The big news on Thursday came out of Arizona when the last unclaimed marquee 2023 recruit, five-star tight end Duce Robinson, announced his USC decision.
The Trojans already knew at that point, of course, as USC's football Twitter account announced the news soon thereafter -- which it can only do after a player has formally signed with the school.
Interestingly, the graphic USC tweeted out in doing so listed the 6-foot-6 225-pound Robinson as a wide receiver, while the news release the Trojans sent out called him a tight end, which is how he had been ranked by Rivals and other recruiting sites.
So which is it?
USC coach Lincoln Riley spoke about Robinson at length Saturday morning.
"Some of that will be getting him here, kind of finishing our evaluations of the players that are here this spring. Obviously getting him and Ja'Kobi [Lane] here and anybody else that becomes a part of that room, kind of seeing what the overall skill looks like and then trying to find the place where we feel like he can come in and give us the best advantages and make the biggest impact," Riley said.
"I certainly don't see him as a tight end. I think he's a guy who you could conceivably do a lot of things with, which has been our excitement in recruiting him. We've known Duce for almost four years. It was a three-and-a-half year recruitment. And so we've gotten to know him very well. We've gotten to see his body evolve and change a lot from Day 1. He's really kind of leaned out with running. He's gotten faster, more agile as the years have gone on because he was always pretty big. He's got a unique skill set, man, that we're fired up to add it to our good group right now. He's not going to be an every-down, on-the-ball tight end. I think we know that, no question."
Robinson, from Phoenix, Arizona, is a two-spot star who is also hoping to hear his name called in the MLB Draft in July. The Trojans won out for his commitment over Georgia, Texas and others.
As a senior at Pinnacle High School, he had 84 receptions for 1,614 yards (19.2 yards per catch) and 14 TDs and was selected to the 2023 Under Armour All-American Game and the 2023 Polynesian Bowl.
He had intimated during his recruitment that being used all over the field was an appeal to him and what both USC and Georgia pitched him on within their offenses.
