Mason Cobb ruled questionable for Utah State game, per Lincoln Riley

USC might be without a key defender in the home opener against Utah State on Saturday night, as Lincoln Riley shared with reporters on Thursday that linebacker Mason Cobb is questionable headed into the weekend.

Cobb played in the season-opening win against LSU on Sunday night, nabbing an interception on the penultimate play of the game to seal the win for the Trojans. But since that moment, an injury has cropped up, though Riley did not specify the nature.

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“Mason’s been limited for us this week,” Riley said. “Hasn’t been a full participant in practice, be questionable for the game. Just got to see how he moves around today and obviously we’ve got a little bit of extra time, recovery now with the later kick. So, we’ll see. It’ll be close.”

Cobb finished tied for second on the Trojans defense with seven tackles in the opener, the same as fellow linebacker Eric Gentry, who, along with Easton Mascarenas-Arnold, would be asked to fill in the void if Cobb can’t play.

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Beyond Gentry and Mascarenas-Arnold, Riley expects to platoon some number of younger linebackers to play in base looks where three are on the field, when either of the top duo needs a quick breather, or in specific sub packages if Cobb cannot play.

“We still — if he’s not able to go, we certainly still have Eric and Easton, obviously. That next group of guys, Desman Stephens, Raesjon [Davis], [Elijah] Newby, [Garrison] Madden, that group, it would be a combination of all of those guys if Mason’s not able to go. So, I obviously hope he can, but if he can’t, it’ll be exciting to see some of those guys get an opportunity. 

USC’s new-look defense has earned plenty of praise

Urban Meyer came away impressed with how USC improved on defense based on what he saw in its 27-20 win against LSU in Week 1. The Trojans were among the worst defenses in the FBS this past season, prompting them to hire D’Anton Lynn from UCLA as their new defensive coordinator.

The 20 points USC gave up to the Tigers on Sunday was more than two touchdowns less than the 34.4 average it allowed in 2023. It wasn’t a shutdown performance by any means, but it was a significant enough improvement to garner the attention of Meyer.

“So far the hire of the year has been D’Anton Lynn,” the former coach said on The Triple Option podcast. “That was a different-looking animal on defense to hold them to 20 points. The tackling a year ago was awful. We did actually a couple of shows on it. Lincoln Riley made a change and brought in the guy from cross-town at UCLA and it showed up.”

USC won more often than not on third down this past week and also forced an interception from LSU. It provides hope that the Trojans can at least be an average defense, which would be an improvement compared to the first two seasons under Riley.

Lynn will hope to continue developing the USC defense over the remainder of this season. The Trojans will face a bit easier of an opponent in Week 2 as Utah State will come to LA Coliseum for an 11 p.m. ET kickoff on Saturday.

On3’s Chandler Vessels contributed to this report.