Luca Evans (OC Register)  —  LOS ANGELES – In his first public address wearing a Trojans uniform, new defensive line coach Eric Henderson assumed the podium inside USC’s John McKay center and spoke to media with gusto booming in the bass of his voice.

“I wanted, quote-unquote, all the smoke, when you talk about going back to college to get involved in the recruiting process,” Henderson said in mid-February, formerly the Rams’ defensive line coach for five seasons.

And he and USC have launched firestorms across the national recruiting landscape ever since.

On Sunday morning, Georgia defensive lineman Justus Terry – a 6-foot-5, 275-pound DL ranked as one of the top recruits in the class of 2025 – announced in an Instagram commitment video he’d flipped his recruitment from Georgia to USC. Shortly after, Georgia four-star defensive lineman Isaiah Gibson committed to USC, causing a contained uproar across social media.

Suddenly, USC has three true blue-chip recruits from Georgia – Terry, Gibson and crown-jewel quarterback Julian Lewis – verbally committed in the class of 2025, a top three as bright as any program’s in the country.

All signs for the surge point back to Henderson, who recruited both Terry and Gibson and hosted them out at USC this weekend in a big-time recruiting push. On Saturday, none other than the recently-retired Aaron Donald was out at USC’s third spring practice, the former Rams defensive lineman out in support of his former coach Henderson.

After a strong weekend, USC now needs to build depth in its 2025 class, as well as secure the commitment of Lewis. The quarterback’s father T.C. told the Southern California News Group he’d target an official visit likely in early June; their interest in USC, T.C. said, was largely formed around the fit in Lincoln Riley’s offense and not so much geared towards the trajectory of the program entering the Big Ten.

“As a family, as a player, like, you have to understand where things are today is not where they’ll be tomorrow,” T.C. said. “It’s almost like, if you can walk into a situation and do what’s asked of you as a quarterback, take care of the football, execute your coaches’ offense – at USC, you’re never going to have a shortage of athletes.”

And behind Henderson, USC is beginning to ink that same statement on the defensive side of the ball.

ocregister.com

___________

TrojanDailyBlog members —  We always encourage you to add factual information, insight, divergent opinions, or new topics to the TDB that don’t necessarily pertain to any particular moderator post or member comment.