Stressing importance of Bear Alexander, Anthony Lucas to USC defense against Colorado

The USC Trojans are the second tough test in a row for the Colorado Buffaloes, who were brought back down to reality by Dan Lanning and his Oregon Ducks last week. While everybody knows about the prolific offense for USC and their jaw-dropping set of skill players, the Trojans’ defensive line has improved a bit this year, according to Erik McKinney of WeAreSC.com.

He joined On3’s Andy Staples on Thursday evening to talk about the biggest differences between the USC defense last year and this year.

“The one thing. Up front. Last year it was Tuli Tuipulotu and that was it. I mean, he was phenomenal, right. He led the country in sacks and had 22 tackles for loss. He was everywhere, but if he didn’t do it, nobody did it,” McKinney said.

McKinney noted that USC has multiple different players on the defensive line that can bring pressure this year.

“And this year, they’ve been better about getting pressure from a bunch of different places. Solomon Byrd is probably a guy that not a lot of people know. He leads the team in sacks right now and has been tremendous there. He’s actually the guy that’s keeping Anthony Lucas off the field a little bit. In terms of jumping up and being a starter at that spot. So, there’s more guys contributing,” McKinney said.

Solomon Byrd has racked up 7.5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks so far this season, leading the team in both categories.

“Jamil Muhammad is another transfer. You talked about Bear [Alexander] and Anthony Lucas but Jamil Muhammad has been tremendous coming over from Georgia State. There’s guys, there are more players that are making plays up front for USC this year compared to last year,” McKinney continued.

Jamil Muhammad currently ranks second on the team in both tackles for loss (5) and sacks (3).

“And that’s gotta keep up. That’s gotta keep up against the better offensive lines, because this Colorado offensive line is just not going to be the test that USC truly needs to pass, if it’s gonna be one of the two teams in the Pac-12 Championship. If it’s gonna be one of the four teams in the playoff,” McKinney said.

The Colorado offensive line has been unquestionably, one of the worst units in all of college football. The Buffaloes have allowed 23 sacks in four games thus far, ranking them 132nd out of 133 qualifying teams. The only team worse is Old Dominion, which has allowed 26 sacks.

USC and Colorado will square off on Saturday, Sept. 30th. That one is slated for noon EST.