USC football head coach Clay Helton announced Saturday that inside linebacker Tayler Katoa will miss the upcoming 2017 season due to a torn ligament in his knee. The freshman went down early in Thursday’s practice and had an MRI on Friday.
Katoa got to Troy in January as one of five early enrollees, and had been steadily adapting to the college game while seeing time at weakside inside linebacker (WILL) behind the likes of John Houston and Jordan Iosefa. Just a week ago, he recovered a fumble in the Trojans’ first spring scrimmage.
While it wasn’t likely Katoa would have been a major contributor as a true freshman in 2017, his injury is a significant setback for a linebacker corps lacking experience apart from Cam Smith.