LOS ANGELES — When Jadyn Walker told his mother Noelle that USC had given him a scholarship offer, she was at work on the first Saturday of December, and her son’s words hit her in shock. They lived in Michigan. Walker was committed to Michigan State. California? she thought. Can you get any further away from me?
But Noelle was shocked, really, because Walker had shown no signs of wavering on his pledge to Michigan State. A wide receiver and outside linebacker at Portage Northern High in Michigan, he had committed to the Spartans on Sept. 9 – all but hours before USA Today broke news of sexual harassment allegations against head coach Mel Tucker. Noelle sat her son down, that same day, and asked him what he wanted to do. Walker told her he wanted to stay committed. Loyalty ran deep.
Two weeks later, though, Tucker was officially and unceremoniously fired by Michigan State, setting off a month-long period in limbo before the Spartans hired Oregon State coach Jonathan Smith. The staff changed. And suddenly, amid uncertainty over those changes and with less than a month left until early signing day, USC swooped in with an all-out push – with Lincoln Riley, newly hired defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn and linebackers coach Matt Entz all flying out to visit Walker.
“He was like, ‘I just feel like there’s a reason USC reached out to me,’” Noelle said, and it was enough to persuade Walker to stay away from putting pen to paper with Michigan State on the early signing day in December.
And it was enough, too, to get Walker to officially flip from Michigan State to USC on signing day on Wednesday, signing his national letter of intent to complete USC’s 2024 class. It wasn’t the only last-minute pivot; Carlsbad defensive lineman Ratumana Bulabalavu, who de-committed from Washington after head coach Kalen DeBoer departed for Alabama in the carousel caused by Nick Saban’s retirement, signed his NLI to USC a day after officially committing.
Los…
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