LOS ANGELES – Before Kyle Ford declared he was “trippin” and moved back a few miles east, back when he played the 2023 season at UCLA, he lined up opposite of young receiver Makai Lemon.
Yes. Receiver. Except Lemon was lining up at cornerback, for a few snaps in USC’s November game against UCLA, because the Trojans’ secondary corps was depleted and they needed an extra body. He’d played two ways in high school at Los Alamitos, a standout four-star who came to town along with top blue-chip QB Malachi Nelson. Division I football, as a true freshman, when Lincoln Riley had specifically said earlier that year Lemon would “play receiver for us” – this was a whole different beast.
He went toe-to-toe with Ford on a blocking play, Ford recalled after the Trojans’ win Saturday. Ford spoke hesitantly of the memory, remembering he’d gotten “the best of him,” Ford said.
But Lemon, four recruiting classes Ford’s junior, popped right back up and started barking smack at him.
And Ford knew in that moment, as he said, the kid was a dog.
“I was like, ‘Oh, I like that,’” Ford recalled. “He’s just, one of those guys.”
There were years, as Riley professed Thursday, that a receiver established himself in his system as the clear-cut number one. There were other years when the head coach felt his programs had a “handful” of number ones. This 2024 season, for USC, had squarely fallen in the latter.
Until Lemon, who spent his true-freshman year working partly at cornerback and missed a couple games early as a sophomore, has suddenly emerged as Miller Moss’s go-to man – and as one of USC’s most important offensive building blocks.
“I think you’ve slowly kinda seen him slowly build towards a game like this, since he came back just from being out,” quarterback Miller Moss said Friday night, after USC’s 42-20 steamrolling of Rutgers. “Obviously, having him healthy really helps us offensively. And I don’t think anyone is surprised by that.”
Indeed, a slow build. Three catches in a loss to Minnesota. A team-leading six grabs against Penn State. Then another Trojan-high eight catches against Maryland, frequently finding seams as an all-around safety valve for Moss.
And when USC trotted out for a kickoff on Saturday, last year’s freshman All-American returner Zachariah Branch wasn’t back deep, caught in a stretch of unproductivity in the return game. Special teams coach Ryan Dougherty, as Riley explained postgame, had conjured the idea to let Branch focus on punt returns – and to give Lemon a shot on kickoffs.
On Lemon’s second return, in the first quarter, he puttered out to the 8-yard-line, setting up a lane of blockers up the right side. Except he planted, and shifted course, two Rutgers defenders in front of him caught with their momentum going in the opposite directions. And he exploded downfield for 80 yards, setting up a score, the kind of explosive play USC had been missing for much of its season.
It was only the beginning.
He took a crossing route 70 yards, in the third quarter. Took another 40 yards, for a touchdown, in the same frame. He finished with 256 all-purpose yards, and led USC in receiving for the third straight game in a 134-yard performance.
“He’s made some really competitive catches, some big plays after the catch,” Riley said postgame. “He’s playing fast, playing confident.”
Confidence has never been the issue, the same kid who bounded back up in Ford’s face after that 2023 snap. It was a simple matter of opportunity, Lemon’s season briefly curtailed in Week Three when he got popped on a special-teams play against Michigan and missed a couple games. But Ford, for one, knew this was coming, calling Lemon the team’s “MVP” of 2024’s fall camp.
There’s plenty of room to grow, as Riley emphasized Friday night. But Lemon’s versatility – once stepping in to play both ways, now handling kickoffs, able to break out of a variety of routes and concepts – is a massive feather in Riley’s cap.
“I don’t know that he’s great at anything yet,” Riley said. “But he’s really good at a lot of things.”
