Inside Nick Figueroa's 'crazy journey' to USC

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SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. -- It's two days after Early Signing Day back in December and Nick Figueroa is on the same couch where he spent most of the week laboring and stressing over the most important decision of his life.

Well, the latest most important decision of his life, that is.

He can exhale now, though, as he recounts those frenetic final days before he signed with USC. The highly-coveted JUCO defensive end from Riverside City College had arrived back home late that Sunday night from his final official visit to Tennessee, left to then make a decision between the Vols, UCLA and the Trojans.

It would take him almost all of the available time -- most of it spent on that couch -- before his planned signing ceremony at 11 a.m. on Wednesday to finalize his future.

"Yeah, crazy journey," Figueroa says, trying to put it all in perspective. "I think I had a couple moments after signing day because I had all my buddies over, a bunch of different groups of friends, and we're all siting there going, 'It's really crazy.' ... It is crazy. It is absolutely crazy."

Not just the final decision, though -- all of it.

From a longtime baseball player to making the transition to football as a senior at Cajon High School. From redshirting at an FCS-level Cal Poly program to fielding offers from major Pac-12 and SEC schools a year later. And now preparing to compete for a role at USC, one of the most storied programs in the country and the one his family grew up watching.

While crazy was one apt way to describe it all, his mother Jodi Figueroa has another.

"It's just been an amazing, fun journey," she says. " ... This is amazing, far beyond anything we ever knew was going to happen. It's been amazing."

The best place to start the story, though, is that first pivotal decision that set this all in motion.

Figueroa was more of a baseball guy growing up, and the program at Cajon High School demanded almost a year-round dedication from its players. He had played for the freshman football team as a ninth grader, but his full focus soon returned to the diamond.

It wasn't until his senior year, after enough prodding from different voices, that he decided to truly pursue his potential on the football field.

But it would take longer than that fall for recruiters -- and even perhaps himself -- to properly evaluate that upside.

"I had really probably three offers I could have taken. That would have been to Army, to Hawaii for about three days -- I had like a three-day window on that one -- and then to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo," Figueroa recalls.

He chose the latter and endured a 1-10 season with the Mustangs in 2017, though it wasn't just the collective struggles that gave him doubts.

"I craved something a little bigger," he says. "... I could have been anywhere and if I wasn't playing on the highest level, I would have always had those wants and regrets, I guess."

But what gave him the confidence that he could contribute at a higher level when he wasn't yet getting the opportunity to play for a struggling FCS program?

That's the question his parents delicately asked while hoping he wasn't about to make a mistake and walk away from a free education.

"There was a funny moment I remember over winter break, when I was still at Cal Poly," Figueroa says. "They were like, 'How do you even know? How do you know if your film's even good enough?' I had to sit there in the living room with my practice film from Cal Poly from being on scout team and just show them cut-ups -- 'See this, see this, I think I could do something.'"

Says Jodi, his mother: "My husband and I were like, we would have never gambled that, but he kind of knew in his head he could do it and he's always kind of been that way when he sets a goal -- he reaches it. So we said, we support whatever you do 100 percent."

His father, Felix Figueroa, also recalls the uneasy feeling as he tried to encourage his son to give it time and let the experience at Cal Poly grow on him.

"We reminded him, 'You know what you're walking away from?' He said, 'Yeah, but it's a chance that I got to take because I know that I can play bigger,'" he shares. "So we had no choice. We reminded him what he's leaving and what he's risking and his mother and I jumped in behind him."

They both emphasized to him that he needed to have a plan first, and he assured them he did.

While Figueroa was essentially gambling on himself, he did have another key believer.

James Kuk, the defensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator at Riverside CC, had been high on the defensive end coming out of high school. In fact, he and the staff at Riverside had Figueroa atop their recruiting board of local prospects.

"We had him recognized as the top local defensive lineman in the Inland Empire. He decided to accept the scholarship opportunity to Cal Poly. Of course in our minds we felt he was capable of playing at a higher level. That's no knock on Cal Poly -- we just saw the potential in Nick," Kuk says now. "It's not very hard to [see]. He has a great frame, he had good film and we just felt as if he would be a perfect junior college candidate, so I continued to track him."

When Figueroa emailed the staff at Riverside to see if there might be a spot for him, they pounced.

"He was better than we thought he would be, to be honest with you," Kuk says. "The intangibles are his attitude, his work ethic, his toughness and sometimes you can't measure that off film obviously. You don't figure those things out until you go through some stressful moments with him and see how they handle adversity."

Says Figueroa: "My cousin goes to San Diego State and I thought that was a pretty realistic destination for me. Even the coaches at RCC, the first time I had a meeting with them and they were like, 'Where do you want to go?' I'm like, 'San Diego State.' They said, 'We have a plan for you. You're going to do something bigger.'"

That gamble paid out quickly.

Portland State, which had been aware of him previously, offered that March, but the Power Five programs needed just a few games of film this fall to get on board as well.

Figueroa broke out in the second game of the season, against Fullerton, with 3.5 tackles for loss and a sack. The next week he notched 3 TFLs and 2 sacks vs. San Bernardino Valley, and the stats just kept piling up.

Oregon State offered him on Sept. 26. And when UCLA followed on Oct. 5, Figueroa tweeted out that he blessed to receive an offer from a "dream school."

"I had a few dream schools," he says now.

But the fact is the Bruins had offered him a preferred walk-on spot out of high school and now they wanted to give him a scholarship. It was all coming to fruition beyond even his own expectations.

Still, his coaches at Riverside told him to remain patient.

Tennessee soon followed and eventually USC got involved in early December.

"I really hadn't had a lot of contact with them, but they came in strong," Figueroa says of the Trojans. "They kind of explained the reasons. They said [former DL coach Kenechi Udeze] didn't know who I was type of thing. We never had a USC coach out at Riverside, so they kind of said like, 'We didn't know who you were. It wasn't like we didn't want to recruit you, we just didn't know you yet.'"

Figueroa didn't dwell on USC's late arrival to the party. Again, his family had grown up fans of the program. He took a photo in front of the Tommy Trojan statue before a game when he was 9 years old. It was another dream school in the mix, so to speak.

"I was just going with the flow. It's kind of like that thing where you can't go wrong," he says of those final options.

Except, in the end it would prove even harder than he could have imagined.

Once Riverside's season ended, Figueroa hit the road, using the next three weekends taking official visits to UCLA, USC and Tennessee. He had to cancel a tentative Virginia Tech visit as there just wasn't enough time.

"I had three trips the last three weekends and I committed the day of signing day. It doesn't get much quicker than that," Figueroa says of the final stage of this whirlwind process.

Adds Jodi: "Him trying to make his decision was probably the hardest three days of his life."

From their arrival back from Tennessee at midnight Sunday night/Monday morning, the clock was ticking. And usually, the phone was ringing.

Figueroa estimates he took and received 30-40 calls between the coaches recruiting him, his coaches, friends, anyone who could offer a perspective. All the while, his thoughts were constantly fluctuating.

"I was planning on committing on Monday wherever. I just was planning on figuring it out. I thought it was going to come to me," he recalls. "I think I talked to [USC coach Clay] Helton that night and he was like, 'Do me a favor, just sleep on it and then wake up tomorrow and just think this is what it could feel like to be a Trojan for the rest of your life.'

"Tuesday was a rough day. I just was on the phone all day. I think I was just here. Once I got back on Monday, I just was here until we left on Wednesday. I think I took a nap right here, I sat and FaceTimed over there. So I was around this house just on the phone."

He had ruled out Tennessee by Monday evening, leaving USC and UCLA as his finalists.

He says neither Helton nor Bruins coach Chip Kelly applied any pressure to him -- he was doing a good enough job creating that on his own.

"I talked to Coach Helton that night, and just talking to him and just the type of man he is, it's just different. I felt a connection to that," Figueroa says. "So going into Wednesday, Coach Kelly and Coach Helton both said, 'Do it again. Just wait another night, sleep on it, you'll know in the morning.' So the morning came around on Wednesday and same thing, just going back and forth with those coaches"

Figueroa wasn't the only one stressed, though. His parents felt tense for him, knowing what was at stake but also that nothing was going to happen in the next hour or day to change the opportunities that each school provided.

"[My mom] was in my room -- 'Just make a choice!'" Figueroa says, able to now smile about it all.

Meanwhile, Jodi set out during those final days to find that photo of her son in front of Tommy Trojan.

"I thought I had it in hard copy, I'm digging through all the pictures thinking, 'If he would just see that picture, it would remind him that's exactly his dream school.' Then we finally came across it on our old computer," she says.

Figueroa jokes that there were plenty of signs pointing him to USC, including actual signs, like "Figueroa Street" by campus or the nearby giant "Felix" sign (his dad's name).

"Literally signs," he jokes.

As well as deeper reasons.

He had been swayed by the pitch of what a USC degree would mean and the value that comes from being part of the school's alumni network. He liked that the head of the business school was around on both days of his visit, as that's the field of study he intended to pursue.

And then he had a final conversation with Kuk, his Riverside coach and confidant throughout the process, on Wednesday morning as they talked about how he viewed both the challenge and opportunity that would await at USC. That helped seal his decision.

"I didn't do this whole process to not want to compete with the most elite people," he says, recalling his thought process. "One of the concerns, USC has good depth, [and] if I don't want to go compete with those guys then what did I even do this whole time? I kind of said, 'I need to do it.' It's another challenge.

"Not to say UCLA wouldn't have been a challenge -- I would have been competing there too -- but USC was more the challenge I wanted to embrace. It was really just special to look at those times, going on that campus and thinking at 9 years old, 'I want to be a Trojan' -- to fulfill those dreams."

So finally, around 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Early Signing Day, Figueroa let Helton know his decision, and before he called Kelly to tell him the outcome as well he made sure it was official, sending in his signed National Letter of Intent.

He was left racing to get to his own signing ceremony at Riverside, the last to arrive as he tells it, but relieved to have his future set.

"I gave Coach Helton a yes, and I knew if I was going to call UCLA and tell them no that I would have got switched around again. So we turned in the NLI. That's what I said, 'I signed the NLI. It's already in. Thank you,'" he says.

"I'm glad it's over. Players on the outside who don't experience it, they think it's this super awesome process, just this great time, official visits and getting to pick your school. Everyone thinks it's just an amazing experience, which it is, but there's some challenges for sure."

HIs parents were of course happy with the decision, but they never tried to steer him in any direction -- he had to get there on his own.

"I asked him a question point blank. He said, 'Dad, I chose USC.' And I just asked him why and he got kind of mad, 'What do you mean why?' And I said, 'Why did you choose 'SC?' And he said, 'Because that's where I wanted to go.' And I said, 'Good, that's what I wanted to hear,'" Felix Figueroa says. "... We've been fans of the program. We've watched on Saturdays and been lucky to go to a few games, so it was just nice. It's a good fit."

As they reflected days later on the wild ride that had just wrapped up, from the decision to gamble on his future to making that final call, Jodi looked at her son and said simply, "Time for a new goal, huh?"

As one of USC's nine early enrollees, Figueroa will be competing for a role when spring practice begins in a week and a half.

Speaking back in December, he said the Trojans coaches liked his versatility and there was some flexibility for where he'd eventually settle in on the depth chart.

"They're just like, '[You] can come in right now and probably play the 5 or the 7 technique, strongside defensive end basically.' They're like, 'We'll see where your body develops, but we think you have some versatility on the line, some three-down value like rushing off a guard on third down and stuff,'" he says. "Looking at which way I develop, they have a need for the predator this year. They're kind of just seeing who's going to fill that. I've heard different names bounce around. I think they're looking more at me for D-line D-line."

Figueroa, listed by USC at 6-foot-5, 275 pounds, finished the fall with 38 total tackles, 19.5 tackles for loss and 11.5 sacks at Riverside, earning conference defensive player of the year honors while fulfilling that potential Kuk always believed he had -- and then some.

"For him to go from an FCS program and then in six months time be recognized as a top [JUCO] D-lineman in the nation was a huge credit to the amount of work and sacrifice he put in walking away from a full scholarship and an academic opportunity because Cal Poly is a great academic institution as well," Kuk says. "For him to walk away from all of that, it was a leap of faith, but a person like Nick, he's very calculated, very intelligent and he wouldn't have made that move unless he truly believed in himself and our program."

So what was it exactly that set Figueroa apart this fall and changed the whole course of his football career?

"His work ethic. He loves football and loves to compete. He's tough both mentally and physically," Kuk said. "He's a late bloomer and has a great frame, but he's someone that sprouted very late and once he reached his 'adult frame' his body changed, his power, all of those things just peaked at the right time, which wasn't necessarily all in place a year or two before coming right out of high school. ...

'Most of his film just showed him being naturally bigger in stature than most of his competition. You don't know quite how that's going to translate ... You don't get to quite appreciate how strong he is and how powerful he is from the core, from the waist, from the thighs until you see him get off, lock out and rip through a block and just blow past the shoulder of a 340-pound offensive tackle and see the velocity in person."

Because he redshirted that first year at Cal Poly, he'll have three years of eligibility remaining at USC.

Figueroa says he's confident if he competes and has the right approach this spring, he'll find himself on the field come the fall. But he reiterated he just wants to do whatever he can to help the program.

More than anything, he's just happy to be on to this next phase of his football career, everything that preceded it now behind him.

"It's been a hell of a ride," he says. "I'm glad it's over. Ready to get it started."