The visor atop Mike Ekeler’s head has faded to a rust-colored red, comfortably broken in from years of wear on sun-soaked football fields. “That thing’s pretty old,” Lincoln Riley joked after a spring football practice Friday. “That’s probably older than maybe some of our players. “It gets a lot of questions and looks until people figure out what it is. But that’s Coach Ek.” It’s a rescued artifact from Ekeler’s first run with USC football, when he was the Trojans’ linebackers coach in 2013. He’s back again for the 2026 season as the special teams and linebackers coach and his presence, like his visor, already has a lived-in feeling at USC. “I understand...
