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These Cali recruits are Divas SMH

954gator

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Cossacks Grand Master

Cossacks

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18 minutes ago, 954gator said:

USC has never sucked they just aren't what they used to be.  

Totally agree! I hate SC with a passion and root for their demise, but it just hasn’t fully happened and not sure it will fully come. They got hammered by those sanctions (which I even thought were F ing ridiculous) and have somewhat weathered through it, but have not totally recovered. Still get some talent, but depth has been a huge issue.  

 I know they are are great HC hire from being a sleeping giant elite program again so I don’t get to giddy, but do enjoy it now, because that’s what’s scary.

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mje44 Newbie

mje44

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1 hour ago, TheMaximumHornetSting said:

All that just to suck even more because they have a bad coach... 

watch out. Graham Harrell's got something brewing & the rest of the coaching staff is significantly improved. 

These boys have pride. Laugh now, but they'll be the most improved team in CFB next year. 

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mje44 Newbie

mje44

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1 hour ago, 954gator said:

Coaching rumors?  Heard anything?

Contrary to reports, Steele never enrolled at Oregon. Just took an official. 

He likes Coach Burns the new DB coach. My guess is that he'll get playing time early on. CB's depth chart is lacking.

Would agree that Chris Steele is a diva. Bru McCoy is most certainly not though. He would be a future team captain on any team in the country. He's a warrior. 

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BUFORDGAWOLVES Grand Master

BUFORDGAWOLVES

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4 hours ago, 954gator said:

https://usc.rivals.com/news/chris-steele-goes-in-depth-on-how-he-found-his-way-back-to-usc

Man I honestly wish this kid the best, but damn is he all over the place.  At least he kind if admitted the BS about the initial transfer was BS by not mentioning it.  

Could you copy and paste... it's premium content.

thanks,

BGW

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954gator Mentor

954gator

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@BUFORDGAWOLVES     

 

As the dust started to settle -- again -- on one of the wildest recruiting processes for a top prospect, Chris Steele got on the other end of the phone Wednesday evening and went into detail on all the twists and turns that are now leading him back to USC.

The 5-star cornerback from nearby St. John Bosco High School, ranked the No. 19 overall prospect in the 2019 recruiting class, is in the process of finalizing his enrollment at USC and expects to move in on campus on Tuesday.

He was publicly committed to UCLA first, then the Trojans from last summer through October before de-committing. Then came the announcement during the nationally televised All-American Bowl in San Antonio, Texas, on Jan. 5 that he'd be attending Florida, which he did through the end of spring practice. He no longer felt comfortable about his situation there and entered the NCAA transfer portal in early May, publicly committing to Oregon soon thereafter.

Now he's about to be a Trojan after all.

"About time," he told sdkflj  about seemingly reaching an end point to his ever-eventful recruitment.

"Oh man, it's been real crazy to say the least," Steele said. "I went to Florida with high hopes and expectations for the football program. And I can say this, as far as football goes it did kind of meet my expectations. I went out there and competed with some of the top dudes in the country every day -- Van Jefferson, Freddie Swain, guys like that -- so that was a pretty good experience. But unfortunately, [I left] on crazy terms, unexpected terms really, and ending up back on the West Coast, I'm excited about that."

The Florida situation is complicated. The latest switch from his Oregon pledge to now finalizing paperwork with USC, meanwhile, is easy to explain but involved a difficult decision.

He knows what the reaction has been on social media -- from Florida fans, Oregon fans, even uninvested observers.

"It's been real tough because at the end of the day, I don't think fans realize sometimes, I don't know if they think us players -- and I don't consider myself a recruit anymore, but I see it a lot with recruits -- but they think that players and recruits are like super heroes, but we're human just like everybody else," Steele said. "We all deal with real-life situations.

“In my case, my grandma is actually on dialysis, she's sick, and on top of that we just found out that the Long Beach Unified School District is laying off everyone in my mom's position. Those are the real-life situations I have to deal with, and I'm getting bashed for doing what's best for my family.

"It kind of sucks, but it is what it is. Because at the end of the day, if I get drafted to these fans' favorite NFL team, they would be right back on me, or if something happened and I ended back up at Oregon, they would go from me being a terrible kid with no character to 'I'm glad we got him back. Best kid in the country'-type deal."

Steele explained that USC didn't initially have a scholarship for him, as has been reported here, when he decided to leave Florida and enter the transfer portal. But, he clarifies, he didn't just commit to Oregon because of availability.

He has a relationship with Ducks cornerbacks coach Donte Williams that goes beyond just their recruiting discussions.

He found out shortly before he left for his visit to Oregon in the middle of last week that USC's 2019 scholarship picture had changed and there was room for him, but he was still "locked in" with the Ducks at that point.

Then his perspective started to change for the aforementioned reasons. He had an impactful conversation with another mentor, former USC cornerback Iman "Biggie" Marshall, and he made the latest tough decision in his search for the right college football home.

"I think that the way all events took place, it's God giving me signs. I let God take the wheel, literally, and all signs led me to staying home," Steele said. "So I don't really regret too much of my life. This is definitely something that I don't regret because it's all a learning experience."

 

 

First, the Florida situation.

The Gainesville Sun reported at the time Steele entered the transfer portal that he was unhappy with how certain circumstances unfolded with the Gators, after he expressed he was uncomfortable with his roommate situation but was not moved at the time of his request. One of his roommates, freshman quarterback Jalon Jones, was then accused of sexual assault by two female students at the shared living space on April 6. Jones was not charged but left the university.

Speaking Wednesday, Steele reiterated that he requested the roommate change "after like the first week of school after an incident happened."

"I just feel the situation could have been handled a little bit better. I was put in a really bad spot over something that is documented, it's very well known with the people that matter that I had nothing to do with the situation, so it kind of sucked to be put in when it could have been resolved a lot sooner. I guess you could say that pretty much sums it up," he said.

He returned home to California, and Florida coach Dan Mullen made a final visit out to change his mind, but he’d decided by that point that he wanted a change.

Enter Oregon. Again, while USC having a scholarship open up after his commitment to the Ducks opened the door to the subsequent flip to the Trojans, he reiterates that wasn't the reason for the sudden change of heart.

"Stuff went down with my mom and it just makes the most sense for me to be close to home, be able to support her, my little sister. My dad still works too, but with house payments and everything they're going to want to come to all my games, it would have been real hard for them to do that with just my dad working," Steele explained.

"When I went to take my visit to Oregon, I usually take my little sister everywhere, but tickets to Eugene were like $450 or something like that, so in my mind I'm like, 'Dang.' At that point it was just talk that my mom would get laid off, but she eventually ended up getting her statement that after June 15 or 16 that she won't have a job anymore. So I just started thinking about it, it's $450 right now on a Wednesday night when why would anybody be going to Eugene, I can't imagine how expensive it's going to be when there's games going on, when there's a lot of different families flying into Eugene and I can only imagine what the [cost would be] for hotels. So that's when the doubt crept into my mind."

Steele didn't specify his mother's job position with the Long Beach Unified School District.

He says he had a really long conversation with Marshall at that point and he took a big picture view of all the factors and consequences of this decision.

"Biggie is like my role model, Biggie and I had a long conversation and he told me, 'Man, I support you whatever you want to do, but just think of it like this -- think of what's important to you and how you look at yourself without football,'" Steele shared. "I kind of had to do some real self-reflection after he and I had that conversation. It was like, 'Personally, I think I'm a hard enough worker where I'll be good in football regardless of where I'm at because I was under some real bad [personal] circumstances at Florida and I still managed to finish school with a 3.7 GPA and perform well during spring ball.

"But when you take away football, I think USC offers the best opportunity for me and what I want to do."

He says he wants to major in journalism with a minor in business and values the education he can get at USC and the connections that come with being an alum of the university.

But when the USC staff had let him know a couple days before his trip to Eugene, Ore., last week that it now had room for him and that it wanted him, he still expected to be a Duck.

"I was locked in with Oregon at that point so I kept telling the coaching staff, 'I appreciate the opportunity, but I'm good.' They didn't pressure me, they just said, 'We're going to leave this spot open for you because we need a young, mature DB who's going to be able to come in and have an immediate impact,'" Steele said. "So I kept that in the back of my mind. And then I took my visit and there's just certain circumstances."

 

 

 

Asked if he thought there was any chance he would end up at USC after he announced his de-commitment last October -- citing at the time his concerns about how he'd be developed in the program -- he plainly says, "No."

And once that ultimate decision was made to come home, it left a very difficult conversation to be had with the Oregon staff -- the hardest one yet, he says.

"I know I've had a lot of difficult things in the recruiting process, this was by far the hardest just because of my relationship with coach Donte and [head coach Mario] Cristobal. [Williams is] not like a regular coach to me. There's a few coaches in college football that I look at like uncles or mentors," he said. "... So it was real hard for me to tell Donte because I know he was looking forward to it, and I was also looking forward to getting up there just because he's a really good coach and [we have] a great relationship and he was going to teach me everything I needed to know. That was probably the hardest thing. Coach Cristobal is just such a passionate coach, so it was really hard telling him that I wasn't going to end up coming."

All that may leave USC fans with the question of how excited really is Steele to now be at USC, given it wasn't his first or second choice and that leaving Oregon was dictated by non-football factors?

He asserts he's now fully embracing his future with the Trojans and believes in his potential at USC.

"I'm real excited about it just because I told myself when I left Florida, whatever school I go to is going to get a whole different Chris Steele just because during my experience at Florida I learned to appreciate what you have," he said. "There were dudes on the team that were able to go home literally every weekend. They would go home every Saturday night and come home Sunday night just because they could do that, so I learned to appreciate having my family closer to me, all that good stuff. The amount of support I'm going to be able to get now that I'm closer to home is amazing."

He visited campus Monday -- coincidentally the same day that another high-profile 5-star transfer, wide receiver Bru McCoy, was on campus working on details of his return to the program. McCoy did actually sign with the Trojans before transferring to Texas when Kliff Kingsbury's short-lived tenure as offensive coordinator ended as he took the Arizona Cardinals head coaching job in January.

McCoy entered the transfer portal last week and, as has been reported here, will be returning to USC.

Steele said that wasn't a major factor in his decision, but he said, "it is kind of cool to be able to line up against the best receiver in my class every single day."

During his visit Monday, Steele reconnected with new USC defensive backs coach Greg Burns, whom he got to know a little when Burns was at Cal and that program started recruiting Steele as a freshman.

But they didn't know each other deeply until Monday.

"When I visited 'SC this past Monday, I got to sit down and really pick his brain and just ask him all the questions I want to ask, just because I do have that little bit of college experience, I know what I need as a player," Steele said. "I got to ask him all the questions I needed, and I'm very confident in what he has to offer. He's a really strict coach. Even when there's times I'm not going to want to give him 100 percent, he's going to get it out of me so I'm excited about playing for a dude like him."

There is still some paperwork and process left to complete, but Steele said he expects to be moved in at USC on Tuesday.

As for one other matter, yes, he is pursuing a waiver from the NCAA for immediate eligibility and he is hopeful and optimistic it will be granted.

"I'm very confident just because the circumstances of me leaving Florida had nothing to do with football, nothing to do with me being homesick," he said. "I finished school with a 3.7 GPA and I started every practice in spring ball, including the scrimmage in the spring game, and it was really just that one incident that kind of pushed me over the edge along with other things going on with other players on the team getting in trouble with the law. It's just not an environment I could see myself being able to reach my full potential in, so I think I'll be all good when it comes to getting eligible but I'm just praying for the best right now."

Finally, asked if there is one thing he would have done differently or something he wants fans to understand, he reiterated that these matters are more complex than people presume on the surface and that he feels good with this outcome -- even if it was a bit unexpected.

"It's easy for people on the outside looking in to say -- I know Bru's kind of going through the same situation as me -- so I think it's easy for people to look at my situation and everybody else's similar situation and just say that we're lost, we don't know what we want," Steele said. "But I think that everything happens for a reason."

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