LOS ANGELES — The kid was 6-foot-7. That spoke for itself. So most of the coaches talked sweet back then.
A few years ago, though, a University of Washington assistant coach flew south to Arizona to see Pinnacle High offensive tackle Elijah Paige. The coach made abundantly clear he was not in love here, former Pinnacle coach Dana Zupke recalled.
“I don’t like your punch. Your get-off’s not great,” the coach told Paige.
And Paige liked this.
He did not like it enough, ultimately, to commit to Washington. But Paige, for some reason, has always seemed to find the most within his massive frame when a challenge is issued, Zupke said. And USC didn’t initially nab Paige, then a Notre Dame commit, until Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley personally reached out to Paige and his father to convince them to come on a visit in 2022 – because they’d been straight-up with him that he had a chance to see the field quickly.
“He felt like, either somebody wasn’t being honest with him,” Zupke reflected, “or maybe he was looking too negatively at himself. Like, ‘Hey, I’m not gonna be ready to play as a freshman,’ that kinda thing.”
The Trojans were being plenty honest, as it turns out. Suddenly, two short years into Paige’s college career, USC has placed a massive responsibility on his 19-year-old shoulders to grow up at left tackle in an imposing Big Ten. He is their best, and arguably only option, at left tackle; much of their offensive fate, and Miller Moss’ ability to stay upright at quarterback, depends on Paige’s ability to believe he is ready.
“The key is for him is, he can’t let any adversity that he’s faced, he can’t let it defeat him,” Riley said of Paige on Thursday. “He can’t let it discourage him.”
That adversity has come quick, in a flurry of talented edge rushers, in the blur of 245-pound fury that Michigan’s Josaiah Stewart unleashed on Paige two weeks ago in Ann Arbor. Coming off an encouraging performance in December’s Holiday Bowl, Paige has seen his reps go all over the map through four games this season; solid in USC’s first two games but struggling against Michigan and Wisconsin, he’s allowed a team-high 12 pressures to start the season. Stewart frequently beat him off the edge or drove him back in the first half of USC’s loss to Michigan, leading to a cramping Paige getting pulled in the second half and setting the tone for a game in which Moss was pressured 21 times.
After the loss, just Paige’s fourth collegiate start against one of the best defenses in the country, his former Pinnacle offensive line coach, Paul Germinaro, texted to check in.
Germinaro asked how it went, and how the environment at the Big House was, acknowledging it was a tough day. He added: “How are you gonna respond?”
“I think he’s the kind of kid,” Germinaro told the Southern California News Group, “that responds well.”
Plain and simple, USC needs Paige to respond, the key to preserving Moss’ blind side. The junior quarterback has earned a bevy of rightful praise for his on-field toughness through the season’s first few weeks, bouncing up from numerous hits behind an inexperienced offensive line. On one late third-quarter touchdown in the win over Wisconsin, as USC went with a five-receiver look in the red zone, Moss felt a six-man Badgers rush oncoming and fired a perfectly placed back-foot dart to receiver Duce Robinson as he was knocked to the turf.
“We’re going to scheme guys open,” Moss said Tuesday, when asked about his ability to stand tall in the pocket. “We’ve got great receivers and great coaching. So the longer I can progress and stand in there, the better chance we have offensively.”
Lost in that Moss touchdown pass was left tackle Paige getting beat free around the edge by Wisconsin’s John Pius.
There is no hope, ultimately, for a personnel change to a steadier veteran experience. Moving current right tackle Mason Murphy to left tackle, and benching Paige, would mean trotting out the even more inexperienced Tobias Raymond at right tackle. Former left tackle Jonah Monheim is now entrenched at center, after largely deciding to return to the program for a year to develop on the interior, his frame more conducive to playing center at the next level.
But there is hope, ultimately, in Paige’s talent and ability to respond, because such response to challenge has marked a unique pattern in his development. And his program – and quarterback – are fully confident the young tackle can do it again.
“Obviously, we’re all going to have plays we want back,” Moss said Tuesday, when asked about Paige’s growing pains. “It’s just part of the game. But I think just, the want-to in terms of getting better is really, really important in how you respond to that.”
“So I think he responded the right way, and he’s going to continue to get better, and he’ll be better for it in the long run.”
As a freshman at Pinnacle, Zupke said, Paige coasted by on sheer size. He wasn’t overly physical. Wasn’t very active. When the time came to pull up a few youngsters to varsity through the end of the season, Zupke opted for a couple other linemen, leaving Paige down on the freshman team.
He’d been a goofy kid, Zupke said, prone to the occasional off-field hijinks and wrestling matches with fellow linemen. The overlook by Pinnacle varsity, Zupke said, was a “wake-up call,” and Paige came in as a sophomore completely transformed in attitude and mentality.
“Like, ‘Wow, I’m like the biggest dude out here and they didn’t want me,’” Zupke recalled.
Paige got another wake-up call, three years later, as a true freshman at USC. Not quite progressing the way his coaches hoped in 2023, he was sent to the scout team against a defensive line “trying to beat you up,” as offensive line coach Josh Henson described preseason.
It was adapt or die. Make or break, as Paige put it. And he took the responsibility, and then some, progressing so quickly and impressively through a few weeks that Riley sent him out at left tackle for the Holiday Bowl.
This isn’t coincidence, these continued stumbles turned sparks, Paige’s ability to respond to adversity the greatest point of all in his development since developing into a four-star tackle at Pinnacle. What he excels at, Zupke described, is moments when “you put that mirror up.”
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“It’s a car on cruise control, until, ‘Oh, crap, everybody’s passing me by, I gotta step on the gas here,’” Zupke said. “And I think that’s – just, for whatever reason, he needs that every now and again to respond.”
He showed flashes of improvement against Wisconsin, still allowing four pressures but navigating the heaviest snap count of his young career. And Paige has Riley and his program’s full confidence, as he tries to find propulsion off the latest bump in the road.
“He’s just got to continue to learn and grow, and bank those reps and bank those experiences, and just keep going,” Riley said Thursday. “And that’s – he does that, he’s going to be a phenomenal player.”
“And he’s given me no reason to think he’s going to do anything but that.”