How does Makai Lemon’s 2025 stack up against other USC WR seasons?

Dwayne Jarrett, 2005

Following the departure of Williams, USC did not have to wait very long for its next star wideout. Dwayne Jarrett arrived in 2004 and put together one of the greatest college careers ever by a USC receiver. As a sophomore in 2005, he earned Unanimous All-American honors while catching 91 passes for 1,274 yards and 16 touchdowns.

Robert Woods, 2011

Robert Woods is USC’s all-time leader in receptions. Nearly half of those came in his 2011 Consensus All-American season, when he caught 111 passes for 1,292 yards and 15 touchdowns. Had the Trojans not been banned from postseason play by the NCAA that year and eligible to play in the Pac-12 Championship Game and a bowl, those numbers would have been even higher.

Marqise Lee, 2012

This is the gold standard of USC receiver seasons. In 2012, Lee shattered the record books, catching 118 passes for 1,721 yards and 14 touchdowns. Prior to Lemon this year, Lee’s 2012 campaign was the only Biletnikoff Award season by a Trojan.

Nelson Agholor, 2014

The 2012 wide receiver room was arguably the greatest in USC history, as it featured Woods, Lee, and a freshman by the name of Nelson Agholor. Following the departures of the other two, Agholor finally got an opportunity to be the No. 1 option in 2014. The result was a highly impressive season with 104 receptions, 1,313 yards, and 12 touchdowns.

Juju Smith-Schuster, 2015

After Agholor came Juju Smith-Schuster. In 2015, he caught 89 passes for 1,454 yards and ten touchdowns while being named a second-team All-American.

Deontay Burnett, 2017

Of all of the great receivers to come through USC, Burnett might be the most forgotten. His 2017 campaign that featured 86 catches for 1,114 yards and nine touchdowns does not get nearly enough appreciation.

Michael Pittman Jr., 2019

Prior to Lemon, Pittman was USC’s most recent Biletnikoff finalist. While he ultimately lost out in the award to LSU’s Ja’Marr Chase, Pittman did earn second-team All-American honors for his 101-reception, 1,275-yard, 11-touchdown campaign. Pittman remains the most recent Trojan to hit 100 receptions in a season.

Drake London, 2021

This season will forever be defined by what could have been. In 2021, London was on pace to break numerous USC receiving records, catching 88 passes for 1,084 yards and seven touchdowns in less than eight full games of action. Sadly, however, he suffered an injury against Arizona in late October that sidelined him for the rest of the season and prevented him from chasing history.

Makai Lemon, 2025

Now we arrive at Lemon. This past season, he had 79 receptions for 1,156 yards and 11 touchdowns while becoming USC’s second Biletnikoff winner.

Interestingly, Lemon’s 2025 campaign does not rank in the top ten in USC history in any of the three major receiving statistics. Despite this, however, he took home an honor that all of the players above him other than Lee did not.

So what led to this? Plain and simple, 2025 was a down year for college football receiving production. This past year, zero players hit 1,300 receiving yards. By contrast, in both 2013 and 2016, 13 players hit that mark.

This is not to diminish Lemon’s accomplishment. You can only perform against your competition, and Lemon established himself as the best receiver in college football last year. It is merely interesting to look at some of the great receiver seasons in USC history and see how Lemon’s 2025 stacks up among them.

This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Comparing Makai Lemon’s 2025 to other great USC receiver seasons