Ta’Mere Robinson got a chance this week to look back on the path that brought him from Penn State to USC, and the redshirt-junior linebacker didn’t hide how much the return trip to Beaver Stadium meant to him.
Appearing on Trojans Live on Monday, Oct. 26, Robinson talked about his homecoming, his move through the transfer portal and the career path he may want after football.
“It was obviously amazing. Just going back and playing in front of that environment - doesn’t get better than playing in front of 114,000 people,” Robinson said about returning to Beaver Stadium. “It took me back to my freshman year, sophomore year.”
The moment clearly hit him the second he stepped back inside the stadium. Robinson said he soaked in the scene before the game even got going.
“Just seeing the stadium, I just took it all in when I first walked out onto the field. And then when we went out there for warmup and everyone was out there, it was amazing.”
His old team and new team ended up meeting in a game that USC won 31-23 after silencing the White Out crowd. Robinson, who came away with a single tackle in the matchup, spent part of the night revisiting familiar ground.
Before he landed with the Trojans, Robinson’s Penn State run included three games and two tackles in one season, then a bigger role in his redshirt-freshman year. That season, the Pittsburgh native played in all 14 games, including the Nittany Lions’ playoff run, and finished with 11 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and 0.5 sacks.
Robinson said the portal process itself was straightforward: keep an open mind, then narrow the field the same way he would have during his original recruiting journey.
“Honestly, just going in you kinda just go into it with open arms. You know, willing to hear from any school,” Robinson said about his transfer portal experience.
“When it comes to choosing a school, you kinda go back to what you did with your first recruiting process. Narrow things down, meet the coaches, go see the campus and whatever.”
He became a Trojan in 2025 and has already carved out a role on the roster. In his redshirt-sophomore season, Robinson appeared in 13 games, mainly on special teams, and totaled 11 tackles with a tackle for loss.
USC has made a clear habit of bringing in players with Big Ten experience. Robinson is one of several examples, along with redshirt-senior defensive end Zuriah Fisher, who transferred from Penn State to Southern Cal in January, and 2026 additions Alex VanSumeren from Michigan State, Tucker Ashcraft from Wisconsin and Deven Bryant from Washington.
Robinson also opened up about what comes next once his football days are over. He said he is a public policy major, though he still hasn’t settled on exactly where that degree will take him.
“For me, I’m a public policy major, but I’m not sure what I want to go into with that,” Robinson said about his post-football career. “I know for sure, one thing that I’ve always wanted to do was go into teaching. When I was in high school, I was in the teaching program.”
That interest traces back to Brashear High School in Pittsburgh, where Robinson attended the school’s magnet program, then known as the Teaching Academy and now called Emerging Educators.
“Freshman year, it was just introduction to teaching. Second year, you go out and figure out the issues in education.
Third year, you know all the basics and everything, you’re just getting ready to go out into the field and start teaching the kids. Fourth year, which I didn’t get to do because I early enrolled [at Penn State], it was a film study.
So you go out to an elementary school, pick a class, whoever your favorite teacher was.”
When it comes to the classroom, Robinson already has a grade level in mind.
“I think I want to go middle school…I think I want to go that way just because that’s where kids are starting to find themselves,” Robinson said about what grade he would like to teach. “Find what they want to do, what they’re interested in. I think I’d be a great teacher in helping them figure out which route they want to go.”
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