USC's backfield was a mess of injuries for most of last season, but that's not the story walking into fall camp. Per On3's Pete Nakos, Jordan is fully healthy and 'looks like he did last year,' while King Miller has bulked up and gotten faster this offseason. That's the best-case version of a running back room that got thin in a hurry in 2025.
Jordan ran for 576 yards and 5 touchdowns in just 6 games before a torn ligament led to season-ending tightrope surgery in October. Miller, a former walk-on, stepped into the void and torched it for 972 yards and 8 scores. Now both guys are supposedly ready to go at the same time, and that's a problem for opposing defenses, not USC.
Miller isn't shy about what he thinks that means. Nakos relayed his mindset heading into camp: 'Miller is about to show everyone like, "I ran for 900 yards, and no one is talking about me."' A near-1,000-yard walk-on season should get more shine than it did, and Miller sounds like he's using that as fuel.
Lincoln Riley has floated the idea that this could be one of the best RB duos he's coached, and it's not hard to see why. A healthy Jordan paired with a bigger, faster Miller gives USC a two-headed monster that can wear teams down or hit a home run depending on the week — the kind of depth the Trojans didn't have last fall when injuries piled up at the position.
That depth matters even more with quarterback Jayden Maiava back for another year instead of bolting for the NFL Draft. Maiava is coming off buzz as a breakout candidate — On3's reporting described people around the program raving about his 'competitive juice' mixed with an 'easiness' this offseason.
Maiava lost his top two receivers, Makai Lemon and Ja'Kobi Lane, so a run game that can actually hold up for a full season takes real pressure off him rebuilding chemistry with a new group of pass-catchers. USC is chasing its first-ever College Football Playoff berth against a brutal schedule that includes Indiana, Ohio State and Oregon, and a backfield that isn't crumbling by October is a real piece of that puzzle.