Brandon Baker is already becoming one of the most highly-targeted recruits in California and he is only entering his junior season at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana. The four-star prospect will be stepping into a bigger role this season for one of the top teams in the country, and with that has come plenty of recruiting attention.

USC, Oregon, Michigan, Texas, Washington, Texas A&M, Miami, Oklahoma, Michigan State, UCLA and Penn State are some of the schools that have already decided to offer the 6-foot-5 recruit.

Since he is still a couple years away from stepping on a college field, Baker has not rushed through the process. He has only taken a handful of visits with USC, Oregon, UCLA and Washington being the schools he’s visited.

Getting to know those schools personally has helped put a couple of the programs out front in his recruitment early, but he is nowhere near making any kind of decision. Still, any time Baker is on campus at any of the schools it gives him more information to help him work through his evaluations.

Baker has been open about not feeling like much of a priority for USC’s previous coaching staff, but that quickly changed when Lincoln Riley arrived. He has now been on campus with the Trojans on multiple occasions, and his latest trip came last weekend when the USC staff hosted its pool party recruiting event.

The 2024 recruit made the trek alongside his teammate and fellow four-star lineman DeAndre Carter, and Baker once again came away from his visit to USC feeling positive about the direction of his relationship with the staff.

“They have great coaches on the staff who treat me very well,” Baker said. “I was able to talk with coach Henson, Lincoln Riley. Coach [Josh] Henson was sharing his vision with me and sharing how well I would fit in at USC. Letting me know that he doesn’t want to finish second, he wants to finish first.