USC coach Lincoln Riley is making sure his assistant coaches are staying hot on the Georgia recruiting trail this offseason. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Demonta Prather is used to seeing red on the football recruiting trail in Georgia, but it’s not usually USC’s cardinal that comes through the Manchester (Ga.) High coach’s office.
Led by new defensive line coach Eric Henderson, the Trojans stormed the Georgia recruiting trail last weekend by securing verbal commitments from two top defensive line prospects.
The Trojans already had a pledge from five-star quarterback Julian Lewis from Carrollton, Ga., then in a day added Prather’s five-star defensive lineman Justus Terry and the nation’s top edge rusher, Isaiah Gibson of Warner Robins, Ga., for the 2025 recruiting class.
Terry, a 6-foot-5, 275-pound lineman from Manchester, Ga., flipped a commitment from his home state school Georgia as USC pulled off a task that Terry’s head coach knows is “extremely tough.”
Read more: USC transfers look for ways to contribute during spring football
“It’s going to be a fight,” Prather said of USC’s attempt to pull Georgia’s top recruits away from the SEC powerhouses. “But they look like they’re ready for it.”
Terry, the nation’s second-ranked defensive lineman prospect for 2025 according to 247 Sports, had been committed to the Bulldogs for more than a year. Henderson wasn’t scared.
Nine days after being hired at USC, the defensive line coach was already at Manchester High about 75 miles south of Atlanta to speak to Terry and his family. It was the first time Prather remembered seeing USC recruiting in Georgia. He hasn’t stopped seeing USC’s influence since.
“It’s just different seeing a college come from one side of the country to the other side and to make a good impact,” Prather said….
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/watch-kirby-smart-usc-hot-120021776.html
Author : LA Times
Publish date : 2024-03-30 12:00:21
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