How Lincoln Riley can help Duce Robinson thrive at USC
The tight end recruit and baseball standout should benefit from Riley’s experience with two-sport star Kyler Murray
Adam Grosbard (OC Register) — As freshman Duce Robinson, the nation’s top tight end who committed to USC on Thursday, starts to get settled in with the football team this summer, another Trojans squad awaits.
In addition to his overpowering tight end play, Robinson is a dangerous slugger in baseball with the athleticism to play the outfield. And there is a strong chance Robinson will not only be selected in the MLB draft, but taken high enough to consider signing an MLB contract.
Even if that dream of Robinson’s is achieved this summer, the current plan is for freshman to still play football at USC, head coach Lincoln Riley said Saturday.
“There’s two kind of knowns right now. One, he’s going to play football at USC,” Riley said. “Two, baseball is going to be a big part of his future, which is obviously really exciting. There’s some comfort level in that we’ve been able to do it with a couple of guys.”
One of those guys was Kyler Murray, who was a Heisman-winning quarterback and baseball star during Riley’s Oklahoma tenure. He was taken ninth overall by the Oakland Athletics in the 2018 MLB draft, won the Heisman, then went first overall to the Arizona Cardinals in the NFL draft.
Murray had his choice of sports and picked football. Riley hopes Robinson will have the same options when his time at USC comes to an end. His experience with Murray was a big selling point to Robinson.
“You can be a head coach of a Division I football program that allows a player to go try to play another sport. That’s not the deal,” Riley said. “It’s, can you help facilitate and put together a plan that helps them potentially excel at both? And there’s a lot to that, more than I ever realized.”
When Murray ended his freshman season, Riley felt like the situation had been mishandled. Murray was the backup quarterback and posted a .122 batting average on the diamond.
It wasn’t until the year was over and Riley spoke with Murray that he realized how much had been put on the freshman’s plate.
“You’re trying to train for two different sports, but you also have to recover, you also have to put in the mental training, oh by the way, they’re going to school, there’s that,” Riley explained. “You’ve got communication between two sets of strength coaches, two sets of academic coordinators, two sets of operations, two head coaches, two different position coaches.”
Riley and the other coaches at Oklahoma refined the lines of communication and made scheduling adjustments. And the benefits were immediately clear. Murray was still behind Baker Mayfield on the Sooners’ QB depth chart, but he hit .296 with 10 home runs and 47 RBIs as a sophomore.
Riley hopes to use that experience to shape Robinson’s college experience. If Robinson does not sign with an MLB team this summer, he will likely play baseball with USC. Riley has already talked with head coach Andy Stankiewicz about this possibility.
Lincoln Riley, seen coaching against Notre Dame on Nov. 26, 2022, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, is no stranger to coaching two-sport athletes. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/ SCNG)
“Duce has big goals in both sports,” Riley said. “I feel like we have a tremendous plan ready to put out there and then it’s going to be up to Duce to do the work from there.”
ocregister.com
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The top overall position hauls (recruits and transfers) in 2023: Offensive Line AUB, MIA, ALA, MICH, USC, ORE USC Incoming: 4-star recruit Elijah Paige (93), 4-star recruit Micah Banuelos (92), 4-star transfer Ethan White (90) The USC Trojans seem to balance producing one high-level NFL prospect a year despite not boasting a very good offensive line. This could be a class that begins to stabilize things. It starts with Eijah Paige (below). The 6-foot-7, 304-pound OT from Arizona is the No. 177 player overall in the 2023 class and chose USC over top-tier programs like Notre Dame, Michigan, Ole Miss, and Oregon. Paige is an early… Read more »
Hopefully, by the end of the spring, SC can be ranked on its upgrade of the DL. The OL looks to be in fine shape.
Would love to see White starting this fall.
Pac-12 athletic department power ratings: Which schools are making the most of the dollars spent? Jon Wilner (Sports360az.com) — Welcome to the Hotline’s inaugural Pac-12 athletic department power ratings, in which we assess performance in football and men’s and women’s basketball in 2022-23 against each school’s operating expenses. In other words: Wins per dollar spent. Which departments did the most with what they have? 1 UTAH FY2022 operating expenses: $111.9 million (source: Utah) Comment: Easy call with the Utes as the wins-per-dollar kingpin in 2022-23 given their mid-level budget and high-level success in the most important sport, plus a breakthrough… Read more »
Thanks for the article. It is fascinating. Utah is now in a very difficult position given that both SC and UCLA leave next year. What does it do? Does it stay with the Pac or does it leave for the B12? We still have no information on how the Pac media rights negotiations are going. Last I read, they were still in the $20-$25 million range with streaming being a huge part of it. I liked your comment that BYU got to the B12 before Utah and will block Utah from entering. If that is true, then Utah’s only other… Read more »
I think UTAH will work hard to properly fill the space left by Whittingham whenever he splits. They’ve built themselves into too good of a program to let all this establishment of good football go to waste. It seems to me like the Utes could attract a very good replacement, unless the Pac-10 just falls apart. Apparently, ESPN isn’t being very nice to Georgie Boy lately. He’s got such huge problems as commish now. Oh, brother. STAN and CAL are done. Neither are well-suited to succeed going forward in the sport where anything less than 100% effort will simply get… Read more »
Anyone else care to stick their neck out…………….
UConn wins if no points are involved.
I take San Diego St +7.5 over UConn if I consider the points.
I think UConn wins the first half and San Diego St wins the second half (no points involved)
I predict the game total will be over 130
Who do I really want to win: San Diego St.
I have read that the attendance numbers will be disappointing, betting volume is down and scalpers are losing money.
SDSU will straight up win, points or no points.
UConn has the lead at the half but Aztecs slow em down in the second.
Point total 140-150.
Do I feel sorry for all you 1,2 and 3 seeds sitting home? Not a chance!
Go AZTECS!
Golden getting all cocky. That’s ok, enjoy your ride, I would too.
It was fun while it lasted. Aztecs didn’t quit. UConn just too good, should have been a 1 seed (obviously).
Breaks my heart about the scalpers. They need to see the down side once in a while. Gotta go with Aztecs, always liked SDSU.
Lincoln Riley on Colin Cowherd USC’s poor-tackling defense — “We’re on to bigger and better things. We had a lack of competitive depth. We had some games, especially early in the year where we played really well, and the defense won some games for us. “But the back half of the year, I thought you saw a lack of depth, and that showed up. Guys were worn down. The same guys were playing all of the snaps, you have a couple of injuries, and all of a sudden you’re not filling it in with the type of quality you would… Read more »
Same message he gave earlier. He is basically saying our DL depth stunk something awful. Harlow was a bit more direct – the entire DL stunk including Tuli.
Just read that LR’s quotes on Duce. He said that Duce is not a TE, but more of a reciever/HBack. He said he intends to create new wrinkles in the O just for his talent. Went on to say that he is a once every 3 or 4 years talent. He also said Duce will be playing a lot of slot as well as WR. SC has two tall talented WRs coming in with Jacobi Myers at 6’5″ and Duce at 6’6″. Really amazing to have probably the best Offensive HC in the nation. The article also said Duce is… Read more »
Are you talking about JaKobi Lane? 6’5″
Steveg, Sorry, that is him.
Justin Dedich says new SR Trojan DL Kyon Barrs (6-2, 290) from ARIZ is looking good. Antonio Morales (The Athletic) — “He’s a special talent,” said Dedich, who lines up against Barrs pretty much every day during practice. “He’s made me better already in these six, seven practices. Just how strong he is, his inside hands, his everything, feet. He’s an elite player.” If Barrs is as good as the spring buzz indicates, that’ll be a very encouraging development for USC. Barrs was a second-team All-Pac-12 selection in 2021. The Trojans haven’t had a solid presence on the interior of… Read more »
Thanks for the post. I read what Dedich has to say about Barrs slightly differently. It means that the depth at NT stinks (and the guys playing the position for the last 3 years have not been very good). I think it is great that Barrs is an elite player (probably at least All League and maybe NFL potential), but what does that say about the other NTs on the team now. To me it means the drop off behind Barrs is steep (exactly what LR was talking about in his view of the D talent). So, look for another… Read more »
We could see a couple of those guys you are talking about get the message and go portal. That would be a good thing.
The indirect message in Dedich’s comments is that we need a completely new 2 deep on the DL from 2022.. Pat Harlow indirectly said the same thing. Harlow was not down on the LBs (I assume Lee and Gentry) because he felt that the 2022 DL was so bad, they failed to keep the OL off them. And, they just wore down. Thus the message is clear, if you were on the 2 deep DL last year and still on the team, you are probably not going to see the field much, if at all. Same with OLB.
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — Four pitchers combined to throw a second straight shutout for the USC baseball team as the Trojans blanked Utah 10-0.
It was the first time since 2018 that USC has tossed back-to-back shutouts. The Trojans also tossed consecutive shutouts against Utah in 2018.
usctrojans.com
Good to see USC baseball taking steps to return to the glory of the past. Those of us who were fortunate to attend USC back when Rod Dedeaux was coaching, it brings back fond memories. When I was a Freshman at USC, Fred Lynn was the Center Fielder. Roy Smalley, Steve Kemp and Rich Dauer were on that team. USC football tailback Anthony Davis played Right Field and DB Marvin Cobb played second base. Fight On USC baseball!
Until this article I had not thought about LR’s experience with dual sport athletes. They are rare. The two that come to mind are Deon and Bo Jackson. I had not thought about Murray. So, LR had a very unique experience to present to Duce. In fact, if Duce wants to play both sports, SC was probably his best choice simply because LR had actually done it. Truly remarkable recruiting class in 2023 when you add in the transfers. I do not recall SC ever recruiting receivers the caliber of Singer,Branch, Lemon & Duce in one class. For a one… Read more »
Duce will have an interesting choice coming out of college. The NFL offers potential millions and usually one game a week, but beating up your body. MLB offers potential millions many more games, but usually less banged up body. The only person I thought had a chance at both sports was Bo Jackson, whose broken hip in a football game ended his football career. Because I like football better than baseball, I will always say he was better playing football. Unfortunately playing football probably cut short both careers. I like that most two sport athletes figure out which one is… Read more »
No question Duce is going to have a very busy schedule. Someone with some experience is going to be a huge asset for him. I agree, it very well could have been the deciding factor. Reily now needs to pursue Raiola hot and heavy.