LOS ANGELES — This was a clean break, the depth chart updated just hours after news broke inside and outside the walls of USC’s Howard Jones Field on Wednesday, eliminating most any hope of reconciliation between USC and Bear Alexander.
The defensive tackle’s lack of snaps and backup role, head coach Lincoln Riley repeated Tuesday, wasn’t a story. But frustration was simmering from Alexander and father figure Tony Jones behind the scenes, bubbling over onto social media at the start of the week. And suddenly, it became a story Wednesday, Jones telling a slew of outlets that Alexander was planning to redshirt his junior season.
On Thursday morning, with Alexander’s name completely removed from USC’s depth chart and replaced with freshman Jide Abasiri, Riley hopped on a Zoom call with media and gave an opening statement on the situation.
“I know you all saw the surprising news from yesterday,” Riley said. “Not going to be taking any of those internal matters and discussing, not going to take any questions on the subject. We’re fired up for the guys that we have that are playing.”
And that was that. The Bear Alexander journey from Georgia to USC lasted a year and a half, with countless peaks of hype, 34 pressures, 25 quarterback hurries and one near foray back into the spring transfer portal.
There are still plenty of those internal matters, though, floating around USC, questions floating in this rift that’ll be answered over the course of the three subsequent months until the winter transfer portal opens.
Firstly: will Alexander still practice with USC? Last year, after Raleek Brown’s father told the Southern California News Group midseason that Brown intended to redshirt, Brown was still a valuable part of the Trojans’ roster and finished the season on the scout team. Alexander intends to do the same, as Jones made clear – but with how quickly the program has seemingly moved on, it’s unclear whether Alexander will see reps in practice.
Secondly: will Alexander still see the full value of his NIL contract with USC’s third-party collective House of Victory? The organization’s contracts are structured largely around the completion of certain deliverables, such as appearances and social-media promotions.
A source with knowledge of the situation told the Southern California News Group on Thursday that Alexander’s 2024-25 contract had already been partially paid. If he’s away from the team the rest of the season, it’s possible a dispute could arise over the remainder of his payment.
“If someone is not holding up their end of the bargain … as we continue evaluating how they represent themselves and USC, there’s times when – very few and far between – but there has been an instance where someone hasn’t seen the full value of their agreement because of that,” House of Victory executive director Spencer Harris told the Southern California News Group a few months ago in the spring, unrelated to Alexander’s situation.
Thirdly: just how, exactly, did things turn left so quickly here? For all the ever-present questions around Alexander’s development since the fall, Riley never quite clarified what was holding him back from a starting spot on the defensive line after a prominent role in 2023.
The “consistency” of Wyoming transfer Gavin Meyer and Vanderbilt transfer Nate Clifton, as defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn pointed Wednesday, led to them earning starting spots in the fall. Jones, though, told the Southern California News Group on Wednesday that Alexander and his family felt confused over USC’s communication as to why he was earning less time. The staff was well aware, Jones asserted, of Alexander’s goals.
Amid a slew of national social-media backlash against Jones and Alexander, Jones also emphasized that he’d helped convince Alexander to return to USC in the spring when he was thinking of entering the portal.
“That’s the frustrating part is, this is not where we want to be … this was supposed to be his coming-out year,” Jones said.
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It never materialized, Alexander earning snap counts in the 20s through USC’s first three games. Still, it leaves the Trojans’ defensive line without a key rotational piece. But Riley shrugged away the “void,” as he described it Thursday, calling USC’s push forward “business as usual” and expressing steadfast faith in USC’s defensive interior.
“There’s a lot of excitement about the opportunities that will break for some of these guys, and I think we’ll have several guys jump up and seize it,” Riley said.
“And a lot of people, a lot of people want to play with this defense and this defensive line right now.”