Spring Top 25 and takeaways: How long before USC competes with SEC?

By RJ Young
FOX Sports College Football Writer

With spring football behind us, I thought it'd be fun to drop some knowledge from what I've learned in the first four months of 2022. 

Let's dive in with my spring takeaways.

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1. The combination of NIL, USC and Lincoln Riley is the (North Florida men’s basketball coach) Mark Driscoll "Let’s go" moment we need.

It’s no secret that Lincoln Riley’s Trojans will feature a lot of firepower at all — yes, all — the offensive skill positions, from Caleb Williams to Travis Dye to Mario Williams. 

On Tuesday, Pittsburgh wideout and reigning Biletnikoff Award winner Jordan Addison entered the NCAA transfer portal. He caught 100 balls for 1,593 yards on 143 targets, and the most recent QB who threw him passes — Kenny Pickett — vaulted into the Heisman conversation and was the only quarterback selected in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft. Addison is a cheat code lined up on the numbers.

While it's still possible that Addison returns to Pitt, I don't think that's likely.

His offensive coordinator last year, Mark Whipple, is now at Nebraska. His wide receiver coach last year, Brennan Marion, is now at Texas. 

And USC is reportedly the place for which Addison began this process.

USC will be fun to watch — if it has a decent offensive line. And therein lies the rub. 

USC entered spring practice with 13 scholarship offensive linemen and was able to practice just eight of them. Plus, there’s still a new defense to tease out under defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, though edge rusher Korey Foreman should be fun to watch.

2. Texas is back.

I know, I know — you've heard this before.

But you're reading this particular paragraph because you want to know why I think Texas is back, right? Right.

Here it is in two words: FI-YUH POW-UH!

The Longhorns have weapons stacked on weapons stacked on more weapons. The projected Texas backfield has a composite five-star rating, and that makes it one of the most potent we've seen on the Forty Acres since Vince Young stood next to Jamal Charles in the Texas spread.

That's how good quarterback Quinn Ewers and running back Bijan Robinson can be. Add a receiving corps that features Xavier Worthy, Wyoming transfer Isaiah Neyor and Alabama exes Agiye Hall and Jahleel Billingsley, and the only other program that can score with Texas is in Columbus.

3. Marcus Freeman's Notre Dame is rolling differently.

This is Marcus Freeman’s program, and he’s putting his stamp on it by breaking with Notre Dame’s long tradition of never scheduling an FCS team or an HBCU. In one fell swoop, he has done both.

The Fighting Irish will face Tennessee State at Notre Dame Stadium in 2023, much to the chagrin of many ND fans. It’s a shrewd move by a head coach who was baptized in the Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma State.

Freeman is just the second Black head football coach at ND, following Ty Willingham’s tenure from 2002 to '04. Freeman is setting up the Irish to not just make another run at the College Football Playoff but also bring new fans to a proud fan base. 

Dare I say I am rooting for Freeman and have been for some time. He’s exactly the kind of man I want to see coaching one of the sport’s most prestigious programs. 

But the decision to schedule TSU wasn't Freeman’s alone. With scheduling, it never really is. Cue a slow-clap for Jack Swarbrick. He served on the Indianapolis Sports Commission in the 1980s when it staged the City Circle Classic, a game TSU played in six times.

"The alumni coming to our city. The bands. The game," Swarbrick said. "It's always been a goal to try and bring some of that here if we could figure out a way to do it." 

4. Oklahoma's spring game turnout is for real.

The Oklahoma spring game was attended by more than 75,000 people. That's more than 20,000 more than the previous spring game record at the Palace on the Prairie.

That is an absurd number both by traditional spring game metrics and for the time we live in, when most schools across the country are scrambling to fill stadiums.

Dillon Gabriel, Theo Wease and Javonte Barnes are some dudes.

By the way, USC’s spring game attendance was 33,427.

5. LSU has three QBs who can play.

But only one will start Week 1 against Florida State.

Walker Howard is likely going to sit and put himself and LSU in a good spot at QB in 2023 while Myles Brennan and Jayden Daniels duke it out in camp. This is conventional wisdom, and college football coaches love convention and conservatism.

But Brian Kelly is also the coach who started Brandon Wimbush, only to give him the hook for Ian Book once Book proved to be the kind of quarterback who could elevate the Fighting Irish to a CFP team. That type of thing could happen again.

6. The SEC West is a monster.

Nothing changed in 15 practices to dissuade most from believing that Nick Saban and his Alabama Crimson Tide will return to the SEC Championship Game and end the season in the College Football Playoff.

Instead, spring football was yet another opportunity for Saban to find out how the newest members on his staff acclimated to The Process. But what should worry teams with the Tide on their schedules is how much more Saban likes this team than his 2021 squad.

When you have 85 scholarship players the caliber of those in Tuscaloosa pulling in the same direction, you’ve got the kind of team that doesn’t just win but wins with maniacal efficiency.

Texas A&M also gave fans a look at what it’s capable of winning. The program earned its first win against Alabama since Johnny Manziel goaded Saban into using a quarterback who could extend plays with his feet.

Now, for the first time since joining the Aggies, Jimbo Fisher out-recruited his SEC foes — and everyone else in college football. The Aggies could be scary in 2022, but they also could prove capable of doing little with a lot.

It’s up to A&M to make believers out of its doubters in a division that sometimes looks like it could go undefeated in the NFC East. That's not true, but that's how deep and talented the West is and has been.

You'll get to the fourth team in a seven-team division before you find one that won fewer than 10 games last season, and Arkansas won nine. With Bryce Young, KJ Jefferson, Jaxson Dart, Will Rogers, Haynes King and "Insert LSU Quarterback Here" — I'm only half-joking — you've got great QB play that will likely be combined with great defensive play.

As a neutral observer of this chaotic sport, I can't wait to watch these teams go at it.

7. Ohio State is the only SEC team outside the SEC.

Somehow, the Ohio State Buckeyes lost two first-round picks at receiver in 2021 and three first-round picks to the NFL in 2020, yet they look primed to compete for a spot in the CFP once again.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba will enter the season as the non-quarterback with the best odds to win the Heisman trophy, perhaps followed only by his teammate, TreVeyon Henderson. 

Defensively, however, there’s work to be done.

Yes, the Buckeyes added coordinator Jim Knowles and safeties coach Perry Eliano — who saw his pupil at Cincinnati, Ahmad Gardner, selected fourth in the 2022 Draft — but the spring game raised a few concerns. Notably, the secondary has to get shored up.

If Eliano and Knowles can help the Buckeyes put out a simply above average defense, OSU should return to Big Ten champion form.

To close out my takeaways, here's my post-spring Top 25!

1. Alabama
2. Ohio State
3. Georgia
4. Texas A&M
5. Baylor

6. Arkansas
7. Notre Dame
8. Texas 
9. Oklahoma
10. Ole Miss

11. Utah
12. Clemson
13. Michigan State
14. Michigan
15. Oklahoma State
16. BYU
17. Houston
18. Cincinnati
19. USC
20. Minnesota
21. Wisconsin
22. Kentucky
23. Oregon
24. Penn State
25. LSU

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast "The No. 1 Ranked Show with RJ Young." Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young, and subscribe to "The RJ Young Show" on YouTube. He is not on a StepMill.