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USC football building from the ground up via progressive teaching

March 13, 2026

LOS ANGELES — USC freshmen Tron Baker and Trent Mosley’s hands snapped to each other’s pads, and the two shuffled right and left before briefly breaking free, then grasped shoulders again.

Football coach Lincoln Riley was there all the while, running toward them and dishing out feedback during this particular Friday practice period, which was dedicated to special teams work. It wasn’t just Baker and Mosley that he had gravitated to – it was the entire group of mostly underclassmen that was with them.

It’s part of the progressive teaching style that the Trojans have adopted to help acclimate a talented class of 32 freshmen to the college football world while also rejuvenating the returners and transfers.

“It’s a method of teaching that I really believe in,” Riley told reporters. “There’s a little bit of it in some of our special teams and our fundamental periods of just really taking the time with so many new players on this roster to start from the very bottom, start from the ground up and build it and not assuming anything with our guys.”

The special teams drill that Baker and Mosley were doing, for example, had been built up throughout the first two weeks of spring practices.

It started with players practicing a quick burst against a teammate holding a pad. Then the pad was removed, and players went up against each other one-on-one for just a few seconds.

The progression could still continue and building from the basics, even in a fundamental special teams period, has transferable skills.

“It’s amazing how many of these clips show up in an offense for a defensive competitive period,” Riley said, “where what they’re working a drill for maybe in one period actually works and teaches you to be a better player. And you can apply it so many different ways.”

Mike Ekeler, USC’s new special teams coach, emphasized a progressive teaching style when he spoke with reporters in mid-February. Paul Gonzales, the Trojans’ new safeties coach, was planning to be a high school teacher before beginning a coaching career.

“You find ways within your practices to put guys in position so they can learn and they can really grasp the concepts that we’re teaching,” Gonzales told reporters in February. “You have to be a good teacher. I didn’t get into coaching because I loved anything else but the education piece.”

The coaching staff is mixing fun with the fundamentals in competitive “Trojan periods” and drills like the freshman-senior tip drill that allows new and veteran players to work together in the passing game.

Holding occasional practices in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum has also sparked early excitement within the team.

“If you’re at the Coliseum, there’s just a different way you approach it,” cornerback Marcellus Williams told reporters.

“Every practice, you should feel like it’s a game, but just being in the Coli – you know the atmosphere in the Coli is a little different. Getting a chance to see all the new faces in the Coli, all the freshmen, all the transfers. Everybody was out there, competing, getting better, and I feel like became a better team that day.”

Injury updates

Offensive lineman Elijah Paige, safety Christian Pierce, cornerback Chasen Johnson and defensive tackle Jahkeem Stewart were seen doing a separate workout without pads during practice, which included ladder drills.

Other players – running back Deshonne Redeaux, receiver Kayden Dixon-Wyatt, cornerback Joshua Holland II, linebacker Ta’Mere Robinson and offensive lineman Kilian O’Connor –were seen lifting weights on the sideline.

No health updates were provided to the media about specific players, but Riley did tell reporters that overall the team is healthy as it moves into a weeklong spring break.

“This break is coming at a good time for us,” he said. “We’re going to get a lot of guys back that either haven’t been practicing or have been practicing maybe in a limited status. They’ll be more full-go in the second half of spring.”

Orange County Register

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