Pedro Moura
One of the following two brief scouting reports obtained from Scout.com deals with a former USC linebacker and the other with his eventual replacement.
Can you guess who’s who?
“An excellent outside linebacker who, along with being a solid tackler, possesses a very good combination of height, bulk and overall speed.”
“A big body and a big hitter, he has the potential to be a top-flight linebacker at the next level ... has great closing speed and explodes through ball carriers.”
The former is three-year starter and likely 2009 NFL draft first-round selection Brian Cushing.
The latter is Jarvis Jones, who on Wednesday signed his letter of intent to enroll at USC this fall.
Jones — along with new linebacking recruits Frankie Telford and Marquis Simmons — will be counted on to help replace Cushing and Co. He should be up to the task.
But don’t take it from me — take it from USC linebackers coach Ken Norton Jr.
“You’re really going to like Jarvis,” Norton told Ben Malcolmson of the website USCRipsIt. “He really hits hard and is a really solid player — a guy that really strikes you. He’ll make you forget about Brian Cushing real quick.”
Jones is a perfect example of why the USC football program consistently finishes at the top of the Bowl Championship Series rankings.
Although he was thought to be a surefire signee to a Southern school, considering his Georgia roots, USC swooped in at the last minute to grab Jones, the No. 3 ranked strongside linebacker in the class of 2009, according to Scout.com.
“We’re just ecstatic that we were able to get Jarvis,” USC coach Pete Carroll said. “We think he’s going to have a chance to play, contribute and vie for playing time immediately when he gets here, and he’s perfectly statured for that.”
Eight defensive starters from the 2008 campaign will attempt to make the jump to the NFL, including all three linebackers and six of the front seven, but Carroll and his staff are well prepared to soften the blow.
Much like Jones will be treated as the heir to Cushing, the Florida product Telford is being looked at as the eventual successor of weakside linebacker Kaluka Maiava.
“[Telford] has an enormous understanding of defensive football,” Carroll said. “We see Frankie as a weakside linebacker, where Maiava and Keith Rivers played for us.”
Defensive tackle Fili Moala and defensive ends Kyle Moore and Clay Matthews are leaving; filling their places will be 320-pound junior college tackle Hebron Fangupo, class of 2009 ends Devon Kennard and James Boyd, and two 2008 four-star end recruits.
“Hebron has the kind of explosion and playmaking ability that you love,” Carroll said. “It’s coincidental that opportunity opens up at the [defensive tackle] spot with Fili taking off and here comes another big 300-pound kid that can fit the bill.”
Fangupo, from major college-prospect hotbed Mt. San Antonio College, will enter USC with two years of eligibility remaining. Kennard, the No. 1 ranked defensive end in this year’s class, or Boyd could feasibly redshirt, but there’s still a considerable flow of talent coming in.
The USC coaching staff continuously stockpiles top talent, to the point that it is in vogue in the college football world to say that “USC doesn’t recruit players, it selects them.”
So why do so many recruits consistently select USC, even in the face of dire competition for playing time they could so easily receive elsewhere?
“It’s always my job to give the guys a really good competitive opportunity,” Carroll said. “It doesn’t do a guy any good to just sit back and watch around here. You’ve gotta get out there and play and show us what you’re all about.”
Carroll and his son Brennan, the recruiting coordinator, consistently preach competition — and it shows, from the practice field to the classroom and from the assistant coaches to the recruiting hotbeds.
The concept doesn’t result in the signing of every potential recruit and certainly has hit its share of snags — namely linebacker Vontaze Burfict and receiver/corner Randall Carroll, both of whom reneged on soft verbal commitments to USC Wednesday — but the end result is a recruiting class full of players Carroll and his staff know will compete.
But again, don’t take it from me — take it from Jones himself.
“I want somebody who’s going to push me to the extreme,” Jones told USCfootball.com. “I want to be better than I already am because I want to be ready for the next level [after college]. I want a coach that’s on me, somebody that pushes me every day.”
That competition theme seems to be working out just fine.
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