USC football needs to secure transfer from former massive O-Line recruiting target

EDITOR'S UPDATE: Chuck Filiaga has been confirmed to have transferred to the University of Minnesota.

USC football needs O-Line help, and a guy they once REALLY wanted to be one of their own has become available again in Chuck Filiaga.

Filiaga was once a top target on the USC O-Line back when he was a recruit in the 2017 class. They weren't able to reel in the Aledo High School product from Aledo, Texas, but now he's back in the portal. Filiaga ended up starting at Michigan for the 2020 season at left guard.

While injuries took their toll on Filiaga's health, he still was able to get four starts this year for Michigan's O-Line that was given the Joe Moore award for best line in the nation. He clearly can ball when he's healthy. SC returns two very good starting guards next year in Justin Dedich and Andrew Vorhees, but there's nothing wrong with a little competition.

Chuck Filiaga needs to be brought in by USC football to give the team adequate offensive line depth.

While I'm not trying to imply that the USC offensive line has no depth, the best O-Lines in the country have almost TOO much depth. Adding Chuck Filiaga and having three good guards on our team would give us quite an insurance policy if we face injuries during the year. And let's not forget that USC has had multiple seasons tanked by injuries in the past five years with what they experienced in 2018 and 2019.

The best programs acquire as much depth as they possibly can on the roster to account for potential injury, and this transfer portal option is giving SC opportunity to do that. The former four-star recruit (all recruiting rankings and ratings in article are as of 247Sports) was the No. 13 tackle nationally in his class and he's lived up to it. Ranking as the No. 18 player in a state CRAWLING with high school talent, he was the No. 112 overall recruit in the class.

This is the type of talent SC fans like myself have been wanting for years. Pairing a starter from the offensive line that was recognized as the best in the country with the Joe Moore award, to a line that was the highest graded PFF line in the nation (USC) is a match made in heaven.

The 6'6," 337 pound mauler needs an offensive line-friendly system like Lincoln Riley's to play in, and Riley needs to bring in transfers like this if he really wants to expedite the process of bringing SC back to national dominance.