USC Football Head Coach Lincoln Riley Reacts to Zion Branch's Season-Ending Injury
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The USC Trojans suffered some unfortunate news as they learned their redshirt freshman safety Zion Brach will be out for the rest of the 2023 season. With a defense that already has its fair share of challenges, this will put a ton of pressure on others to step up in a significant way.
Although Branch struggled to find his footing after tearing his ACL last season, he was starting to find his footing prior to the injury as well, so that hurts even more. Head coach Lincoln Riley spoke to the media to discuss Branch and spoke highly of his safety and how his team will overcome this hiccup.
"To come in here and earn the free safety job as a freshman, I’d say, is pretty unique so we were – pleased is probably not the right word – but his progress that he made throughout the year, coming back from obviously the injury his first year, handled it great, just earned more and more opportunities as we went on and played very well in his time," Riley said. "So it’ll sting for this team to lose him and [we'll] have to uplift him. But he’s a strong cat."
Branch was solid in 2023, as he recorded 22 total tackles, one tackle for loss, and one forced fumble in nine games.
Injuries have unfortunately been the downfall of Branch as he's struggled to stay healthy in his collegiate career. We wish Zion the best in his recovery and hope to see him in Week 1 of 2024.
