Beyond Elijah Paige, USC’s offensive line for Las Vegas Bowl is razor-thin

LOS ANGELES — At Elijah Paige’s lowest point, Jonah Monheim was there, just as he had always been.

The shaggy-haired veteran sat with him, when Paige first got to USC as a freshman, poring over hours of film and pointing to techniques that could work for him at tackle. Monheim was there, too, when Paige was demoted to the Trojans’ scout team last season, imploring it was good for you. And Monheim was there, USC’s starting center this season and the offensive line’s ringleader, when Paige was mauled in Ann Arbor.

Paige was cramping. He was starting just his fourth game as USC’s left tackle, against a fearsome Michigan defensive line. He gave up four pressures in 31 snaps. But he has always responded, as coaches have detailed, when a mirror has been put to his 6-foot-7 frame. And Monheim, for years, has been both both mentor and mirror.

“He told me that this is normal, and I just need to grow from it,” Paige said Thursday, reflecting on conversations with Monheim after USC’s Week 3 loss to the Wolverines. “And kinda, there’s two ways I can go from it. I can get discouraged and go down from it, or I can get encouraged by it and rise to the occasion.”

Weeks later, amid USC’s end-of-season roster shuffle, redshirt freshman Paige has suddenly become the new long-haired sage for a depleted offensive line. Starting center Monheim and left guard Emmanuel Pregnon are “still making their decisions,” as Paige put it, on whether to play in the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 27, but both are likely to forgo starting spots to prepare for the NFL draft. There is hardly any veteran leadership behind them: starting right tackle Mason Murphy has entered the transfer portal, and so has senior backup Gino Quinones, and so have young pieces Amos Talalele and Kalolo Ta’aga.

Paige, truly, is who remains. And on Thursday, he strode in front of reporters to speak for USC’s offensive line – so often Monheim’s role this fall – and planted his flag in future Coliseum soil.

“I just think it’s important,” Paige said, when asked why he had seemingly chosen to stay at USC rather than hit the portal. “I committed here, not for any of those other, outside reasons.”

“I committed here because I see Coach (Lincoln) Riley’s vision, and I believe in it. I trust it. I’m a part of it.”

He’ll now become the figurehead of USC’s line, as Monheim once was.

The question, both for USC’s immediate future in Las Vegas and long-term future in the Big Ten: who, exactly, will slot in next to him?

Sophomore Alani Noa, by all indications, will remain at right guard against Texas A&M. Beyond that, the depth on USC’s front is remarkably thin. None of the Trojans’ other offensive linemen has started a game of college football. None of them have played as much as 100 snaps of college football.

Backup Kilian O’Connor, a former walk-on from Santa Margarita High, figures to start at center. Redshirt freshman Tobias Raymond, who struggled when inserted amid an offensive line shakeup at Michigan, will likely get a crack at right tackle; freshman Justin Tauanuu, a Huntington Beach High product who Paige said has gotten better “every single week,” could slide inside at guard to take Pregnon’s spot. Redshirt freshman Micah Banuelos, Loyola High product Jack Susnjar and freshman Kaylon Miller (Calabasas High) could all earn looks, as well.

“Each and every one of ’em, they’ve stood out … obviously, the past week, we’ve been throwing those guys in there,” quarterback Jayden Maiava said of USC’s young linemen Thursday. “They’ve been doing a really good job.”

USC, beyond a doubt, will need to add significant help via the transfer portal, even after signing two four-star tackles (Utah’s Aaron Dunn and Georgia’s Alex Payne) in the class of 2025. But the Las Vegas Bowl will serve as a true litmus test of USC’s offensive line trajectory under coach Josh Henson, preferring in the past year to eschew transfer portal fixes in favor of youth development.

“We’ve just gotten better,” head coach Lincoln Riley said in late November, of USC’s gradual offensive line improvement. “We’ve stuck with it. The leadership from Coach Henson, from Jonah, from Emmanuel, seeing some of these young guys grow up and get better and kind of take some of these challenges and really rise up to them, I think it’s a combination of all that.”

QUICK HITS

Riley confirmed Thursday that quarterback Jake Jensen will serve as USC’s backup to Maiava in the Las Vegas Bowl, despite Jensen having entered the transfer portal. … Defensive graduate assistant Bryson Allen-Williams has been named USC’s linebackers coach against Texas A&M in the wake of Matt Entz’s departure for Fresno State. … Riley said USC is “moving along pretty heavily” in the search for a new LBs coach.