The shuffling was supposed to start early in spring, a first step in finding an answer to USC’s issues up front. But after three weeks of the same five in the same spots on the first-team offensive line, USC’s coaches finally followed through on their promise to mix it up.
They just picked a peculiar time to try. As fans filtered into the Coliseum for the first time in over a year to watch USC’s spring game, the few thousand in attendance were made witness to a messy experiment up front. With its top five linemen split between two teams, in combinations they’d never played in, the Cardinal and Gold teams combined to give up eight sacks amid almost constant pressure on their quarterbacks.