’t come, a local kid searching for a Trojan dream that never quite materialized.
On Friday, Davis’ time in USC’s program officially came to an end, as he announced on Twitter he was entering the transfer portal. Once a four-star prospect out of Mater Dei, he received sparingly few snaps across four seasons, seeing his most action in an 18-tackle season in 2023 in which he started four games. After seemingly falling to the back of USC’s linebacker rotation in 2024, his senior year, Davis took a redshirt season to preserve another year of eligibility after appearing in three games.
“You understand the push-pull – the kid really wants a chance to play,” Riley said of Davis’ decision at the start of October, speaking on Davis competing on special teams snaps, “but he also wants a chance to play more defensively, too.”
It seemed possible, still, that Davis could return to the program and compete for increased opportunity, a loyalist who had remained in the linebacker room through coaching changes and years of transfer portal imports playing ahead of him. And Davis sat for an end-of-season conversation recently with head coach Lincoln Riley and defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn, according to a source familiar with the situation, Riley encouraging Davis to stay at USC and be a locker-room leader come 2025.
Despite a clearer path to playing time next fall – with starters Mason Cobb and Easton Mascarenas-Arnold set to likely move on – Davis, still, elected to enter the portal, seeking a more consistent basis for snaps after years of turmoil at USC.
On paper, then, senior Eric Gentry and freshman Desman Stephens II seem set to start in the Las Vegas Bowl for USC, and presumably would be penciled in as starters at linebacker come 2025. The program has targeted secondary, defensive line and running back help most aggressively in the portal’s first week, but with Davis’ departure, veteran help is likely needed.