/ STAFF WRITER
LOS ANGELES – USC sophomore receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster is not a team captain, but that’s only a technicality.
“You don’t need a ‘C’ on your chest to be a captain,” Smith-Schuster said Wednesday. “You don’t need to be a senior to be a captain.”
Still more than two months shy of his 19th birthday, Smith-Schuster quickly has emerged as a team leader. That manifested itself in an unusual way Tuesday.
Toward the end of a practice USC coach Steve Sarkisian described as “probably not our best,” Smith-Schuster shoved fellow receiver Isaac Whitney after Whitney failed to execute an assignment – resulting in Smith-Schuster being tackled immediately upon catching the ball.