Two seasons ago, South Carolina linebacker T.J. Brunson found himself in a kind of freshman-year middle ground.
He was the fourth linebacker on a team that relied heavily on three playing two spots. He got a handful of snaps, but also got to experience college football first-hand. Then he took the step in 2017 to become a starting-level player who had 88 tackles.
Opportunities of that scale might not be available to them, but USC has several young linebackers who could follow his path from playing a little in year one to a bigger impact in year two.