Lincoln Riley reveals Shane Lee's effect on Raesjon Davis

Lincoln Riley expects Shane Lee to be a leader for the USC defense this season. A transfer from Alabama, Lee spent the past three seasons learning under one a Hall of Fame coach in Nick Saban.

Although the 6-foot, 245-pound linebacker has only been with the Trojans since the start of spring, Riley has already seen his maturity rub off on his younger teammates. Guys like returning sophomore Raesjon Davis are starting to follow Lee’s example, and Riley believes his defense is better off for it.

“Shane is a great example,” the coach said after USC’s ninth spring practice. “You think about a guy that just has a professional mindset in terms of the way he works and carries himself. Every day is important, every meeting is important, every walk through rep is important, every practice rep is important. You just kind of watch him go about his business and you can see that. He doesn’t have to tell you, it very, very obvious.

“Guys a lot of times don’t understand that until they get knocked around a little bit. They experience some of this and a lot of times guys come on and figure it out later. But Shane’s been a great leader. He’s been a tremendous example. And it’s great to have a great example, but you’ve got to have young guys that actually learn from it and see it for what it is and make changes and take action. So credit to Raesjon and a lot of the younger guys for following the example of guys like Shane Lee.”

Coming in as the No. 9 linebacker in the 2019 class according to On3 Consensus, Lee had a spectacular freshman season. He finished with 86 tackles, 6.5 sacks and two forced fumbles and was named to the FWAA Freshman All-America team. His future appeared bright at Alabama, but he suffered a setback with a sports hernia injury in 2020 and played in only five games. He came back in 2021, but found himself behind multiple players on the depth chart as he recorded only seven tackles.

Now, he hopes to find a place on a Trojans team coming off of a 4-8 season. USC finished just 10th in the Pac-12 in total defense this past season, so has plenty of work to do to turn things around. That will mean players such as Davis, who was the No. 79 overall player in the 2021 class according to On3 Consensus, need to take a step forward.

Both Shane Lee and Davis will get a chance to show their value when the USC hosts its annual spring game on April 23.