Hi, everyone! Welcome to the Times of Troy newsletter. I’m Ryan Kartje, your USC beat writer, back once again to bemoan the slow-motion car crash that college football has become. There is no more fitting coda to this chaotic era than what’s happened the past few days in Knoxville, Tenn., where quarterback Nico Iamaleava skipped practice and his representatives used the threat of the transfer portal, which opens this week, to seek a bigger, better deal at Tennessee. He reportedly was pursuing a deal worth double his previous $2 million per year.

Do you remember two years ago when Iamaleava, a Long Beach native and Downey Warren High alum, signed his four-year, $8-million deal at Tennessee? At the time, much of the college football world gasped at the thought. How could a high school senior possibly command so much money?

Well, now he’s a college junior. And there haven’t been many signs that he deserves that size of payday, let alone a larger one. Iamaleava didn’t set the Southeastern Conference ablaze in his first season as Tennessee’s starter. A $4-million deal would have put him among the largest, if not at the very top, of deals in college football.

It was a bold gambit on Iamaleava’s part, one that ultimately didn’t work. And while it’s commendable that Tennessee didn’t blink, the team now has to move on without its starting quarterback and will probably be worse for it.

“There’s no one bigger than the Power T,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said after the Volunteers’ spring game Saturday.

The ultimate irony, of course, is that Tennessee actually took the NCAA to court to give Iamaleava the right to receive that first NIL deal. That’s how we ended up here, with unchecked NIL, in the first place. But soon enough, this sort of thing will play out all over the country. We’ve been on the brink of this kind of confrontation for months. Even at USC, players asking for more NIL money hasn’t always gone seamlessly.

Binding contracts would solve this problem overnight — and be in the best interest of the schools that stand to face these situations in the future. But university leaders are unwilling to even engage in that conversation, knowing it means recognizingathletes as employees.

This, though, is the alternative. And in this world, no one seems all that happy with how things are going.

As for USC, there’s no reason to expect them to be in the Iamaleava sweepstakes. Especially at the price that his representation is asking. Lincoln Riley has taken every chance to reaffirm his confidence in Jayden Maiava as the Trojans’ starting quarterback. I don’t think he’d change his mind for a below-average SEC starter.

A few more thoughts on USC football at the midway point of spring …

Don’t expect USC to be very active in the spring portal … and that’s a good thing. During the past two Aprils, it felt like USC had a lot of work to do adding to its roster. This spring? Not so much. At least, that’s the message Riley is sending. “I certainly feel like there’s less needs on this football team than maybe in some of the years past when we’ve got to this point,” Riley said. “That doesn’t mean there won’t be some good fits out there. There probably will be, and we’ll sort through those. But I think the majority of our football team is here or signed to be here in June.” That’s a sign of things trending in the right direction with roster building. Relying too much on the portal, especially in spring, is not a sustainable strategy. Expect USC to explore adding at linebacker, along the offensive line or at receiver. But only if those players are a good match.

USC’s offensive line is still its biggest uncertainty. If it feels like we’ve been saying the same thing about the Trojans’ offensive front every spring, it’s because … well, we have. The same questions still apply. Can two new experienced transfers (J’Onre Reed and DJ Wingfield) stabilize the starting group? Can a young right tackle take a leap forward? Will Elijah Paige start to live up to his sky-high potential at left tackle? We won’t have those answers until the fall, but Riley singled out Tobias Raymond, the current favorite to start at right tackle, for establishing himself as “one of [USC’s] best offensive linemen.” That could be an encouraging development, considering how raw Raymond was when he arrived at USC. Or it could be a sign that the rest of the group hasn’t really elevated much.

The vibes are very encouraging at running back. We don’t get to see USC’s running backs do much through the spring. But everything we’ve heard suggests transfers Waymond Jordan and Eli Sanders have gotten off to a great start. Riley has had a lot of success adding transfer backs before, and this backfield, the coach said, “could be the most effective room that we’ve had in the years we’ve been here.” That’s quite a statement. Jordan is the more compact and powerful of the two backs, while Sanders is the more explosive, big-play threat. Could the backfield be more of an even split than last season? Seems that way.

The added size on the defensive line is very apparent. But will it translate to production? It’s impossible not to notice Jamaal Jarrett — at 6-foot-5, 350 pounds — or five-star freshman Jahkeem Stewart — at 6-5, 290 pounds — when they walk toward practice. “Just looking at last year’s D-line,” sophomore Jide Abasiri said, “I think we had one, two defensive linemen over 300 pounds? Now we’ve got two freshmen over 300 pounds.” Size isn’t everything at that position. USC has had its share of big guys whose Trojan tenures went belly up. But it’s the athleticism we’ve seen from Jarrett and Stewart, in bits and pieces, that has my attention. Stewart especially is a behemoth on the defensive front who’s capable of moving like a linebacker. All signs point towards him having a role right away.

USC is not very deep at receiver. It’s Ja’Kobi Lane, Makai Lemon … and everyone else at the position right now. And Lemon has been limited all spring by a hamstring issue. Prince Strachan, a transfer from Boise State, has the size — at 6-5 — to make a splash this season, and Riley was clear that the opportunity to play was “a big reason why he came here.” Otherwise, there isn’t much in the way of experienced options. Freshman Corey Simms has seen a lot of action this spring given the thin depth chart, and he certainly looks the part at 6-3, 200. But there’s no mistaking how thin the Trojans suddenly are at receiver. Could that open the door for USC to use its tight ends more? We ask this every season, it seems, but the group — with Lake McRee, Walker Lyons, Joey Olsen and Walter Matthews — hasn’t been this deep during Riley’s tenure.

The sidelines at USC’s spring practices have been packed with donors and recruits. It beats me why Riley didn’t use this approach from the beginning — it’s the easiest possible way to curry favor — and funds — from your upper echelon of donors. Since his arrival, USC general manager, Chad Bowden, has been relentless in his efforts to strengthen those relationships, and the results are already showing. In this new revenue-sharing era, all schools can use all the money — and deep-pocketed donors — they can get.

USC guard Wesley Yates III is transferring to Washington after a breakout freshman season with the Trojans.

(Michael Conroy / Associated Press)

—Washington raided both of USC’s basketball teams in the portal. Wesley Yates III, the promising guard who broke out in Eric Musselman’s first season, committed to the Huskies this week, shortly after another promising freshman from the women’s team, Avery Howell, also left L.A. for Seattle. Yates started his college career at Washington, but suffered a foot injury that kept him out his entire freshman season. His exit, as I understand it, was financially motivated, as offers ahead of the House settlement have skyrocketed. Could Quincy Pondexter join him at Washington, despite the fact that Danny Sprinkle chose not to retain him last spring?

—At least we know rim protection won’t be an issue next season for USC men’s basketball. The Trojans’ inability to defend the rim was a real problem last season, and Musselman made a point of fixing it in the portal. A 7-footer who led the NCAA in blocks (104) last season isn’t a bad place to start. Gabe Dynes averaged more than three blocks per game last season at Youngstown State, and USC is counting on that defense to translate in the Big Ten. Don’t expect him to be much of an offensive threat, though — he averaged only four shot attempts per game at Youngstown State.

In case you missed it

Q&A: Why extra-soft toilet paper is part of Chad Bowden’s USC football front office strategy

Lake McRee headlines deepest USC tight ends group of Lincoln Riley’s tenure

What I’m watching this week

Wilson Fisk/Kingpin, played by Vincent D’Onofrio, appears an episode of “Daredevil: Born Again” streaming on Disney+.

(Chris Pizzello / Invision via AP)

There hasn’t been much out of the Marvel universe that’s been worth watching in recent years. But the return of Daredevil in “Daredevil: Born Again” on Disney+ has been a pleasant surprise. Daredevil was always a grittier corner of that universe, and this show has stepped back from the superhero action even more than the previous iteration. It was a smart decision.