Insight on WR Joseph Manjack's USC emergence: 'He's just a football player'

As the story goes, a conversation with his father when he was younger is the reason USC freshman wide receiver Joseph Manjack stopped wearing gloves and continues to play without them, which is a rarity at his position these days.

"My dad, when I was little, he said, 'What's your excuse for dropping the ball when you wear gloves?' I said, 'Gloves.' He said, 'Stop wearing them. You don't need any excuses.' 'Yes sir,'" Manjack recalled earlier this month.

The story is fun, but what he's done with those hands this preseason is what's especially notable.

The underrated freshman from Tomball, Texas, who was rated a two-star prospect at the time USC offered him last fall (he'd end up as a three-star), has caught pretty much everything thrown his way this preseason -- while also catching all of that attention that seemed to elude him as a recruit.

The lowest-ranked of USC's three 2021 WR signees, who didn't arrive until this summer, now enters the start of the season as the team's first-string A receiver (inside).

For many, he was the surprise of camp -- but not to the coaches who recruited him or those back in Tomball.

"Turn on his high school tape and see what you think," offensive coordinator Graham Harrell said, when asked if the Trojans had found a diamond in the rough. "Every game he was going for like 250 total yards and 4 touchdowns. Good football players are good football players. I don’t think it’s real hard to see if you watch the tape that he’s a really talented football player. He understands it, he makes plays, he’s good with the ball in his hands. They played him at quarterback, they played him at receiver, they put him all over the place, and everywhere he was, he made big plays. And he’s playing at the highest level of Texas football, a really high division in the city of Houston with great athletes. It’s not like he’s not playing against good competition.

"I think we evaluated him well, but if you watch his tape, I’d think most people would say that’s a really good football player."

And yet that's not at all how his recruitment played out.

The Trojans didn't offer Manjack until late October, and it's not as if the in-state schools were banging down his door either. At the time, Manjack was committed to Washington State, feeling that was his best option when he made that decision in late August of his senior year after previously being committed to SMU.

So far, given the way he's asserted himself in short order this summer at USC, it looks like both the recruiting analysts and a long list of college recruiters weren't totally able to see what that tape shows.

How that factors into Manjack's mindset now or how he puts his dramatic rise over the last year in perspective is hard to say, though, as he hasn't had any interest in discussing that matter.

"To be honest, I don't really know, but that's in the past now," he said earlier this month when asked why he thought he was overlooked as a prospect. "We're in college, so moving on."

As for whether it's a source of motivation for him ...

"It's in the past now, [I] don't worry about it," he answered.

Those that scouted, recruited and coached him are more than willing to fill in the gaps, though, and explain how a guy who was a severely-underrated two-star prospect this time last year now figures significantly into USC's offensive plans as a true freshman.

"Not surprised at all," Tomball Memorial HS offensive coordinator Jim Woodard says as he starts the conversation earlier this week. "Not surprised at all."