When it comes to ‘re-signing’ players, USC isn’t running from reality
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Welcome back to the Times of Troy newsletter, where today, before we take a much-needed Christmas break from the newsletter next Monday, let’s talk about the latest trend from this insurgent new era of college football and the complicated feelings it has conjured the past week.
It started last Saturday, when USC’s football program posted on its X account that running back Waymond Jordan had “re-signed with the USC Trojans”. The news was a huge boon for USC. But that phrase, “re-signed,” gave some people — myself included — pause. The next morning, the program announced four more “re-signings.” Then six more a few hours later.
This was uncharted territory for a college football program — in that it didn’t feel like a college football program at all. It felt like an NFL team, navigating a lawless version of free agency. Even USC’s coach acknowledged that much.
“It’s almost more like an NFL team,” Lincoln Riley said last week. “It’s an accomplishment to be welcomed back.”
This concept makes some college football fans uncomfortable. Many long for a bygone era, when college football players suited up because they had pride in their school and an undying love for the game. The mere notion of “re-signing” players, in their mind, implied the decision to stick with the program they love was just a financial transaction.
I understand that frustration. I fight it myself sometimes. But the truth is that version of college football is long gone. It was buried with the House settlement. And to cling on to that pre-House past, in this new era, means getting left behind.
“It’s just treating this as the reality that it is,” Cody Worsham, USC’s senior associate athletic director for strategic communications, told The Times. “Institutions that bring old practices into new eras fail. We have to bring new practices into a new era to succeed. I understand the sentimentality. We all do. We all knew this might feel different. But it should feel different. It is different.”
That was the driving force behind USC’s re-signing approach, Worsham told me, which was born out of a brainstorming session around Signing Day. Though when the idea was brought up in a meeting between USC’s athletics creative staff and general manager Chad Bowden and his front office staff, there was admittedly some trepidation.
“We were all like, ‘This might be an awful idea,’” Worsham said. “‘There’s a chance this doesn’t work the way we wanted to.’”
But everyone got behind it, betting on the fact that USC fans would devour the content that came from slowly rolling out re-signings, one by one. They set up USC’s creative team in the “Bubble,” a detached office off of Heritage Hall where Bowden and his front office have been holed up since the end of the season. Worsham sent along examples of player signings from his favorite Premier League team, Arsenal. Bowden set a specific order for announcing which players had re-signed; for instance, intentionally giving quarterback Jayden Maiava his own day. They took all the photos and shot all the video of the re-signings inside the Bubble.
Their collective bet has paid dividends. While other fan bases have rolled their eyes and national voices have decried the end of college football as we know it, USC is getting better engagement than it initially hoped. The players are clearly enjoying the recognition, too.
Other teams have even started to follow USC’s suit, some even taking their strategy a step further. Texas A&M announced late last week that star receiver Mario Craver was now “the highest-paid receiver in school history.”
That might be taking things a bit too far. But the facade is clearly falling. And while I can get behind the notion of promoting how players are compensated for their name, image and likeness, schools can’t then have their cake and eat it, too. If college football is basically a professional enterprise, let’s treat it like one in every sense — and not just when it’s convenient for the school or its online engagement numbers.
If players are professionals now, let’s acknowledge they’re employees. Let’s disclose revenue-sharing agreements. Let’s also understand that these changes also affect how the media reports on said players.
That’s what it looks like to really blaze a trail, which USC has insisted it plans to do.
“If you’re gonna win the era, you’ve gotta embrace the era,” Worsham said. “You can’t run from it. You can’t hide from it. You can’t pretend it’s not there. You definitely can’t keep doing things the way you’ve been doing them.”
Extra points
— There’s still no answer yet on D’Anton Lynn. Amid serious interest for the second straight offseason from his alma mater Penn State, Lynn was still at USC’s bowl practices this past week. Does that mean anything? I wouldn’t read much into it. But while Riley would certainly prefer to retain Lynn, I did think he set a clear tone Friday that USC won’t spiral if Lynn leaves, either. “These are really coveted jobs,” Riley said. “And this job, frankly, is a lot different than it was four years ago, and it’s even a lot different than it was two years ago for any job, not just that job. So yeah, it’s just part of the world that we live in and hopefully we can keep as much continuity as we can, but if we do have to make any replacements, then we’re going to try to do what we’ve done, do it at a high level, and find ways to make our program even better.”
— Other assistants are garnering some interest. Offensive line coach Zach Hanson, who did a tremendous job this season, inside receivers and tight ends coach Chad Savage and strength and conditioning coach Trumain Carroll have all been mentioned as serious possibilities for new coach Collin Klein at Kansas State. Losing any of them would be a blow to USC, after Riley reiterated several times how valuable they are.
— Five-star freshman tight end Mark Bowman could have an immediate impact at USC. But that would be the exception, not the rule. When sophomore tight end Walker Lyons entered the transfer portal this past week, the collective reaction from USC’s fan base was to say that Bowman could seamlessly step into that spot and dominate right away. Eventually, the name “Brock Bowers” is usually invoked. (Bowers, for the record, had 882 yards and 13 scores as a true freshman.) Sure, maybe Bowman does have a Bowers-like debut in him. But to expect as much is setting fans up for disappointment. That’s not a reflection on Bowman at all, but rather how complicated it is to learn the tight end position in Riley’s offense — or any offense, for that matter. Of the top 10 tight end prospects from the class of 2025, just one finished with more than seven total catches this season. The best performance from a freshman tight end this season came from Boston College’s Kaelan Chudzinski, who finished with 24 catches, 313 yards and four touchdowns. That sort of debut for Bowman would be a great result.
A look at all the players who are transferring in and out of UCLA and USC in the NCAA transfer portal ahead of the 2026 college football season.
— Texas Christian will be without its star quarterback for the Alamo Bowl vs. USC. Josh Hoover entered the transfer portal last week and should be one of the most coveted quarterbacks available. That’s obviously a huge hit to the Horned Frogs’ hopes in this game, considering how critical Hoover was to TCU’s pass-heavy offense. TCU will also be without its second-leading receiver, who injured his foot in bowl practices. USC will have its quarterback … but not much else.
— Eric Musselman added a player to USC’s roster at the midway mark of the men’s basketball season. It’s happening elsewhere, too. Kam Woods, who last played at Robert Morris, officially joined the Trojans the day after the semester ended, and he’s no end-of-the-bench add. I’m told USC expects him to be a real contributor at point guard, where the Trojans are especially thin without Rodney Rice. Woods led the Colonials in scoring and assists a year ago but wasn’t picked up in the transfer portal. We don’t yet know for sure the reason he didn’t join a team during the first semester, but it seems, from the outside, like an issue with his representation. USC was actually interested in Woods in the offseason given the experience he brings as a sixth-year senior. This kind of midseason addition is actually becoming a trend around college basketball, with international and junior college standouts swooping in at the semester mark. If you find yourself in a tough spot like USC, why not dip into the midseason market?
— USC had no choice but to schedule a Division III opponent on Sunday. And that’s a failing of the NCAA’s tournament selection criteria. Musselman has been railing against the fact that margin of victory is factored into the NCAA selection committee’s criteria since he first started at USC, and this week was perhaps the best example yet of why he’s right. When USC and Brown decided to cancel their matchup Sunday, Musselman preferred to fill that spot with a similar-caliber opponent. But unless USC were to beat that opponent by a significant margin, it could have actually hurt the Trojans’ chances of getting into the tournament, as opposed to scheduling a D-3 opponent like UC Santa Cruz, which does not factor into those figures come selection time. As the system currently stands, Musselman has no reason to give walk-ons or end-of-the-bench reserves playing time in big wins. Because the bigger the win, the more secure a team could be in March.
Polling the people
USC is taking a bold, new approach by announcing on social media the players that it “re-signs” this offseason. So what do you think of that approach?
- It’s brilliant, and USC is ahead of the curve.
- I begrudgingly accept that this is how things are now.
- I don’t feel one way or the other about it.
- I hate this — bring back the old era of amateurism.
Click here to vote in our survey
In case you missed it
Lincoln Riley confirms who will — and won’t — be playing for USC in Alamo Bowl
USC cancels basketball game against Brown in aftermath of campus shooting
USC starting quarterback Jayden Maiava is returning for the 2026 season
USC learns Rodney Rice is out for season before beating Texas San Antonio
Eric Musselman, USC take rare step by adding point guard at midseason
Londynn Jones scores a career-high 28 points as USC women rout Cal Poly
Lincoln Riley on Penn State’s interest in D’Anton Lynn: ‘Well see how it turns out’
After scrambling to find an opponent, USC dominates in win over UC Santa Cruz
What I’m Watching This Week
It has been a great year for film so far, and “Jay Kelly,” the latest from writer-director Noah Baumbach, belongs in that conversation. George Clooney was born to play an aging movie star and, per usual, is dripping with charm in this movie, which you can watch on Netflix. The acting was fantastic — Adam Sandler and Laura Dern both are also memorable — and the writing is a triumph. Baumbach doesn’t beat his viewers over the head with a moral, instead imbuing the movie with a subtle undercurrent of sadness that says all we need to know about its titular character’s life.
“One Battle After Another” is still my favorite film of the year, but “Jay Kelly” definitely deserves its flowers this year.
Until next time ...
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at ryan.kartje@latimes.com, and follow me on X at @Ryan_Kartje. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
