USC Football Mailbag: Trojans Have Strength Up Front

USC football faces a tough slate in 2016, but strength in the trenches can carry the Trojans far. Our weekly mailbag focuses on the big men up front.

Welcome to the Reign of Troy mailbag. This mailbag is a weekly feature, where we will answer your questions related to USC football.

If you have a question for the mailbag, send it in to @ReignOfTroy on Twitter or via email to reignoftroy@fansided.com.

Let’s get started:

Same question I always ask. The road to success has always gone through the D line (esp vs Tide). How does it look?— bcorig

This is going to be, in most peoples minds (and accurately so), the biggest concern this off-season and in the early season.

All the starters on last year’s defensive line have moved on, and they were not all that impressive most of the time. This year’s line will be made up of players who played some and those who barely played at all. If I had to project who the starters would be on the defensive line it would be Malik Dorton, Noah Jefferson, and Rasheem Green.

It should be kept in mind that besides the Alabama and Stanford games, it is likely that USC will be in a 4-2-5 alignment most of the time against the spread offenses in the Pac-12. So that will require only two down linemen — Clancy Pendergast thinks of the outside linebackers as defensive linemen — so this may not be as big of a problem as it was last year.

Remember that in 2013 Pendergast worked with limited numbers and ended up with best defense in the Pac-12. He has better numbers now, so expect good results.

What is your projection for USC’s end of season record?— Glen

That is difficult to say until we go through fall camp and see what the team can do. At this point, we have no depth chart, so we do not even know who the starters will be or if the injured players in the spring will be at full strength in the fall. Having Cameron Smith and Toa Lobendahn back will help immensely.

Having said that, USC has the talent to win the Pac-12 and challenge for a playoff spot. But talent will only get you so far in a tough conference. The Trojans have always had talent and have recruited more each year. But they have lacked elite coaching, which is required to be perennial conference and national champions.

At this point, I project a 9-4 record with a Pac-12 South repeat and a loss in the title game to Stanford. But that is open to change after seeing the team in fall camp and the early season.

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What will be the strength of this year’s team?— Chris

The offensive line figures to be the strength.

USC returns all of its starters and for the first time in years has a legitimate 3-deep at each position.

Factor in that Neil Callaway is considered to be a mastermind and the offensive line projects to be one of the biggest in the nation. The sky is the limit for this group.

If they can hold their own against the likes of Alabama and Stanford, USC has a good chance to win both games.