Tobias Raymond now a key cog on uncertain USC offensive line

When he first offered man Le Grill, Tobias Raymond had no intention of taking care of the role. He was, by no section, a connoisseur of grilled meat. He also did not experience cooking on an open flame. However, it was the first summer barbecue on the offensive line, and someone on the USC offensive line had to intensify. So Raymond, the right tackle of Trojans Redshirt, volunteered.

He did not know what he entered at the time because what started as a gathering of lines of lines finally, with his fourth iteration, had become a team affair event in its own right. This meant toast hundreds and hundreds of hot dogs and burgers. And Raymond, due to the first to volunteer, had become the de facto master.

It was not the kind of role that Raymond may have readily adopted three years earlier, when he arrived at the USC for the first time as raw talents during the offensive tackle. Since then, Raymond has become one of the most reliable line players of Trojan horses, a critical cog to an uncertain position for the USC.

While he was standing behind the grill this summer, turning hamburgers, his colleagues from lines could see how changed it was during this period.

“He held it all summer,” said the center I am Reed. “He stands there with his shirt, bending as if he were Captain America. He loves it, guy.”

Not long ago, Raymond tried to actively avoid this kind of attention.

“He was the type of guy who would lead the example and would be the most difficult worker on the ground, not necessarily to speak,” Tim Garcia, Raymond coach at Ventura High, told.

But on the football field, he had a way to turn the heads. He played with an average sequence that contrasts completely with his cold behavior out of the field. In Ventura High, the coaches amazed at its ability to finish the blocks and its desire to pass the whistle.

In high school, Raymond could afford to manage with a brute force. He was so athletic for his post that Garcia and his staff gave Raymond a little race before his last year, just to see what he could do.

This athletics was sufficient to immediately convince certain university coaches of its future in football. But Raymond still had a lot to learn as an offensive tackle. His technique needed work.

“He was still very green, very raw as an offensive line player,” said Garcia.

Not everyone wanted to spend time in the development of Raymond which would be necessary. Even the USC took up to six months before the signing of the day to offer.

“There were coaches who came on board who were not interested in Tobias,” said Garcia. “Then others said:” Well, this guy has everything. I can do it with him, with him. “”

Raymond wanted the entire recruitment process as quickly as possible. He made an official visit to California in the summer before his last year and told Garcia just after he wanted to get involved. Just to finish.

Three days later, USC proposed. Raymond did not want to go for the visit at the start. He had already seen USC once before, during an unofficial visit. He thought it was enough. He didn’t want to make noise. But Garcia convinced him to go with it.

This Sunday, after the visit, Raymond called Garcia.

“And he said:” Coach hey, would it be ok if I get involved? “”

It would take a while after that before Raymond finally made his mark at the USC. It was slow to develop in the first year and in redesah. During his second year, he was put into action in eight games, accelerating this process.

However, he tried to fly under the radar.

“I think it was something I really had to work on, saying things when I thought it was the right time,” said Raymond. “I was always really silent in the first year and second year, just entering university and learning how it goes. But I feel like I am in a place where I can start to be a more vocal person. ”

It was in the perspective of the USC bowl match last December that coaches could feel that Raymond has finally made it comfortable, on the field and out. His progress has accelerated from there.

When Zach Hanson has regained control of the offensive line, he continued at the Raymond challenge to modify his technique. Each time, he said, Raymond has corrected him in a game or two.

“He is not afraid to try different things,” said Hanson, who is starting his first year as an offensive line of the USC. “Many guys hesitate to do it. But he’s a pro from his job.”

He always has the blow to be a leader in the room. But what could have felt against him not so long ago, he says, begins to feel like second nature. By reflecting on where he started, the USC coach Lincoln Riley described Raymond’s transformation “radical in all respects”.

Now no one in the building gives a look when Riley declares that Raymond is “one of the best players in the team”.

This is what Riley will need Raymond to be this season, if the USC hopes to resist an otherwise thin offensive front. He should play the right tackle to start the season. But his teammates and the USC coaches expressed their confidence that Raymond could play the position on the line, if necessary.

This could have, at some point, seemed to be a disturbing proposal. But Reed, the new Trojan horses center, saw everything he needed to see this summer while watching Raymond preside over the most important work on the barbecue.

“It’s hot and he had no problem sitting there by sweating,” said Reed. “He has that, my brother. He definitely did the thing.”