USC Football head coach Lincoln Riley confirmed on Friday that redshirt freshman cornerback Maliki Crawford will miss the entire season due to an unspecified injury suffered during fall camp. The 6-foot-4, 180-pound defensive back, ranked as the No. 17 cornerback in the 2023 class was originally a UCLA commit, Crawford flipped his pledge to USC before enrolling.
Crawford enrolled with the USC Trojans early following his graduation from Pacifica and is now in his second year with the program. After redshirting last season without seeing any game action, he had great showing in the spring and so far in fall camp. His camp highlight had been an interception of backup quarterback Jake Jensen in the USC Trojans spring game. The promising cornerback looked to make a larger impact this season, adding depth to the cornerback rotation in D’Anton Lynn’s defense.
Despite the loss, USC maintains depth at the cornerback position. The Trojans added transfer Greedy Vance Jr. from Florida State and freshmen Isaiah Rubin and Braylon Conley to bolster their secondary this offseason.
Maliki Crawford To Miss 2024 USC Trojans Season
“The only major injury is Maliki Crawford. Had a season-ending injury a couple of days ago and got that fixed,” said Riley. “Obviously hate that for him, but we will get him rehabbed. Get him fixed up and get him back obviously next season.”
Outside of Crawford all other USC Trojans have avoided major injury. Riley addressed minor injuries to Amos Talalele, Elijah Paige (OL), and Braylan Shelby (DE).
“Elijah is fine. He’ll be fine, practiced the whole day. Just got a lot of work today,” said Riley. “Braylan, Amos – all good. Nothing long-term. Just out for the day.”
