It’s the month of May. We hope you all had a great Mother’s Day and that the spring is treating you well. It’s not a time for digging really deep into the 2026 USC football season. That’s for July, when Big Ten media days arrive and the run-up to preseason camp begins in earnest. May is a time for USC baseball (which staff writer Adam Bradford has been covering consistently this season) and other topics of interest… topics such as the one SEC Network analyst Cole Cubelic brought up a few days ago.
Cubelic very simply wondered who is the best all-time USC football player. The tweet elicited a lot of responses, as such a question would if applied to any school.
We’re not going to answer that question right here and now. It’s too big and too important to give an immediate answer. What we will say is that any “best ever” question invites some definitions and parameters.
Are we talking about the best player while at USC, not counting the NFL? Are we talking about the best NFL player USC has ever produced, not focusing strictly on college? Are we talking about the best combination of USC and NFL production?
Another set of follow-up questions: Is this a measurement of awards and championships? Is this about statistical output or value to a team? Is this a measurement of NFL or AFL draft position combined with actual career results? Is this a reflection of how important the player was to USC? Is this a reflection of the player’s overall importance within football history?
There are so many ways one can go in answering this question. Therefore, in the coming days and weeks, we will slowly unpack this question and give you many different ways of looking at it. It’s May. Relax and join us as we work through a great question: Who is the best all-time football player USC has ever produced? Cole Cubelic works for SEC Network, but he’s so interested in the Trojans that we have to satisfy his curiosity … and yours, too.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: SEC Network analyst asks a big question about USC football history
Reporting by Matt Zemek, Trojans Wire / Trojans Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
