Unlocking the Unexpected: What You Never Knew About the Untold Story

Just a few weeks shy of dropping the curtain on USC’s 2025 football season—a year that marks Lincoln Riley’s fourth at the helm—roster puzzles still pinch the Trojans’ game plan. Who’s going to anchor the right tackle spot? That’s the million-dollar question burning bright between Tobias Raymond, the seasoned sophomore with 15 games of grit under his belt, and the promising freshman Justin Tauanuu, who’s been turning heads with his explosive camp performance. Meanwhile, only time (and maybe some legal wrangling) will tell whether transfer DJ Wingfield’s eligibility saga gets sorted before kickoff against Missouri State. After a respectable 7-6 finish last year and back-to-back bowl victories, the pressure’s on for these warriors to prove their mettle in a battle that might just define USC’s next leap—or stumble. Curious to see how this unfolds? LEARN MORE.

The USC football is just a couple of weeks away from kicking off its 2025 college football campaign — and the program’s fourth season under head coach Lincoln Riley.

But there are still roster decisions to be made for the Trojans, including on the right tackle position, which has the third-year sophomore Tobias Raymond and second-year freshman Justin Tauanuu still battling for the spot atop the depth chart.

“[Tobias] and Justin are both playing well,” Riley said, per R.J. Abeytia of 247Sports. “They’re both playing well. And obviously depending on what happens with [DJ] Wingfield, both of those guys have some position flex as well. Both of those guys are firmly right there in that top group. No question, I’d say Tobias has continued where he left off in spring, but we thought Justin was good in spring. He’s been even better in camp. I feel like he’s really made a move and is playing at a high level right now.”

As mentioned by Riley, another offensive line matter that he is concerned with is the one that involves offensive lineman DJ Wingfield, whose eligibility for the 2025 season is still up in the air. Wingfield transferred to USC football after the 2024 campaign from the Purdue Boilermakers, but he doesn’t have eligibility to play at the moment.

He has reportedly taken his case with the NCAA to the court, though it’s unclear whether that will get settled in time for the Trojans’ season-opener on Aug. 30 against the Missouri State Bears at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles.

After two weeks of fall camp, there seems to be more work to be done by both Raymond and Tauanuu in order for each to prove he’s the better option to start over the other.

From an experience standpoint, Raymond has played a total of 15 games for USC football, while Tauanuu only has three games under his belt, to date.

USC football is coming off a 7-6 season in 2024, and while they did not make the College Football Playoff, the Trojans have won their second bowl game in a row, topping the Texas A&M Aggies at the SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl.

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