USC OL coach Josh Henson discusses the Trojans' new-look line
The makeup of USC’s offensive line has offered a couple of surprises this season. The first came in the opener, when true freshman Alani Noa and veteran Gino Quinones manned the guard positions over presumed favorites Emmanuel Pregnon and Jarrett Kingston. The second came this past Saturday, when the expected offensive line shakeup came with a bit of a twist.
There was no surprise that Mason Murphy was inserted into the starting lineup. He hadn’t started either of the previous two games but came in early off the bench and played a majority of the snaps at right tackle. He did indeed start against Utah, but at right guard. Kingston, who had been the starter at right guard since the second game of the season, moved out to right tackle.
Henson said the decision to move Murphy to guard and start him there came from finding the best mix of experience and ability to “play with power” in the interior. The tougher decision, according to Henson, was who to play at right tackle. Kingston became the choice over Michael Tarquin. Henson said that will be the look of the line “until something changes.”
Murphy played right guard against Notre Dame the previous week, but just to close out the game in a lopsided loss. Henson said they’ve been working him in at guard in practices over the past three or four weeks. Depth in the interior of the line became an issue early in the year when Quinones was lost for the season early against Nevada.
USC OL performance against Utah
The game against Utah was a solid performance for the USC offensive line. The Trojans posted more points and rushing yards than the Utes had allowed all season. Henson said he felt the group worked well based on the results.
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“Number one, we just got some better push up front,” Henson said. “We did a good job of holding our own, physically, against Utah. It’s a physical football team. They’ve got mass, size, they play well with their hands. And number two, once we got going, I felt like there’s a certain level of confidence developed from us playing better.”
Making the switch now
Issues for the USC offensive line seemed to begin cropping up against Colorado. Henson and some of the veteran leaders talked about the Trojans not winning the physical battle up front. It appeared to be more of the same against Arizona, where the Wildcats defensive front controlled much of the game especially early on. The Notre Dame game was a low point for the offensive line as the Irish got consistent pressure against quarterback Caleb Williams. That ultimately forced a change for Henson.
Asked whether he wished he’d shuffled the lineup sooner, Henson said, “You can’t think like that. I honestly wish that the lineup we had would have just performed better, but it didn’t, so we made a change.”
