USC fills major need with Georgia DT transfer Bear Alexander
The former five-star recruit fills perhaps USC’s biggest need this summer
Adam Grosbard (OC Register) — USC filled perhaps its biggest area of need on Sunday with the addition of the top transfer available on the market.
Bear Alexander, the former five-star and top-10 national recruit, announced his transfer from Georgia to USC on Sunday afternoon. Alexander chose the Trojans over Colorado, Texas, Oregon, Miami and Penn State, but scheduled his Sunday announcement immediately following an official visit to USC.
Alexander’s arrival immediately fills a gap at the depth chart at defensive tackle for USC. The Trojans worked to overhaul their defensive line this off-season, adding Texas A&M defensive end Anthony Lucas and Arizona tackle Kyon Barrs. But after the USC spring game, it was clear that the team needed an additional big body on the interior to occupy multiple offensive linemen.
This had been a clear need since the end of head coach Lincoln Riley’s first season at USC.
Speaking the day after Georgia’s national championship win over TCU, Riley pointed at the Bulldogs’ defensive front as the model for his program to strive for.
“Do [Georgia defensive linemen] look like our guys?” Riley asked. “Not yet. You know, our guys don’t look like that. We will soon.”
Enter Alexander, the 6-foot-3, 305-pound tackle who recorded two sacks and 13 quarterback hurries as a true freshman at Georgia.
And like Lucas before him, Alexander comes to USC as a true sophomore, with three years of eligibility remaining, making up for the lack of freshman defensive linemen on last year’s USC roster.
After an 11-3 season in his first year, Riley is building a transfer class that could rank No. 1 nationally once again. The Trojans have landed 12 transfers this offseason and have upgraded their defense by adding Alexander, Lucas (Texas A&M), Jack Sullivan (Purdue) and Kyon Barrs (Arizona) on the defensive line, as well as linebackers Mason Cobb (Oklahoma State) and Jamil Muhammad (Georgia State), and cornerback Christian Roland-Wallace (Arizona)
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