LOS ANGELES — It wasn’t like Gavin Meyer and his agent had never heard the name Bear Alexander.
When the 6-foot-3, 290-pound Meyer arrived to USC in the spring, it seemed like a last-gasp effort to add stable depth to a thinned defensive line, Meyer entering and exiting the transfer portal at quite literally the 11th hour and 59th minute. Other names in the crop – Derrick Harmon (now with Oregon) and Damonic Williams (Oklahoma) – came and went. Meyer was the lone body remaining, a pleasant Midwestern kid of blue jeans and blonde hair and baritone who had played four years of Group of Five football at Wyoming.
Quietly, though, USC saw Meyer all along as much more than depth. And as the program’s longtime X-factor Alexander missed spring practice with an injury, the Wyoming transfer acclimated himself so quickly in the fall that he’s nabbed a starting role through the early part of USC’s season.
“They were very transparent during the recruiting process that it would be an open competition,” Meyer’s agent Miles Jordan said of USC, “and that – you know, look, they want to win, and their defense has had some struggles in the years past and they’re going to play the best player.”
With a year of eligibility remaining, Meyer wanted to prove himself at the Power Five level, his high school coach Louis Brown said, and was hearing whispers he could have a shot in the NFL. So he departed Wyoming for the portal – but not until the absolute last day (May 1) that the spring window was open.
This was strategic, for two parts. One, Meyer affirmed: he wanted to complete his degree at Wyoming and graduate before leaving. Two, Jordan affirmed: he had increased leverage, one of the last proven defensive tackles left up for grabs.
Still, though, they were highly intentional about making sure any teams recruiting Meyer weren’t simply making a last-ditch play for depth, Jordan affirmed. And the agent had personally pressed USC head coach Lincoln Riley “pretty hard” on that note, Jordan said, not wanting Meyer to burn his last year of college football sitting on the bench.
“There were a couple different things that we helped negotiate,” Jordan said, “that gave them confidence as well that, ‘Hey, this is someone we gotta treat at the same level,’ just with different things in the contract.”
Riley made clear, speaking with a small group of reporters in late July during the Big Ten media days, that USC had to be “really conscious” of how bringing in a late spring addition could affect the program’s established culture. That was never a concern with Meyer, a young man who once would pop up randomly at youth games in Wisconsin simply to support his Franklin High coaches’ young sons, as Brown recalled.
“From the first time I met with him, like, it was just – he checked every single box on the field and off the field,” USC defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn said Wednesday. “And he has not disappointed at all, from the way he carries himself in the meeting room, to walkthroughs, to individual drills.”
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“He’s just a guy that does everything right.”
He’s been “overlooked,” as fellow defensive lineman Jamil Muhammad put it. Overlooked no longer. Meyer has trotted out with USC’s starters for two straight weeks, starting in place of incumbent Alexander in one of the early season’s more intriguing subplots. After two years of solid production as a starter at Wyoming, he’s been stout against the run and tipped a pass for an interception in USC’s victory over Utah State on Saturday night.
“You see the experience,” Riley said of Meyer before Week 1, “of a guy who’s played a lot of ball.”
By contrast, Riley emphasized to reporters – when asked about a Meyer-Alexander depth-chart question – that junior Alexander was “still very young on the football field.” Still, though, Alexander has played a key role on an ever-rotating defensive line under new coach Eric Henderson, with just one less snap (49 to 48) than Meyer through two weeks and more third-down looks against Utah State.
“I’m sure you’re going to see a pretty steady dose,” Riley said in late August, “of both those guys.”