LOS ANGELES — Two weeks ago, USC’s offensive line outlook suddenly and magically stabilized with a simple admission from O-line coach Zach Hanson, the most important piece of their 2024 front set to return.
In late November, USC left guard Emmanuel Pregnon accepted an invitation to play in the East-West Shrine Bowl, an admission that typically signals a player is bound for the NFL draft. After the senior was seen at a USC bowl game practice on Dec. 18, though, Hanson asserted Pregnon was set to return for 2025 – a much-needed senior presence in a room with a wide array of holes.
“Made tremendous strides this last year, looking for him to do the same this upcoming year,” Hanson said then, “and get that NFL draft grade up and hopefully go get drafted high in the draft next year.”
That, still, is certainly possible. He just won’t make those strides at USC.
On Friday afternoon, Pregnon entered the transfer portal, according to multiple reports. These Trojans have lost a bevy of offensive pieces to the portal across the past month, from receivers Zachariah Branch and Duce Robinson to running back Quinten Joyner; Pregnon’s departure, though, is the most significant, a flip-flop that leaves USC with three starting holes to fill on its offensive line come 2025.
A transfer from Wyoming in 2023, the 6-foot-5, 320-pound Pregnon authored a solid first season for USC at left guard before cementing himself as perhaps the program’s most consistent offensive lineman in 2024, allowing the fewest pressures per game of any Trojans starting lineman this past season. In late October, he seemed likely to be a scratch with injury for USC’s game against Rutgers before toughing out a start, inspiring members of the program and USC’s fan base alike in allowing just a single pressure in 42 snaps.
“I honestly felt I’ve progressed the most in just, how I view the game and how I come out every day,” Pregnon said in the week after that Rutgers game. “Like, back to perspective and mindset and things like that, they can change the whole landscape and trajectory of, how you play, the attitude that you come with, the energy that you bring to others around you.”
His absence, in 2025, means USC will have to replace three starting offensive linemen, from a room that’s already plenty thin and has yet to add any bodies from the portal. Starting center Jonah Monheim is headed to the NFL draft, and Pregnon will join right tackle Mason Murphy in the portal. According to Pro Football Focus, beyond returning LT Elijah Paige and RG Alani Noa, USC’s current offensive-line depth on the roster has a combined 378 snaps of collegiate football.
There is promise, amid that depth. Redshirt freshman Tobias Raymond started in Murphy’s place in USC’s victory over Texas A&M in the Las Vegas Bowl, and true freshman Justin Tauanuu authored a solid performance in place of left tackle Elijah Paige, who went down with injury early.
“They really played well together against a great group,” head coach Lincoln Riley said of USC’s young offensive linemen after the bowl win. “And certainly proud of their performance.”
There’s no immediate fill-in for Pregnon on USC’s current roster, though, leaving Hanson’s room in a precarious spot entering the spring.