At last month’s Pac-12 media day, Cameron Smith was unafraid to state a personal goal for his senior season — to be a first-team All-American linebacker.
The next week, before he could even put on his shoulder pads to begin backing up that statement, he left USC’s second practice of fall camp with a hamstring injury.
Two weeks passed, with Smith missing the heart of his last fall camp as a Trojan. This was not what he had in mind when he decided to put off the NFL for one more year. For seven months, he had worked to change the way he ate and trained, shedding 22 pounds from the end of last season in an effort to play faster and lead this veteran USC defense.