Exclusive: USC WR Bru McCoy focused forward after year of adversity

As Bru McCoy was talking to his father Horace on Thursday morning, he couldn't help but address the irony of the situation.

"I literally had this conversation with my dad this morning. I was like, 'Dad, isn't it kind of ironic that I go from being sick to getting healthy and then the world gets sick after?' It's just like this bizarre circumstance," McCoy says over the phone later in the day. "But I've learned a lot about being patient and not trying to be too in a hurry because what's coming is coming."

What's coming -- eventually -- is McCoy's opportunity to finally get to do what he came here to USC to do.

Everyone knows the story. The 5-star wide receiver from nearby Mater Dei High School signed with USC and enrolled in January of 2019, before quickly transferring to Texas and then transferring back again after spring practice. Soon after settling back at USC, he developed a relentless illness that produced persistent fevers and was never able to be formally diagnosed.

But that's behind him now -- all of it. What he can't control is the national coronavirus pandemic that shut down college sports two months ago and ended USC's spring practice after just one session.

"As much as I'd like to be a part of that or participating in that, it's just a product of the circumstances, so you can't dwell on it too much," McCoy says in an exclusive interview with TrojanSports.com. "Very similar to dwelling on my situation. It's just unfortunate."

Says Horace McCoy, his father: "He was ready. He was loaded. Got his weight back, in shape, strong as an ox and one practice, boom, gone. Just crushing. Unbelievable."

Like he said, though, McCoy doesn't dwell on the last year. It's given him perspective, it's sharpened his motivation.

He focuses on the future -- whenever that future arrives again for USC football in general. He was able to rejoin the Trojans in December for their bowl practices, and he then spent the eight weeks leading up to spring practice going through the Trojans' full offseason strength and conditioning program, while staying afterward to catch passes from quarterback Kedon Slovis.

Now he's simply staying ready, no different than the rest of this teammates -- this time the waiting game is not his burden alone.

"First call I had this morning outside of work was from Bru," Horace McCoy says Thursday afternoon. "I said, 'Listen, we want to look at this in a positive way. No matter what, somehow, someway there's going to be a season. If there is no season, then guess what, you've got your health back, you've got your family, you've got your friends, you're at a great school, we're going to stay positive and get ready for the next one."

In the mind of the redshirt freshman wide receiver, there will be a season, and when it comes he will be ready to remind everybody why he was a 5-star recruit, the No. 12-ranked overall prospect in the 2019 class, the star playmaker at one of the premier high school programs in the country whom everybody expected big things for at the next level.