New tight end ranking might have USC football fans deeply missing Michael Trigg

When USC football lost their promising young tight end Michael Trigg to ex-Trojans Head Coach Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss, nobody was happy. Trigg, a 2021 four-star recruit for USC (all recruiting ratings and rankings in article are as of 247Sports), had already shown flashes of promise during his time at SC.

He only caught seven passes for 109 yards and one touchdown, but his size (6-4, 245 pounds)/athleticism combo was evident and easy to see a big future from. The No. 4 tight end in the country coming out of high school, the thought of him in Lincoln Riley's system was more than exciting.

On National College Football Analyst Mike Farrell's top 50 Tight Ends list, he surely had Trigg on there. He had him as his No. 18 Tight End in the country. Unfortunately, nobody from SC's roster was on the list. It shows that there may not be a ton of talent on SC's team at tight end this year.

USC football's tight ends will need to prove doubters wrong this season if SC wants to be back.

If USC football wants to get back to dominance in 2022, the tight ends will need to ball out. Look at the above list again. Utah, who is the Pac-12 favorite, has multiple tight ends in the top seven.

Stanford, Oregon State, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado all have a tight end on the list. Stanford and Oregon State even have one each in the top 17.

While this is just one man's opinion, it's important to bring up how the favorite to win the No. 1 tight end job out of fall camp (Lake McRee) only had seven catches for 91 yards in his only season of college football last year. To make matters even worse, those are obviously lesser numbers than Trigg.

Pairing Riley with Trigg gave off Mark Andrews vibes again. Now, Riley will be working with a group that may not have that type of status heading into the year. This room is capable of playing well, but it also is worth pointing out that it could be a work-in-progress in Year 1 of this offense for the tight end crew.