Zechariah Branch and the realization of modern Trojan football

USC has a historical model for success built around game-changing speed and Zechariah Branch is here to uphold it.

Deploying game-changing speed is essentially the motto of USC Trojan football.

Technically the first years of relevance for USC occurred in the 20s and 30s but I know next to nothing about those teams and probably neither do you. The program, along with college football, really started to grow in national relevance in the 60s and 70s under head coach John McKay.

His secret? McKay played black athletes on his teams, most notably at running back, before everyone else was doing so. In fact, USC famously beat Alabama in Birmingham in 1970 with an integrated team which is pointed to as a reason southern teams integrated.

That’s about as impactful an event as you could possibly find for modern college football.

Ben Wilson and Willie Brown took over at running back for USC in 1961 and in 1962 paced a breakout, 11-0 season for the Trojans. From then on, that was USC ball.

Mike Garrett came next and toted the rock for three seasons before being replaced by Don McCall and then in 1967 a fellow named Orenthal James Simpson.

OJ Simpson won the Heisman Trophy in 1968 after getting an insane (definitely now and certainly back then as well) 355 carries he turned into 1,709 yards at 4.8 yards per carry and 22 rushing touchdowns.

Simpson was an unbelievable athlete and it’s easy now for those of us who know him mostly for his famous trial over the murder of his wife (millennials in particular) to not realize the degree of his athletic prowess back in the day. Other than those numbers above, the simplest way to detail exactly how dominant an athlete he is would be to offer up his best 100m time in his other pursuit as a track star.

OJ ran the 100m in 10.3 seconds. Remember that number but for now a helpful reference point is that Harold Abrahams, one of the main characters in “Chariots of Fire” won the 1924 Summer Olympics gold medal with a time of 10.6.

Since those days, USC has tended to be known for fielding game changing athletes with big time speed. The Pete Carroll Trojans were technically built around defense and a physical offensive front, but their heights and glory were notable for featuring the Reggie Bush era.

The 2023 Trojans in week zero against the San Jose State Spartans secured a 56-28 victory and unleashed a new weapon on offense, freshman wideout Zechariah Branch.

His skill set and deployment represent the modern method for featuring dominant, fast athletes in the game of football.