Going into USC Football’s 2017 fall camp, it might have been simple to assume the competition for starting jobs at punter and kicker would be limited.
Scholarship punter Chris Tilbey held down the former in 2016 while scholarship kicker was seen as the heir apparent to Matt Boermeester.
Instead, walk-ons Reid Budrovich and Chase McGrath have kept the competition tight, pushing it into USC’s mock game week and perhaps beyond.
With fall camp completed after the Trojans’ scrimmage at the Coliseum on Saturday, the starting punter job is still very much up for grabs.
“[Special teams coach John] Baxter has told me it’s a heck of a competition right now,” head coach Clay Helton said on Saturday.