Caadyn Stephen's path from under-the-radar Alaskan prospect to USC commit

BELLEVUE, Wash. -- When 2020 3-star offensive lineman Caadyn Stephen and his family traveled to USC last month for the first of his five potential official visits, he didn't necessarily know he'd be making a commitment decision promptly thereafter.

The plan was actually to wait until after the season and continue to evaluate the offers coming in for the relative late-bloomer from Alaska, whose recruitment didn't really begin until he and his family moved to Washington in the summer of 2018.

USC was the second to last of his 12 offers to that point, but he said, "I fell in love with the school."

"The second trip was amazing. The first trip [a couple months earlier] I wasn't too sure, but that second trip was definitely [confirming]," he told TrojanSports.com last Friday night. "Campus was amazing, the family bond that I saw between teammates in the locker room after the game, before the game, the way coach talked to his team, it was amazing -- I couldn't pass it up."

Stephen, who took that official visit for USC's season-opener against Fresno State, announced his commitment that following Wednesday.

Both he and his father Jeremiah said that coach Clay Helton's "Faith, Family, Football" approach resonated strongly with them.

"Faith is a big part of my life so that stood out to me, and that's what really took my heart," Stephen said last Friday night after his Camas High School team beat Bellevue.

Faith is a good word to apply to his recruitment in general.

Stephen was born in Fairbanks, Alaska, before the family moved to Anchorage "after five years of 50, 60-below," his father said of the frigid climate.

He didn't play football until his freshman year. Even though he had a strong arm from his time as a baseball player, his size made him too valuable as an offensive lineman for his West Anchorage High School team so that's where he would play while making a quick impression.

As his father tells the story, after one game on the freshman team, Stephen was called up to JV, and after one game there he was moved to the varsity where he was a starter the rest of the season.

Stephen's rapid rise through the West Anchorage program wasn't the only source of validation and motivation that would affirm for him that he needed to stick with his football pursuits, though.

Craig Dunn, a coach on the freshman team, had sent a text message to Jeremiah about his son to let him know about the quick move up to JV and the potential he saw in Caadyn. Dunn would pass away after the season, and the family has kept the text message ever since.

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Jeremiah Stephen shared it as follows: "Thanks for letting him come out for football. I've been coaching for 25 years and I've never seen a player with more potential than Caadyn. If he lifts weights, is coachable, he most assuredly [will] play on Saturdays ... maybe even Sundays. I've coached 5 players to the NFL ... Caadyn is by a long shot the best of them."

Said Jeremiah: "We saved that text from coach Dunn and it will go with him wherever he goes. It was an inspirational text that hopefully set him in motion and that motivating standpoint of someone else seeing something other than his parents because obviously we can be a little biased."

Putting faith in their son's football potential, the family moved to Washington to give him a better spotlight for college recruiters. Jeremiah and Caadyn moved first in July of 2018 and lived in a hotel for four weeks before the rest of the family -- mom and sisters -- followed.

"Coming down here was an even better opportunity, which was part of the plan," the elder Stephen said.

As the story goes, Caadyn got an opportunity to attend one of the Russell Wilson Passing Academy camps and made a strong impression there, but he also received an invite to an Oregon summer camp where he realized how much he still had to grow as a prospect.

"Got an eye-opening experience against D-1 recruits that he'd be going up against, and since he didn't have the footwork that they teach down here he was learning the footwork and trying to go up against them. So it was a very frustrating night, but a real eye-opener," his father recalled. "... He let me know how frustrating that was, but he's come a long way and he's proving he's doing what it takes."

Stephen's first college offer came from Cal this past April and other schools soon got involved as well. Again, USC was the second to last of his 12 offers, but the Trojans made quick moves in his recruitment.

Stephen is already 6-foot-5, 280 pounds, and if he's still raw as a prospect, it's easy to see the upside in his athletic frame.

"They liked my flexibility, they liked my athleticism as a big guy, they saw room for improvement, room for growth and they just took a chance on it," he said. "... They want quick, heavy guys, but quick on their feet. I grew up playing basketball and that's helped a lot on my footwork."

Stephen didn't grow up a college football fan per se, so he didn't have a dream school or a program he had followed for years.

He was open-minded and USC, Boise State, Washington State and Colorado emerged as his top four. The Trojans history made an impression on him, as did those visits.

Meanwhile, he built a quick connection with USC offensive line coach Tim Drevno.

"It's pretty strong. We have a pretty good connection after our second trip, we bonded quite a bit. I love him as a coach, as a person and a potential father figure in college," Stephen said.

Like he mentioned, USC has seemed to pursue a certain type of offensive lineman -- athletic and mobile -- to fit this Air Raid offense. Stephen was the fifth OL commitment in this class, following fellow 3-star prospects Joey Wright (Bishop Manogue HS/Reno, Nev.), Andrew Milek (Brophy Prep/Chandler, Ariz.), Andres Dewerk (Los Gatos HS) and 4-star prospect Jonah Monheim (Moorpark HS). As with most of the others, Stephen could end up as a tackle or guard -- it's still to be determined -- but he's optimistic he can remain at tackle.

Although he's only used one of his official visits, Stephen added that he doesn't have any more planned at this point. "I think I'm locked in," he said.

Stephen would be the second Alaska-born prospect to join the program in a handful of years following defensive tackle Brandon Pili, who is from Anchorage but attended high school in Portland, Ore.

And Jeremiah Stephen notes there's an interesting wrinkle to Caadyn's background, as Jeremiah's mother's side of the family has Inupiat roots.

"I was kidding Caadyn, he wasn't the first guy from Alaska [to join USC] but he probably was the first Eskimo so that will be fun," Jeremiah said. "We're part Inupiat Eskimo so it will be fun to see them make a little bit out of that."

It's already been quite a football journey for Stephen, and with those under-the-radar beginnings in Alaska, it's indeed possible he proves to be an underrated find for the Trojans.