USC’s defense has been impressive throughout the first three weeks of the season. It’s more organized, more physical, and is stacking more disruptive plays. In just the opener, the Trojans’ defense logged 13 tackles for losses, five sacks, and three takeaways. It also held Missouri State to 13 points and 11 first downs. It has shed every sliver of inconsistency that was present last year. However, for some time now, the defense has been plagued by injuries, but the trajectory is still upwards.

The injury part is where Kamari Ramsey comes in. He is the heartbeat of the defense and now a fixer too. The holes in the defense created by injuries to Prophet Brown and Alex Graham will be fixed by Kamari Ramsey playing at the nickel position. Reporter Kendell Hollowell broke this news on X. She posted, “Kamari Ramsey is one of the top safety prospects in the 2026 draft class but has been playing nickel this season because of injuries to the position.” And Lincoln Riley has echoed the same music: “When your leader, one of your best defensive players, is that unselfish, it sets a great tone.”

But that post by Hollowell wasn’t received with just appreciation; it was also received by an experienced USC alum, giving some advice to Kamari. Su’a Cravens, who played for USC from 2013 to 2015, including under Steve Sarkisian’s stint. He replied, “Careful now, Kamari … I’ve got a story about a freshman All-American safety that never got let back into the DB room after ‘covering up holes’ in a defense due to injury! It’s hard to find that balance of being a team-first guy and wanting to win vs making sure you dont scr-w your potential pro career over!”

Su’a Cravens is narrating his own story here. He started his USC career as a strong safety and then saw snaps in a hybrid safety-linebacker role. Similar to Ramsey, Cravens spent his 2015 season as an outside linebacker. Although he was drafted by Washington in the NFL, his career was ultimately cut short by injuries. In hindsight, the USC alum must be wondering if he should have stayed at the safety position.

Cravens also detailed how NIL has been a blessing in this context. He continued, “This is also why I’m glad NIL money is here so guys dealing with this type of situation don’t get the short end of the stick after they leave college because they wanted to help their team win ! #FightOn✌🏽” At least, in cases like these, NIL gives a player enough money so even if he doesn’t go professional or injuries mar his career, he has enough money to survive or think about his next venture.

Process over panic in West Lafayette

Although SC’s 33-17 victory against Purdue was impressive, the scoreline does not fully convey the story. That win was anything but comfortable. First, a three-hour lightning delay, then a fluky backward pass TD, and then a late wobble that kept Purdue in the game longer than expected. Jayden Maiava had a good performance with a mix of steady darts and explosive bombs. Waymond Jordan and Eli Sanders kept churning out good yardage, but Purdue’s Ryan Browne was not the one to back off until the last second.

This was the backdrop of Lincoln Riley’s post-game presser. When he was asked about missing the knockout blow, he said, “You just play the game… if there was frustration that one didn’t come sooner, then we didn’t listen to the way that we were coached.” He also added that the team could’ve done better on the penalty department: “Unique things are going to happen… we had a few penalties that we know we got to do better,” while adding that “two sideline interferences caused me to screw up not going for two when we were up, I think 20 at the time… 19 at the time.” USC must fix these mistakes as a priority because their schedule will also be ramping up.

The overall message of Riley’s monologue was accountability. He didn’t duck any responsibility and took everything as it came. He said, “We all had some errors, we all got to get better, but you just got to keep playing; that’s just the nature of the road—you’ve got to withstand it.” USC did do really well in some departments, like going 4-for-4 on fourth downs and protecting the ball. But the cleanup of 9 penalties for 104 yards, two sideline infractions, and missing a 37-yarder are required if they want to see themselves in the playoff conversation.