USC Just Got the Defensive Help It REALLY Needed

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1:03This is Belie, one network, every topic, everywhere. USC is three and O. The offense looks dangerous. And now the Trojans are about to add a player who could make the most important part of this team significantly better. And no, Joaquim Stewart, Stewart isn't coming in to rescue a bad defense. That's what makes this so interesting. Because in this video of the Big Ten, how to present it by a fan duel, we're talking about why Stewart's return could take a defensive front that has already shown flashes of being really good and give Gary Patterson something USC hasn't consistently had enough. Another legitimate disruptor in the middle. So here's what's going on. Alright, Joaquim Stewart was close enough to play against Louisiana that Lincoln Riley said he could actually have played Stewart practice some during the week. He went through warmups. He felt good. USC just decided not to push it into leave him out of the game.

2:04Riley essentially said that unless Stewart felt absolutely perfect, there wasn't much reason to put him in there. And he anticipated Stewart being at a full participant in practice was this week. He expected that to happen this week. And that's a big development. Because USC is 3-0, they're up in number 12 in the country and fan duel now has USC at plus 220 to make the college football playoffs barely behind Oregon who's at plus 175. So we're talking about some fun, you're not just talking about some fun rebuild story anymore. USC is starting to look like a team with legitimate postseason, not just chances, but possibly expectations. And if you're going to get there, especially playing in the Big Ten, you're eventually going to need your defensive line to win games for you. That's why Stewart come back now matters so much. Because let's remember who this guy is. Stewart reclassified and skipped what would have been his senior year of high school then

3:05as a freshman at USC. He immediately produced. All right, he wasn't like a star player or anything, but he did produce 18 tackles. Doesn't jump off the screen until you look at where those tackles happened. And a half tackles for loss, one and a half sacks and interception, a fumble recovery. I mean, this guy was a difference maker when he was in the game and he was able to be a playmaker as well. And he did all of those while playing through a stretch factor, a stress fat fracture in his foot during the season. He ended up being named an FWAA. That's a freshman all American. So this isn't USC getting just some like rotational defensive tackle healthy. This is USC potentially getting back one of the highest upside players on their entire defense. And the interesting part is that USC hasn't exactly been sitting around just waiting for him. All right, we talked about this before the season even started with Chiquim Stewart out of Falkham. The defensive front has already given us reasons to believe it is improving and it's going

4:07to be really good for USC this season. For Fresno State USC held them to just 116 total yards, 39 rushing yards. They had five sacks, seven tackles for loss. Fresno State averaged just 2.6 yards per play. That was absolute dominance. And through the first two games USC has allowed only 226 yards of offense per game. That was a massive improvement compared to what USC defenses have looked like in the past. And the recent past so Stewart doesn't have to come back and become the savior. He just has to add something that Gary Patterson is already building. And that's where I think this story can get much, much bigger than just like, oh, here's an injury update and somebody's coming back. No, Chiquim Stewart is coming back and he's coming back to do something really good for this USC defense. Because Louisiana also showed us that USC still is a bit of a work in progress on defense. The Trojans won 49 to 30.

5:09There are plenty of positives. But Louisiana finished with 358 yards. They ran for 146 yards, almost five yards per carry and scored three rushing touchdowns. The quarterback, lunch, wind field, rushed for 91 yards by himself. Now I'm not sitting here telling you USC's defense. Suddenly, you know, became bad because Louisiana scored 30. A lot of those points, I think about half of those points came in fourth quarter when it was back ups and seconds, string and stuff like that. That's exactly the kind of a reaction that I'm not going to give you here on Big Ten Huttle. But it does remind us that the finished version of this defense probably isn't on the field just yet when you look at depth and everything else. And Stewart potentially changes how aggressive Patterson can be up front. You think about what a defensive tackle who can consistently create penetration does for a defense. If you can win inside without consistently bringing in extra bodies, everything gets easier. Your linebackers can run, your edge players aren't being asked to create every negative

6:09play for you. Your secondary doesn't have to hold up forever because the quarterback is uncomfortable early in the down. And maybe most importantly, your defensive line rotation gets deeper as well. That is absolutely huge in the Big Ten. It's exactly what you need because you're going to get games where somebody decides they're going to run it at you 35 times a game. Look, look and see at Michigan. How often they ran it only completing 11 passes with Bryce Underwood this past week. They're going to run the football. You're going to play physical offensive lines. You're going to see teams try to test whether USC really wants to play that kind of football. The question doesn't disappear just because USC can score 45. Stewart gives you another answer here. And I think the word another is important because you have you have Gide Abbasari who's already producing for you. Luke Waifull obviously out on the edge has immediately shown why there was so much excitement about him. USC has multiple young defensive lineman getting meaningful snaps for them.

7:13Now you had the freshman all American back in to your group. That's where the ceiling really starts to change for these guys. And honestly, this might be the part. This might be the part people are missing. Little quick does one of these sound like you because if you say yes to anyone, there's something you can do right now. So here we go. Gaining weight no matter how disciplined you are, craving something sweet after every meal, feeling hungry again an hour after you eat. These are all signs your body isn't producing enough GLP one. The hormone that suppresses hunger, slows down digestion and supports weight loss. But fortunately you can boost your natural GLP one production. And one of the easiest ways to do that is with Bioma GLP one booster. With every serving you get science backed and third party tested ingredients all working together to help your body produce more of this weight loss hormone on its own. Simply take two tiny Bioma GLP one booster capsules each morning before breakfast. This way you can finally quiet the food noise, feel full with less food and enjoy smoother weight management when following a healthy lifestyle.

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10:23help line ma dot org call 1 800 3 2 750 50 and Massachusetts call 1 8 7 8 hope and why text hope and why in New York call 1 8 7 7 7 7 7 0 78 67 Louisiana. The best case for USC isn't jakeem stewart coming back and suddenly getting 10 tackles every Saturday or anything like that defensive tackles don't you know don't always work like that and create that type of production. The best case here is that his presence creates better situations for everybody else. Maybe Stewart gets penetration and forces the back to cut early somebody else makes the tackle for maybe he collapses the pocket flushes the quarterback towards one of the edge rushers and they're able to get the sack somebody else gets that sack. Maybe USC can rotate defensive tackles more aggressively now so they're not asking the same guys to survive you know 60 plus snaps a game against a physical offensive line in November that stuff could truly matter and do a lot for this defense.

11:24You don't necessarily see it by looking at Stewart's individual box score. You really never see how good a defensive tackle is by looking at the box score but you notice it when the entire front starts playing faster and USC needs that if they're really going to start talking about the Trojans as a playoff team because let's be fair. Jayna Maiavan is offense can probably cover up a lot of problems if the defense isn't exactly what they're supposed to be USC as weapons everywhere even with their top two Y to C result you still have Trent Mosley you still have have Katie Dixon why you have Mark Bowman setting setting up you know the first time they get 83 yards since what's his name had over 100 yards back in 2009 I mean the young pass catchers are emerging the running game looks much better Lincoln Riley is going to score points for you but we've seen you as D teams where the offense was good enough that to make you dream big and defensively it defense the defense actually put a ceiling on the team because they weren't up to the

12:24standard that's why I'm watching this differently the question in 2026 isn't simply can USC score enough where we already know they can do that the real question is can this defense become good enough that the offense doesn't have to save USC every time the competition get serious and Stewart's return pushes me a little bit closer toward yes so here's where I went he was kind of like my take away from all this I don't think to keep Stewart returning automatically turns USC into an elite defense which did but it doesn't we haven't seen enough of that to say that yet and he hasn't played yet this season so there may be some some rust USC should be smart about the workload and that's why I'm glad they're getting them back against Rutgers and not this first game against Oregon but I absolutely think this is one of the most important developments USC could have gotten before big 10 play because they're not adding potential they're adding a player who already produced who already created negative plays at this level seven excuse me seven and a half tackles for loss as a freshman is evidence doing it while

13:30dealing with a foot injury makes it even more intriguing to see what a healthier version looks like and now and now USC gets to add him to a defensive line that has already shown it can completely overwhelm and a port and an opponent and if if the progen's really are barely behind Oregon in the playoff market right now this is the kind of development that could actually matter later in the year not because Stewart only determines you know whether USC makes a playoff or not it's not all on him but because USC's defense may have more room to improve than people realize in the next test is actually perfect for them Rutgers just ran the call ran the football pretty well against Boston College they have a good receiver in KJDF actually one of the best receivers in the country Antoine Raymond had 134 yards and 27 carries Rutgers going to what is going to want to run the ball they're not going to want to let their quarterbacks turn it over again so we're going to see if USC can hold up to the task against an offensive line that it's not as good as Oregon but still

14:31uh they were able to run the ball against Boston College so they have at least a little bit more confidence now so does Rutgers consistently get movement or does USC start forcing Raymond sideways before he can hit the down he can get downhill and get past them does Stewart create penetration how many snaps does he get does Patterson start rotating the defensive front differently now that another weapon is available those are all clues and those are all excellent things to look for because USC already knows that it what it has offensively the thing that could change the ceiling for this team and for this team this season is what happened on the other side of the ball and jakeem Stewart coming back giving this defense another piece it didn't have during the three and oh star that's why this matters USC is trying to survive until one of the best defensive linemen returns anymore they're not trying to survive just for one of the best defensive linemen to return anymore they're three and oh they're ranked 12th in the nation firmly in the playoff conversation

15:32and now they're adding jakeem Stewart back that's a very different story how much better do you think USC's defense can become once jakeem Stewart gets back let me know in the comments and while you're at it hit that like button subscribe here to the big tin huddle for more big tin football analysis and we'll see you next time thanks real quick does one of these sound like you because if you say yes to anyone there's something you can do right now so here we go gaining weight no matter how disciplined you are craving something sweet after every meal feeling hungry again an hour after you eat these are all signs your body isn't producing enough GLP one the hormone that suppresses hunger slows down digestion and supports weight loss but fortunately you can boost your natural GLP one production and one of the easiest ways to do that is with bioma GLP one booster with every serving you get science backed and third party tested ingredients all working together to help your body produce more of this weight loss hormone on its own simply take two tiny bioma GLP one booster capsules each morning before breakfast this way you can finally quiet the food

16:35noise feel full with less food and enjoy smoother weight management when following a healthy lifestyle so again if you said yes to anyone here's what to do right now head to bioma dot health slash GLP one and use code podcast for 15% off your first order that's bioma dot health slash GLP one code podcast with pool deck baron equal fights in the Caribbean massive parties beach events DJs cigars to kill the tastings and non stop action the light up reveals coming soon cabins are disappearing fast and the prices won't stay this low reserve your spot with just $200 down at BKF S E A dot com if you liked the show please take a moment to rate review and subscribe it really does help the show to grow thank you for listening