Bryce Dixon Creates Twitter Stir and More USC Football News

Can’t get enough USC football news? We’ve got your morning dose of all the best content from around the web concerning the men of Troy.

1st & 10:

First Take… Former USC tight end Bryce Dixon set Twitter alight Thursday evening, fueling rumors of his return to the football program when he tweeted an ambiguous message:

As it turned out, Dixon was (unwittingly or not) trolling fans of USC on social media with the tweet which seemed to indicate his reinstatement to the team.

Instead, the former Trojan was quoting song lyrics, or so he said later:

Dixon was removed from the football team and expelled from USC this spring due to an undisclosed student-conduct issue, but told Lindsey Thiry of the LA Times in June that he wants to return to the Trojans.

Just this week, USCFootball.com’s Dan Weber said there was renewed optimism that there could be movement on that front: “There are those who say he could definitely be back in a matter of weeks…Something is going on and there is optimism after six weeks of thinking it maybe wouldn’t happen.”

Those developments combined with Dixon’s Twitter misunderstanding may have been a complete coincidence, but there has never been more momentum towards the idea of the star tight end returning to USC.

If he does, USC’s tight end situation will have gone from dire to even more dire to actually pretty alright to maybe kind of strong over the course of the offseason.

And Ten USC Football Links…

1. Sports Illustrated: USC’s hopes in 2015 begin and end with Cody Kessler, says Lindsay Schnell in her preview of the Trojans, who start the year ranked No. 8 according to SI.
2. LA Times: Four-star defensive back David Long committed to Stanford yesterday. He had only recently eliminated USC from his school choices.
3. LA Times: Another commitment of a USC target to a Pac-12 rival became official as well, with Oluwole Betiku pledging to UCLA.
4. OC Register: Will the defensive improve in year two? Will offensive line become a strength? Is Cody Kessler’s Heisman dream legit? Who will replace Buck Allen and Nelson Agholor? How will USC handle the hype? Those are Michael Lev’s burning questions going into fall camp.
5. ESPN: Su’a Cravens is the No. 7 top player in the Pac-12 this season, behind Myles Jack at No. 6. according to Dave Lombardi.
6. Bleacher Report: The most popular majors among football players in the Pac-12 include business and sociology. At USC the most popular major is communication.
7. USCFootball.com: Kenny Bigelow doesn’t care about being an All-American or All-Pac-12, he just wants to dominate in the trenches after two years of sitting on the sidelines. USC could definitely use an All-American showing from him though.
8. Bleacher Report: USC’s defensive line checked in as one of Ben Kercheval’s biggest position battles to watch from around the country during fall camp this year.
9. Sports Illustrated: Prepare yourself for the slate of “USC is overrated” opinions being thrown around in the lead up to this season now that the Trojans have been picked to win the conference. Colin Becht named USC his most overrated team in the Pac-12.
10. Reign of Troy: We took a stab at ranking the best 50 USC players of the last 50 years. It was not easy.

Stat of the Day:

In 1986, USC’s Rex Moore had 206 tackles in a season, which is the most by any Trojan since tackles were recorded.

Tweets of the Day: