Bryce Dixon’s Wasted Talent and More USC Football and Basketball News

Former Trojan tight end Bryce Dixon’s carjacking charges are even worse than they first appeared.

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

1st & 10:

First Word… On wasted talents and tight ends.

As it turns out former USC tight end Bryce Dixon was not just arrested for carjacking on Tuesday evening. His alleged crimes go well beyond that.

Dixon and a fellow college athlete who was kicked off of his football team — LSU’s Tre Lealaimatafao — were charged with five counts of second-degree robbery and one count each of carjacking, attempted carjacking and assault with a deadly weapon, as reported by the LA Times Thursday. They are also suspected in up to four other robberies in Ventura County.

The two will have their day in court and Dixon’s attorney adamantly denies that his client had anything to do with the robberies but this is certainly one step too far as far as USC’s football team is concerned.

More from Reign of Troy

• Markese Stepp enters transfer portal intending to leave USC football
• USC football’s Alijah Vera-Tucker declares for NFL Draft
• USC football adds Xavion Alford as transfer from Texas
• USC Podcast: RoT Radio Ep. 396 on the Football Season’s Fallout
• Talanoa Hufanga named Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, USC football with five first-teamers

If it wasn’t already clear, Dixon will never play for the Trojans again. He is in serious danger of never playing football again, period. Second-degree robbery can carry a sentence of two to five years in prison. Carjacking carries anywhere from three to nine years. The weapon’s charge would only increase that total.

The saddest thing about Dixon’s predicament is that it is such a waste. For him and for USC.

The circumstances of his initial expulsion were murky and “affirmative consent” policies can be debated back and forth for days. The ambiguous nature of his misstep, however, would have afforded him a chance at a new venue if he wanted. Instead he fought the ruling, got his expulsion reversed and went back to school.

Whether in Los Angeles or somewhere else, Dixon had a second chance. And he wasted it. He had NFL talent and he wasted that too.

Dixon had started his career brightly, logging 14 catches for 198 yards and four touchdowns in 2014. He was on track to start in 2015 and players who start at USC almost always turn that starting job into an pro opportunity.

Randall Telfer, Xavier Grimble, Rhett Ellison, Jordan Cameron and Anthony McCoy are all in the league in some capacity. In fact, just about every Trojan tight end from the last decade not named Blake Ayles — whose career ended due to concussions after his transfer to Miami — has had a fair shot at NFL success. Dixon is now on the wrong side of that equation.

There are no winners here, but hopefully Clay Helton can do his best Herm Edwards impression and get the message across to the entire USC football team, “Don’t be that guy.”

Don’t be that guy that finds himself in bad situations. Don’t be that guy that wastes opportunities and talent.

And Ten USC Football and Basketball News Links…

1. Reign of Troy: USC basketball was outpaced by Oregon last night in Eugene.
2. ESPN: USC’s incoming defensive line recruits will have opportunities to play early on in their careers as the Trojans replace all three-starters up front.
3. ESPN: With Stanford on top and UCLA refocusing towards old-school style, will USC really dedicate themselves to the power-run game like Clay Helton promised in the lead up to his hire, asks Greg Katz.
4. Bleacher Report: USC is among the 12 programs who have recruited well enough to compete for next season’s national title, according to Justin Ferguson.
5. Reign of Troy: Three-star 2017 wide receiver Marlon Williams committed to USC Thursday.
6. LA Times: Connor Murphy
7. College Spun: Iman Marshall has a ridiculously low body fat percentage. No really.
8. SB Nation: Bill Connelly took a stab at ranking the Top 100 games from the 2015 season. USC’s contests against Stanford and Notre Dame were No. 59 and 55 respectively. Both were losses, unfortunately. And unsurprisingly, USC’s Holiday Bowl display against Wisconsin was no where near the list.
9. TMZ Sports: USC basketball players Malik Martin and Chimezie Metu gave the true Los Angeles perspective on the Rams’ return — More traffic.
10. USCFootball.com: Join Ryan Abraham for a history lesson on the Coliseum, which has hosted two Olympiads, two Super Bowls, a World Series, a pope and three U.S. Presidents.

Stat of the Day:

USC has not beaten Oregon in basketball in 11 meetings going back to March 5, 2009. They’ll have to wait until the final game of the season, coincidentally on March 5th, 2016, to get another shot at ending that streak.

Tweets of the Day: