USC linebacker Eric Gentry announces he will redshirt after ‘string of concussions’ – Daily News

LOS ANGELES — The young guys gave USC coach Lincoln Riley and his staff some reason to trust them, and that’s how they trusted them Saturday, a slew of freshmen and sophomores getting big plays in massive situations against the Penn State, fourth place.

They hadn’t done that enough the week before against Minnesota, Riley commented after the loss to Penn State. And then USC threw defensive lineman Jide Abasiri into the fire, and true freshman linebacker Desman Stephens II went with him, rotating into a variety of packages on USC’s defensive front.

“We felt like this was something,” Riley said of playing the young USC player, “that we needed to get better at.”

They have no choice but to trust these young hands now, after a Tuesday that left USC’s defensive outlook dim. First came the news, after training, that striker Anthony Lucas was out for the season after surgery. Then came another failure an hour later, flying around social media: Linebacker Eric Gentry would also miss the year.

“It breaks my heart to share with you my entire decision to redshirt for the remainder of the season,” Gentry wrote in a statement on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday night, “due to a series of concussions in a short period of time. .”

It tied the knot in a thread that had been dangling since Gentry was carted off the field during USC’s late September win over Wisconsin, with Riley last week acknowledging the possibility the senior linebacker could take a redshirt year. The news, now consolidated, leaves USC without its most versatile and consistent playmaker in the middle of the defense, Gentry ending his season with 30 tackles and a pair of sacks in just four games.

More profoundly, though, it leaves USC without a player Riley called an “emotional spark plug,” a 6-foot-4 frenetic buzz of sinewy energy who led the way for the Trojans with a lot of confidence and a lot of trash talk.