How USC found a potential hidden gem in projected LT Courtland Ford

A couple years later, Clinton Ford still can't understand it.

After his son Courtland Ford decommitted from LSU in June of 2019, he started seeing reports about the offensive tackle's supposed injury history, that he had knee problems that raised red flags. As the family set out on subsequent recruiting visits, at least two programs asked if it would be all right for their team doctors to examine Courtland. Meanwhile, he had gone from a highly-regarded 4-star prospect to a 3-star.

Even now, as Ford enters fall camp as USC's projected starting left tackle as a redshirt freshman, his father can't hide the frustration in reflecting back on the recruiting process.

"That's the one thing -- people always say injury. If you even read some of the articles that have even been printed by USC reporters ... they don't even really understand that he wasn't injured. So people throw injury out there as if he's damaged goods, but that's not the case," Clinton Ford said over the phone this week. "We decided to get a corrective procedure done so that he can have a long career. It wasn't an operation where he had his knees operated on or anything like that. He had part of his femur cut to straighten his leg out. It didn't have nothing to do with his knee. ...

"He came back and played every snap junior year and [senior year]. He never missed a snap and I couldn't understand how anybody could say he had knee problems or injury issues or anything and he just played 25-26 games. He played two straight seasons not missing a snap, he had never been hurt on the field, but all of a sudden he's injury-prone or he's damaged good. We're thankful for USC. We are. And I know Courtland's on a mission to give them everything and more."

Indeed, the way Ford's recruitment unfolded has ultimately proven to be USC's considerable gain.

To start the story at the beginning, though, it was October of Ford's sophomore year at Cedar Hill High School in Cedar Hill, Texas. There had been a coaching change, his team wasn't off to a great start and the family felt it might be the ideal time to undergo a corrective procedure that would provide Ford a clearer path to a long-term football career.

"I got my legs corrected. They weren't straight. It was just a corrective surgery. It was nothing football-related. I didn't have a football injury," the younger Ford explained this week. "It was a corrective surgery, genetics, so I got that fixed and I'm ready. Just went through the process, grinded my way back and here I am today."

Clinton Ford said the procedure was called an osteotomy, and the younger Ford had one leg fixed that October of his sophomore year and the other that December.