On Thursday, USC wide receiver Makai Lemon was selected in the first round of the NFL Draft by the Philadelphia Eagles. The selection was the culmination of a remarkable year for Lemon, who in December became the second Trojan to win the Biletnikoff Award, presented annually to the top receiver in the country.

Lemon is the latest in a remarkable run of USC wide receivers. Since 2011 alone, the Trojans have had ten different players record over 1,000 receiving yards in a season and eight receivers selected in the first two rounds of the NFL Draft.

So how does Lemon’s 2025 campaign stack up against some of the top receiver campaigns in USC history? Let’s take a look and see:

USc’s great run of wide receivers really started in the 2000s, but even before that, Johnnie Morton was a dominant force in the 1990s. As a senior in 1993, he had 78 receptions for 1,373 yards and 12 touchdowns. In addition to earning Consensus All-American honors, he won the Pop Warner Trophy, an award presented to the best college football player on the West Coast.

Another dominant USC receiver of the 1990s was Keyshawn Johnson. He posted consecutive 1,000-yard seasons for the Trojans, including going for 1,434 yards and seven touchdowns in 1995 en route to being named a Unanimous All-American. Johnson capped his career in Cardinal and Gold off with a legendary performance against Northwestern in the 1996 Rose Bowl, for which he earned player of the game honors.

USC’s historic run of wide receivers in the 21st century began with Williams, who burst onto the scene immediately as a true freshman in 2002. The following year, he put together one of the great wide receiver seasons in Trojans history, catching 95 passes for 1,314 yards and 16 touchdowns while earning Consensus All-American honors.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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