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After more than three months without football, sequestered away from team facilities due to the ongoing pandemic, most college football players seem eager to return to the normalcy they've known for so many years. Training around teammates, being coached, preparing for a season, etc.

But the anticipation level for that return is a little different for USC redshirt sophomore linebacker Solomon Tuliaupupu.

"The past two years I haven't been able to play the sport that's always been so fun to me ever since I was a little kid. Now, finally, I get to let loose and just do what I love to do," he said.

It's been well more than two years, really. Dating back to November of 2017, Tuliaupupu has been recovering from a complex left foot injury that's now required two surgeries, too many false starts throughout that rehab and, candidly, some very tough times mentally trying to make sense of it all.

But with USC now nearing the return of players to campus and the football program laying out a tentative summer schedule of team activities, Tuliaupupu's wait is almost over.

"Man, I feel great," he said, his voice bouncing through the phone earlier this week. "... Right now everything's going as planned. From the doctor's standpoint, they want to see me before they clear me, but right now I feel pretty great."

This is what he refers to as the light at the end of the tunnel -- one he couldn't always see the last two years.

Tuliaupupu, a 4-star Rivals top-100 prospect in the Trojans' highly-ranked 2018 recruiting class, went in-depth with TrojanSports.com about the twists and turns in his road back from injury and the expectations he now carries moving forward.

"I'm not really trying to prove anything or show anything to anyone -- I'm more just excited just to play the game I love," he said.