Three USC linemen land on PFF's midseason All-America team
Three USC offensive linemen found their names on the midseason All-American team produced by Pro Football Focus on Tuesday.
Guard Andrew Vorhees landed on the First Team, Brett Neilon took the second-team center spot, and Justin Dedich landed as the Third Team’s right guard. Receiver Jordan Addison also earned an Honorable Mention spot from PFF at one of its three wideout spots.
USC ranks top-20 nationally in yards per rush and points per game this season. It also ranks 10th nationally in overall yards per play. The offensive line has had its moments, but has otherwise played well throughout the year.
Football Outsiders tracks a metric they call “line yards per carry,” which is intended to divvy up credit between the offensive line and the running back for any given run play. USC’s offensive line has the second-best average in the country, getting 3.4 yards of push on each run.
The Trojans also rank fourth nationally in power success rate and seventh nationally in stuff rate, meaning they are picking up firsts or touchdowns in short-yardage situatioNeilonns with the best of them and not allowing many plays to be stopped at or behind the line of scrimmage.
Quarterback Caleb Williams has been under duress this season — with the Trojans ranking 74th in sack rate — but the ground game has been remarkably efficient.
The trio of linemen named by PFF are among the highest-graded offensive linemen in the Pac-12 this season. Neilon has the best grade (82.8) of anyone who has played at least 150 snaps. Vorhees is the highest-graded guard (80.4) among those who have seen at least 150 snaps. Dedich (75.9) is third among Pac-12 guards.
You can see the rest of the Pac-12 contingent below:
First Team
- OL Andrew Vorhees, USC
- CB Clark Phillips III, Utah
Second Team
- TE Dalton Kincaid, Utah
- OL Taliese Fuaga, Oregon State
- OL Brett Neilon, USC
Third Team
- WR Jacob Cowing, Arizona — Third Team
- OL Justin Dedich, USC — Third Team
Honorable Mention
- WR Jordan Addison, USC — Honorable Mention
- EDGE Grayson Murphy, UCLA — Honorable Mention