This isn’t the first time that USC Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley has alluded to the importance of finding the right players for his program, not just great talents.
It sounds obvious and simple, but in the new world of NIL, and with many fans and media outlets paying so much attention to the number of stars next to a player’s name, it can be taken for granted.
During media availability on Thursday, Coach Riley was asked about transfer portal player Gavin Meyer and whether the initial decision to pursue him was out of urgency based on the timing of his entrance into the portal.
I mean, we hoped to add an interior d-lineman, but we also got very committed to um… I think maybe the previous year was a good reminder of that for us to make sure we’re bringing in the right guys from the portal, not just the right body types or the right experience level or anything like that, but guys that you’re confident that you could put in this locker room, and they’re going to acclimate well with the team and fit in well with the culture.
Lincoln Riley
Lincoln Riley Doesn’t Want Good Players, He Wants The Right Players
During the transfer portal this past year, a lot of big-name defensive linemen entered and were linked to USC. With the hiring of Eric Henderson, it seemed like SC would get their pick of whoever they wanted, but for some reason, the big names came and went, choosing other schools.
This singular quote doesn’t prove that Riley and the Trojans passed on players such as Walter Nolen, Derrick Harmon, and Damonic Williams, but you can definitely see that they were intentional in their additions of Nate Clifton in the Winter and then Gavin Meyer in the Spring.
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Total team guys.
Riley continued.
We investigate a lot of guys. We’ve had conversations with and visited with a lot of different people, as that process played out and Gavin just stood out to us from the first time that we got a chance to talk to him. He was just very just pro team, and just everything about him and goals that he had were all about helping the team first. All of the individual goals that he had were secondary to him. And so that was the first thing that we really liked. We liked his football intelligence. We thought that really stood out when you’re talking about an older guy that’s not going to be with you for spring ball and he’s got to come in and not just learn it, but learn it good enough to be able to go execute it right away. That was really important, and I thought made him stand out a little bit from maybe some of the rest of the crop. And he had the experience and good tape on top of it. So, you know, we thought he was one of the very, very few that checked all the boxes for us.
Since arriving on campus, Meyer has certainly been a team guy. You could feel it during USC Football Media back at the beginning of August and you can see it on the field now. He is doing things that do not show up in the stat sheet, but allow his teammates to make plays.
PFF grades are certainly not the end-all-be-all, but they do provide a good benchmark for player performance, especially if we are trying to compare things outside of just sacks and tackles.
Let’s take a look at how Gavin Meyer compares with some of the other elite transfer portal defensive tackles that we mentioned above.
| Name | Snap Count | Run Grade | Pass Rush | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gavin Meyer | 49 | 77.7 | 63.1 | 74.1 |
| Walter Nolen | 58 | 90.7 | 72.8 | 88.2 |
| Derrick Harmon | 81 | 55.6 | 92.8 | 75.7 |
| Damonic Williams | 56 | 77.7 | 61.7 | 74.5 |
Pretty impressive when you take into account two things. Meyer was an extremely late acquisition after entering the spring practice portal on the last day possible and missed all of spring camp because of it. And two, the level of competition faced.
Walter Nolen has gone up against Furman and Middle Tennessee. Derrick Harmon has played Fresno State and Boise State. Damonic Williams went up against Temple and Houston. Meyer played Utah State and arguably the best offensive line in the country in LSU.
Gavin Meyer certainly looks like a home run transfer portal addition, and based on the development traits from Coach Henny and Coach Nua, he is just getting started.