Desman Stephens has quickly become one of the most important names on USC’s defense, and the reason is simple: the Trojans trust him, and they trust him in a new scheme that asks a lot from the middle of the field.
USC’s defense is in a different place now than it was in 2025, with former defensive coordinator D'Anton Lynn leaving for the same job at his alma mater, Penn State, and Lincoln Riley bringing in Gary Patterson to run the unit. That kind of change usually comes with a learning curve.
New system, new language, new details. But Stephens has handled the transition better than most.
“He's one of the guys I think that took to [Gary Patterson’s defense] maybe the fastest,” said Riley. “He's a smarter player than he was at any point last year in his ability to diagnose what the offense is doing and, what we need to do to stop it… the mental, the experience and I think the physicality have all taken some big jumps and we, you know, we need that.”
That’s a big statement, especially considering where Stephens was a year ago. He was USC’s leading tackler with 89 stops in his first season as the full-time MIKE linebacker, but the production came with some uneven stretches. Pro Football Focus gave him a 55.5 run-defense grade, and he finished with just 3 tackles for loss over more than 620 snaps.
Still, Riley sees last season as the foundation for what comes next. The experience, the reps and the mistakes all fed into Stephens’ growth.
“He has done a nice job of, taking some of his experiences from last year and understanding, no matter what we're doing schematically, just how he's gotta continue to improve as a player and a leader,” said Riley of the rising junior. “Playing all the snaps that he did last year, obviously as a pretty young guy in there was super valuable. Thought he played some of his best ball towards the end of the year and really started to get settled in on the physicality and the speed of the game.”
That late-season stretch backed up the coach’s view. Stephens put together back-to-back double-digit tackle games against Notre Dame and Nebraska before exploding for a career-high 17 tackles on the road against No.
5 Oregon. He also logged 685 snaps, the most on the USC defense, which tells you exactly how much confidence the staff has in him.
And the opportunity in front of him may be even bigger in 2026. Riley made it clear that the Mike linebacker spot is a major area of emphasis.
“A Mike linebacker, I mean, that's the heart of a defense, right?” Riley said. “I think that's a position just looking ahead that we feel we should take a pretty big jump on compared to our production maybe in the last few years.”
That opens the door for Stephens to do more than just hold things together. He could become the player who helps drive the entire unit forward, with the chance to turn a solid season into something much bigger.
USC hasn’t had a first-team All-Conference linebacker since Cameron Smith in 2017, but Stephens has a real path into that conversation if his upward trend continues.
The early returns have been strong. Riley said Stephens has stood out during fall camp for his steady play and timely impact.
“He's been steady. His bad plays have been few and far between, and he's made a lot of very impactful plays too,” Riley said.
After nearly 700 snaps of experience and a full year inside the starting role, Stephens enters 2026 with something that matters in college football: trust. If he keeps building on what he showed at the end of last season, he won’t just be important to USC’s defense. He could end up being one of its defining players.
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