USC Trojans

Five-star cornerback Adoree’ Jackson and four-star linebacker Dwight Williams are undoubtedly the headliners for an immensely talented Gardena (Calif.) Serra football team that won a state bowl game last year.

Class of 2015 prospects Rasheem Green and John Houston Jr., already national recruits, are next in line. After that, it appears 2016 receiver Brandon Burton will carry the torch for the Southern California powerhouse.

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OAKLAND, Calif. -- Silence fell over the hundreds of athletes as they took a knee near the north end zone at Laney College. With the six-hour Nike Football Training Camp behind them, they nervously looked around in anticipation.

“And the defensive back MVP goes to…”

Would it be the favorite, five-star cornerback and ESPN 150 member Adoree’ Jackson (Gardena, Calif./Serra)? Would it be Stanford safety commit Brandon Simmons (Arlington, Texas/Timberview)? Or would Northern California based four-star prospect Adarius Pickett (El Cerrito, Calif./El Cerrito) defend his turf?

It was neither.

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OAKLAND, Calif. -- As expected, the 2014 class was terrific at the Oakland Nike Football Training Camp, as nine players bagged invitations to The Opening. But the event also provided a glimpse into the future, with several underclassmen standing out. The 2015 class was heavily represented, but a Class of 2017 prospect is already making noise as well.

Jacob Daniel
Fresno (Calif.) Clovis North | DT | 6-4, 300 | 2015

Defensive line coaches raved about Daniel after the big man was impressive in every drill on Sunday. Daniel already holds offers from several BCS programs, including Cal, Iowa, Oregon State and Wisconsin, but that’s likely only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to schools that will eventually step into the picture.

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A number of athletes with either offers or interest from USC took part in the Oakland NFTC this weekend. Here are some of the top storylines to emerge:

1. Mixon isn’t afraid to embarrass his friends
There is a group of recruits from Northern California that are good friends in running back Joe Mixon (Oakley, Ca./Freedom) and linebackers D.J. Calhoun (El Cerrito, Ca./El Cerrito) and Michael Lazarus (Berkeley, Ca./Berkeley).

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SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Keller Chryst (Palo Alto, Calif./Palo Alto) has plenty of history to follow.

His grandfather, George Chryst, was a longtime high school football coach and the head coach at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. His father, Geep Chryst, is the quarterback coach of the San Francisco 49ers. His uncle, Paul Chryst, is the head coach at Pittsburgh. Another uncle, Rick Chryst, was the commissioner of the Mid-American Conference for 10 years. And if that wasn’t enough, Chryst was named after a football icon: Michael Keller Ditka, Jr.

Yet, with all the potential fanfare surrounding his family and upbringing, Keller, the No. 2 quarterback in the country, has found a way to stay off the grid, far removed from the usual media and recruiting attention that comes with being one of the nation’s top quarterback recruits.

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A number of USC recruiting targets are expected to put their skills on display this weekend when the Nike Football Training Camp tour hits the Bay Area.

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Four-star running back Royce Freeman (Imperial, Calif./Imperial) felt strongly that USC was going to offer him a scholarship sooner rather than later. A big indication came last week when new assistant coach Mike Summers made the 200-mile trek south from the Los Angeles campus to see Freeman work out.

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ESPN 150 safety Bishard Baker (Bellevue, Wash./Bellevue) estimates it took about a month for a few generic pieces of USC mail to turn into a consistent stream of handwritten letters.

On Tuesday afternoon, the increase in contact culminated to a scholarship offer.

“They started sending me a whole bunch of handwritten letters, so I wanted to see what would happen,” Baker said. “It came slow, but then it picked up.”

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Every Wednesday, the WeAreSC staff will take a quick-hit look at some of the top recruits and storylines facing USC recruiting for the week.

This week’s targets: Assistant coach Mike Summers watched top defensive end target Connor Humphreys (Portland, Ore./Central Catholic) work out on Monday morning before checking in with Class of 2014 fullback A.J. Hotchkins (Tigard, Ore./Tigard) for the first time. “He told my coach they were very interested,” Hotchkins said. Lake Mary (Fla.) coach Scott Perry said assistant coach Ed Orgeron dropped by to see 6-foot-5, 265-pound defensive tackle Adam Torres, whose offer list includes Florida State, Miami (Fla.) and Mississippi State. A stop at Brooksville (Fla.) Nature Coast Technical School for 2014 defensive end Rohan Blackwood was also on the itinerary, according to coach Charles Liggett’s Twitter account.

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CORONA, Calif. -- Looking out over the pristine turf field at Corona (Calif.) Centennial just prior to the team’s recent “College Showcase” -- an amped-up version of spring practice that attracted more than 30 coaches from some of the top football programs in the country – it was easy to notice Austin Maloata staring with a sense of wonder.

Having moved to the mainland in March from American Samoa, the Class of 2014 defensive end has undergone a meteoric rise from complete unknown to highly publicized USC pledge. And now, everything – even the artificial playing surface in front of him – can be a lot to take in at times.

“Back in Samoa, we don’t have turf or any of this stuff,” said Maloata, who prepped at Leone High School in Pago Pago prior to his arrival in Southern California. “We play on rocks. There’s practices where you get tackled, and you get up and your knee is all bloody. So coming here to Centennial and feeling the turf here, it was shocking. Kids over here, they have all of the sleds, they have all the bags, they have turf … they have everything. In Samoa, we use the actual players themselves as tackling dummies.”

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The recruitment of receiver Desean Holmes (Mission Hills, Calif./Bishop Alemany) nearly ended last week when the Class of 2015 prospect picked up a scholarship offer from childhood favorite USC.

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Corona (Calif.) Centennial was the place to be for college coaches this past Thursday, as the Huskies went through their spring showcase event designed to give schools from every level a chance to evaluate the juniors and top underclassmen. More than 30 schools were represented, including coaches from Alabama, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USC and Washington.

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A junior college receiver who has offers from several big-time programs was recently offered by Texas.

D’haquille Williams is the first junior college prospect to land a Texas offer. HornsNation caught up with two of his coaches at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College this week, and both made it clear they’ve never coached a guy like him.

The 6-foot-3, 210-pound wide receiver is one of the nation’s top juco prospects. He put up 1,295 receiving yards and 18 touchdowns on 67 catches as a freshman at MGCCC and also has offers from Alabama, Auburn, Florida State, Miami, Texas A&M, USC and a long list of schools.

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