Why USC’s Shane Lee was the right leader at the right time for Trojans

The linebacker transfer from Alabama has been leading his entire life, and he is helping to set a new standard and expectation…

Adam Grosbard (OC Register)  —  It couldn’t have been more than two or three days after Shane Lee arrived at USC this past winter. The Alabama linebacker transfer had a couple of workouts with his new teammates under his belt. And after a late-night session, the team met with the coaches for an accountability session.

It was Lee’s first opportunity to address his new team and lay down his expectations for what his first season as a Trojan would look like. And he did not waste it, getting up in front of the entire group.

“It was one of those moments where the team needs to step up, and to have the courage and the presence to go do that around a bunch of guys that you don’t even know yet,” head coach Lincoln Riley marveled. “And when he talked, our guys, their eyes got big.”

It might have come sooner than Riley hoped, but he recruited Lee to USC for these types of moments. In his first season as coach, Riley needed someone to come in to Los Angeles and show the returning Trojans the way, to set a new standard and expectation.

And even from their first recruiting call, it became clear to Riley that Lee was the right man for the job.

Lead by example

While his first address to his USC teammates might have been premeditated, Lee’s first moments of leadership came about by accident as a child in Maryland.

At 10 years old, Lee joined his first football team, the Silver Spring Saints. The youth league divided teams up not by age but by weight. Always a bigger kid for his age, Lee had to play up with 13- and 14-year-olds as he learned the sport.

Though he played center at that time, Lee wanted to keep his weight down. So every day after practice, he stayed for an extra half hour to run hills and do push-ups.

“When other kids were racing to get out of there, Shane always gravitated toward getting in the work,” said Phil Bailey, Lee’s coach at the time.

“It gave me more confidence when I stepped on the field,” Lee explained, “because I knew I put in that extra work.”

When the off-season came about, Lee was with Bailey every opportunity he had for “Overtime,” an off-season regimen that included pushing milk crates filled with books and doing squats with folding chairs on his back.

Lee was the only kid not to miss a session. But the longer he stuck around, the more of his peers started to join in on the workouts.

It was at this point that Lee’s father, Mark, pointed out that there might be a cause-and-effect to the increased participation. That Lee was a leader on the team.

“He didn’t understand that because of his age and these guys being older,” Mark recalled. “But I said, ‘Yeah, but the decisions that you’re making, they’re following you.’ “

Mark is an officer in the Montgomery County Police Department. So Lee grew up going out on rides with his father on “Take Your Child to Work” days. He saw his dad take on a different persona at work. A little more serious, fewer jokes, but always respectful as he dealt with the public.

And at home, Mark would tell Lee stories from his day, hoping his son could learn from others’ mistakes. Namely, Mark tried to imbue the principles of never making decisions out of emotion and that communication could lead to de-escalation.

When Lee hit middle school, Mark and Shane’s mother Tara went to parent-teacher conferences. The meetings were mostly to explain what the rest of the school year would look like.

But one teacher wanted to tell his parents what a positive example Lee had been in the classroom. One of his classmates had been a distraction, causing disruptions and acting out.

“They were saying that Shane sat down next to him and over time kind of helped him refocus and then the student was doing better at that point,” Mark recalled. “He was being a good classmate, a good teammate, a good person. It almost brought a tear to my eye because I was so proud.”

Almost a decade later, Lee did not remember the incident, but said, “I’ve had a couple things like that that my dad will point stuff out to me all the time. I try to help out wherever I can, man, that’s it. Just whatever’s best for the group is what’s best for me.”

Out of the comfort zone

Based off his freshman season, you would have thought Lee would spend his entire college career at Alabama. An injury forced Lee into the starting inside linebacker spot straight out of high school. He earned Freshman All-American honors after making 86 tackles, second-most on the Crimson Tide.

But a sports hernia limited him to five games in Alabama’s 2020 national championship run, then he played sparingly in 2021. He kept working, both in the weight room and the classroom, completing his degree in marketing in three years.

After the 2021 season, he knew it was time for a change of situation.

“I was ready for something different, but I didn’t know exactly what that would be,” Lee said.

Simultaneously, Riley and USC defensive coordinator Alex Grinch were looking for someone who could come in and be an immediate contributor on the field and, more importantly, lead the defense. Set an example for players who had not learned winning habits.

Riley discussed this with Lee in their initial phone conversations.

“And it just clicked, man, that’s the best way I can say it. Exactly what we wanted and needed was exactly what he wanted and needed,” Riley said. “He’s been an ideal leader here, we’re very fortunate that our worlds kind of collided and that we were both kind of looking for the same thing at the time.”

But Lee had never been one to speak up. An introvert, he always preferred to let his actions speak for themselves. So he has had to push himself to be the voice people listen to in the locker room and on the field.

Lee credited his teammates for making him feel welcome at USC, and comfortable enough to speak his mind. Riley challenged Lee to be overaggressive as a leader, saying he’d rather Lee err on that side than be too timid.

The senior linebacker found his voice quickly enough, even when it came to calling out mistakes on the offensive side of the ball.

“If I’m messing up, if anyone’s messing up,” quarterback Caleb Williams said, “if I’m not holding my side of the ball accountable, Shane will speak up.”

Lee still leads by example, too. In the spring, second-year linebacker Raesjon Davis credited his off-season weight gain to Lee’s inspiration.

“Ever since he’s just stepped onto campus, it’s been a huge change for me,” Davis said. “It’s all about effort now.”

After a 4-8 season and a historical rock bottom for its defense, USC needed not just coaches but players who could get the blue-blood train back on the tracks.

For the Trojans, Lee was the right leader at the right time.

“I think it’s a challenge for me. I want to be able to overcome that challenge, rise to the occasion,” Lee said. “Just try to grow as a person and help the people around me, because if that’s what they need, that’s what I have to do.”

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