USC safety Zion Branch out for the season
A struggling USC defense will be without one of the growing bright spots for the rest of the season as safety Zion Branch will be sidelined due to injury. Trojans’ head coach Lincoln Riley announced the development following Tuesday’s practice.
Riley said Branch underwent a medical procedure that morning but did not specify what the injury was. Though, he did say it was related to the knee injury Branch suffered last year.
“Hate it for him,” Riley said of the injury to Branch, who took over as the starter at free safety in USC’s most recent game against Cal. “His first start. Terrible luck.”
It’s the second season-ending injury in two years at USC for Branch. He suffered a knee injury early during summer conditioning drills shortly after arriving on campus in 2022. The recovery from that kept him off the field for all of the 2022 season and limited him during 2023 spring ball.
But Branch was growing into a key defensive player for USC of late. He played a season-high 40 snaps on defense against Utah and then drew his first starting assignment against Cal.
Now, he’ll face another rehab in order to get back on the field for USC in 2024.
“He’s so headstrong and so positive and so driven, he’ll come back way stronger from it,” Riley said. “Obviously come in here and earn the free safety job at USC as a freshman is a pretty big deal.”
Riley said Branch “played very well” when he saw the field for the Trojans this season.
“It’ll sting for this team to lose him,” Riley said. “He’s a strong cat and he’s going to be a great player here.”
The safety position will be an interesting one to watch against Washington. This is not an opponent against whom you want to be at less than 100% in the secondary. Bryson Shaw took over for Branch following the injury. USC has been without safety Max Williams since he suffered an injury against Notre Dame three games ago. The Trojans would seem to have another option there in true freshman Christian Pierce, but getting Williams back for the game against the Huskies could be pretty big.
“Not ideal, but that’s just part of the end of the season,” Riley said. “Hopeful that some of these guys that are rehabbing and haven’t been able to be on the field with us the last few weeks could also potentially come back and make an impact as well. We’ll have to see how the week goes. We have to be ready to proceed without all of them. We’ve got a plan together that we feel confident about to be able to play well Saturday.
Washington comes into Saturday’s 4:30 pm kick against USC with the No. 1 passing offense and No. 9 scoring offense in the country.
