While USC just formally started its recruitment of 2020 defensive back Jordan Morant, the Trojans already have a bit of a head start with the highly-coveted 4-star prospect from New Jersey.

"They've been my dream school ever since I came out of middle school," Morant told TrojanSports.com. "The weather there is amazing and the school has a beautiful campus. Plus the football there is outstanding, especially the tradition they have at USC is just incredible."

Morant, who stars at Bergen Catholic High School in Oradell, N.J., is up to 22 scholarship offers in all, after picking up three on Monday with Tennessee and LSU offering in addition to USC.

For what it's worth, Morant has the tweet about his USC offer pinned to the top of his Twitter page.

He further broke down his recruitment and shared more thoughts on that USC offer with TrojanSports.com on Tuesday morning.

"It's an amazing feeling honestly," he said of the flurry of offers Monday. "Especially getting it from the best schools in the country. It's just so much emotion and I'm really honored to have them as choices."

USC wide receivers coach Keary Colbert, who has the potential to emerge as a key recruiter for the program, was the one to reach out to Morant with the Trojans offer.

Colbert told Morant he reminded him of former Alabama star DB Minkah Fitzpatrick, a former New Jersey prep standout.

"We talked about where I was from and my whole family story, but he mostly talked to me about staying on my grind and keep playing hard and working hard because look where it's got me now," he said. "So he pretty much gave me a message to keep doing what I do best."

Morant, listed at 6-foot, 190 pounds, is ranked as the No. 15 safety in the 2020 class, but he says he's more of a cornerback. While he can play either spot, as of now he expects to be a cornerback at the next level.

In addition to his recent additions, Morant also holds offers from Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio State, Penn State, Stanford, Virginia Tech, Wisconsin and more.

Meaning he has plenty of options to stay a lot closer to home, but he reiterated that USC holds real appeal for him.

"Getting an offer from there is just amazing, especially since I'm all the way in the east coast where kids barely get recruited by the west coast [schools]," Morant said. "So it's just a great feeling to have. But USC is a very realistic option, and I'm definitely gonna be visiting soon in the upcoming months. ...

"Growing up, I used to always want to live in California, and USC has one of the top-rated film schools out there in the country. Plus the football is amazing, and growing up I always wanted to go to a school with all these things and USC was the perfect match for me."