Lincoln Riley says Bear Alexander has "a long way to go"

Thursday, the USC football program released its first official depth chart of the season. One position group that stood out was the defensive tackles.

Most fans noticed that at one DT spot, star returnee Bear Alexander is not entrenched as a definitive starter. Rather, he's listed as a potential co-starter along with Gavin Meyer.

The difference between Meyer and Alexander as far as their pedigrees go is easy to see. Meyer is a senior transfer who played four years at Wyoming racking up 67 tackles, including 8.5 for loss while making 32 appearances with only 7 starts.

As a recruit in the class of 2020, he was only a three-star prospect and just the No. 1,971 overall player in the nation. What's more, he had no offers from Power 4 programs.

Meanwhile, Alexander was a 4-star prospect in the class of 2022. He was rated the No. 50 overall player and No. 9 defensive lineman in the country. Including USC, he had offers from Alabama, Georgia, Florida, LSU, Michigan, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Texas, Tennessee, and a host of other programs.

Now both are expected to split time at defensive tackle for the Trojans in 2024. Friday, when speaking to the media, Riley was quick to point out another difference between the two players.

"They've both had strong camps, you know, very different situations," he said. "Obviously, Bear was injured and missed the entire spring, missed a few points of fall camp but is now fully healthy and is gaining momentum. Gavin has been super impressive just coming in and learning the system quickly. You see the experience of a guy who's played a whole lot of ball and you can feel that."

Riley then went on to talk further about Alexander who has become a curosity, if not an obsession for USC fans. Riley was quick to remind us that Alexander is still developing as a player.

"And even for Bear, Bear is, you gotta remind people he played sparingly his true freshman year at Georgia. I mean he played for us here year one and then he missed all of spring.

"Bear is still very young on the football field. Bear's still got a long way to go. He is definitely getting better fast, no question about it. The last couple of weeks especially, you felt him really gain some momentum, adjusting to the new system and all that we're doing new defensively. His progress has been very positive as well and I'm sure you're going to see a pretty steady dose of both of those guys."

Of course, the comment that Alexander has "a long way to go" is eye-catching. Does Riley mean that Alexander is far from being ready to dominate the way USC fans have been envisioning all offseason? If so, that's got to be somewhat of a disappointment.

Now, last year, Alexander was a factor despite being far from a finished project. He made 48 tackles with 6.5 for loss while forcing two fumbles. That's productivity that most of the defensive tackles in the nation would love to provide their teams.

However, because of his pedigree as a recruit, because of his athleticism, and, let's be honest, because his name is "Bear", more is expected of Alexander. USC fans have been waiting for him to break out and become one of the nation's most dominant players along the defensive line.

That could still happen in 2024 as he matures as a football player. However, Riley seems to be tapping the breaks a bit on the Bear Alexander hype and that, along with the depth chart designation, should give us some clues as to where Alexander is at this point in his Trojan career.