LOS ANGELES — Eighty-one minutes before kickoff, as Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble” thumped over stadium loudspeakers and the rest of USC’s offensive linemen skipped out of the tunnel in boundless adrenaline, Emmanuel Pregnon hobbled. He jogged out behind the group, with his massive right knee wrapped in a massive bundle of gauze. He jogged out, visibly placing less of his 320-pound frame on his right side. He jogged out with all the speed of Giancarlo Stanton rounding third base on Monday night. Half an hour later, he jogged out in full pads, a Trojan warrior who had woken up that morning and decided he was ready to kill despite the pain groaning in his right leg. “No matter how hard you hurt,” Pregnon said on Tuesday, “you gotta push yourself to keep going in life.” “I feel like … football’s a game of life, and it’s just a testament to how you’re supposed to attack life as well.” Left guard Pregnon, for all intents and purposes, should probably not have played in a football game last Friday. Lincoln Riley and USC’s staff, in fact, did not think he was going to play against Rutgers. After exiting briefly in the previous week’s game against Maryland, he was “pretty doubtful” early in the week, as Riley described, and listed as questionable against the Scarlet Knights on USC’s Big Ten injury report. By the time the Coliseum had cleared following a 42-20 win – a win that, in large part, stood as the USC offensive line’s best performance of the season – Pregnon clambered up slowly on the postgame ladder for the honor of conducting the Spirit of Troy. Slowly. Still aching. Hand over hand, and rung over rung, until he could survey the field he had just laid his body on the line for. “I thought I was gon’ fall through that thing,” Pregnon smiled Tuesday. He stood, tall, on a bad leg, after a game against the Scarlet Knights not allowing a single pressure. It was the peak of Pregnon’s two-year ascendance at USC since transferring from Wyoming in 2023, continuing the season as the steadiest member of a once-shaky line that’s quietly rounded into an effective unit in recent weeks. He had come into the offseason, as quarterback Miller Moss said Tuesday, having started to “take his body serious.” After a first year on a disjointed USC line where he didn’t quite leave a resounding impact – positive or negative – Pregnon’s attitude toward the weight room changed. So, too, did his effort. So, too, did his leadership. “I commemorate and honor those guys,” Pregnon said earlier in October of offensive line veterans who had left, “by taking that position and taking that role.” On a line that has given starting snaps to steadily developing youngsters Alani Noa and Elijah Paige, that steadiness has been sorely needed next to center Jonah Monheim. Pregnon hadn’t allowed a sack in seven games as a starter entering Friday; his absence would have hurt. Riley even made the comment, the head coach said Tuesday, that he didn’t know if Pregnon would be “mentally tough to not just play, but like, play well.” Shoot, it had hurt, Pregnon affirmed Monday. But he played. And played well. “The more people that can fall in line with people like that and attitudes like that,” Moss said, “the better we’ll be as a team.” INJURY UPDATES After a whopping four starters in USC’s secondary were scratched against Rutgers – safety Kamari Ramsey and cornerbacks Jaylin Smith, Greedy Vance Jr. and Jacobe Covington – it’s still unclear if any will pull a Pregnon this upcoming Saturday against Washington. Related Articles College Sports | Wide receiver Makai Lemon has made himself key to USC’s future College Sports | USC football makes a statement in routing Rutgers College Sports | USC-Rutgers notebook: Trojans’ secondary hit with alarming rash of injuries College Sports | USC football can take advantage of Friday night lights against Rutgers College Sports | USC football vs. Rutgers: Who has the edge? “I don’t believe any of them are out long-term,” Riley said Tuesday. “I don’t know that there’s any of them that you would say today are full-go, no-doubt are going to play.” And true freshman Marcelles Williams, once a darling of USC’s fall and spring camps, isn’t “available right now” with injury, as Riley put it Tuesday. USC survived against Rutgers as a number of backups stepped up. Still, they surrendered a 313-yard game to Scarlet Knights quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis, who came in averaging sub-200 a game on the year. If none of that quartet are healthy, and down Williams, it will be tough to hold up against a much-more-potent Washington attack on Saturday.