Former Notre Dame commit Markese Stepp hoping for impactful return with USC
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Markese Stepp didn't grow up a Notre Dame fan per se. He admits his interests bounced around a bit, from liking Oregon for its uniforms at one point to rooting for Tim Tebow at Florida to eventually picking up the Fighting Irish as he committed to the program as a sophomore in high school.
But, yes, he has some fond memories from attending the USC-Notre Dame rivalry from the other side, including the 2017 showdown in South Bend, Ind., when Sam Darnold led the Trojans into Notre Dame Stadium with both teams ranked in the top 15 nationally.
"I've still got memories on my Snapchat from that," Stepp said this week.
The Trojans' redshirt freshman running back is hoping to make some different memories Saturday evening in his first game as a player at the historic venue -- now on the other side of the rivalry as USC visit No. 9/10 Notre Dame.
Stepp, who is from the Indianapolis, Ind., area, said by Tuesday he had already secured around 20 tickets for friends and family, but he needed upwards of 40 and was still bartering with teammates for unused family tickets.
"People have been hitting us left and right," his father Marcus Stepp said. "… They're just excited, want to see him play."
Ironically, that's how many USC fans feel too -- they just want to see the bruising 235-pound running back get more opportunity to make an impact. Stepp has averaged a team-high 6.4 yards per carry so far this season but with only 25 touches overall.
He got a season-high 10 carries in USC's last game -- rushing for a career-high 62 yards at Washington two weeks ago -- and it would be an interesting subplot if he's able to build on that while going against the Notre Dame program he was long committed to and for whom he was an active recruiter before everything changed late in the process.
"He's still got a friendly relationship with the guys there, but when you get on the field it's all business," Stepp's father said. "I don't think it's going to be anything awkward. It's going to be a little different after going to some of the games, him being a recruit there, us being parents of a recruit. I'm going to be walking in there with a No. 30 USC jersey. It's going to be a hostile environment.
"When you're a parent of the recruits they put you right above the student section, and they've got a rowdy student section. … So I kind of know what gets said over there. It's going to be a little different."
Said Stepp: "It's still all love, but it is definitely going to be fun playing against them as it was last year. It adds a little extra."
Finding his way to USC
Stepp doesn't like to talk about why he de-committed from Notre Dame in early December of 2017, a couple weeks before the early signing period.
The 4-star prospect was the No. 9-ranked running back in that 2018 recruiting class and the No. 3 overall prospect in the state of Indiana that year.
"Some things happened. I haven't told anybody about what happened so I'm just going to keep it like that," Stepp said recently. "Sometimes you've just got to part ways. It happened for a reason. I'm here and this is the place I want to be."
Said Marcus Stepp, his father: "Ultimately, Markese decided it was in his best interest to dissolve the relationship with Notre Dame and move in a different direction. Two weeks later he was committed to USC and the rest is history."
That second part of that equation is easier to explain.
Marcus Stepp started his own college football career at Miami (Ohio) as an undersized defensive lineman, before later finishing at Murray State. On his recruiting visit to Miami (Ohio), one of the first players he met was running back Deland McCullough.
"We went out to a club and I met a guy that had D-Mac on the front of his ... he had a pullover at the time. It was the 90s, little different era. He had D-Mac on it. I just remember we were all there and that was one of the first guys I met on the football team," the elder Stepp recalled.
"He would try to talk to me and impart wisdom. He was always about the right things, even at that young of an age."
Their connection would renew in a different way when McCullough was an up-and-coming running backs coach at Indiana from 2011-16. Marcus Stepp's eldest son attended a camp at Indiana, and Marcus said it was like a reunion for him seeing McCullough and another coach he knew from his time at Murray State.
While his older son Marcus Jr. would eventually end up at the NAIA level at Saint Francis (Ind.), Marcus Sr. was already planting the seed about Markese, who was in the seventh grade at that time.
"I said he's going to be one of the best in the country," he recalled.
Sure enough, Markese would receive his first scholarship offer from Indiana, and the elder Stepp says family friend McCullough was "instrumental" in getting his recruitment off the ground.
"He hadn't even scored a high school touchdown yet -- it was his second high school game as a sophomore," Marcus said.
Ultimately, Stepp had aspirations grander than IndianaHoosiers football, but that connection would prove significant again nonetheless.
"I always had wanted to play for Deland. At the time he was at IU -- I didn't feel it was a place where personally I could grow and become the best football player," Stepp said this week. "… When he came out here [to USC] and got the job, I was intrigued. So when I de-committed from Notre Dame and Deland was here, that was it."
Like his father said, the timeline from Stepp's de-committment from Notre Dame in early December of 2017 to his committment 15 days later unfolded quickly and naturally.
McCullough had spent the 2017 season as USC's running backs coach, got Stepp out for a visit and the young running back was sold. But his father knew that McCullough likely wasn't long for the position (and indeed he left a month later to become the running backs coach for the Kansas City Chiefs.)
"When we took the visit, I told Markese, 'Hey, right now this guy's hot -- I don't know how long he's going to stay in college. Are you comfortable being this far away? You've got to love the university. What if he goes to the NFL?' Which ended up happening," Marcus Stepp said. "I wanted to give him that scenario. ... Once he was able to answer, yes, he was committed to the university no matter who was going to be the coach [it was a decided]."
"He moved on, but I was happy for him," Stepp says now.
No, that wouldn't be the true test of Stepp's decision to come out west -- it's been the lessons that have followed as he's waited for his opportunities to prove his late recruiting decision a win for both sides.
'That's the hardest thing is to be patient'
As he went through his freshman season at USC last fall, Stepp was dealing with some recurring hamstring issues that he'd also battled in high school.
He'd play in parts of four games, carrying the ball 7 times for 33 yards with most of that (5 rushes for 23 yards) coming in the season finale against, yep, Notre Dame.
He commented in the spring that it was an adjustment for him and that he'd come in with expectations of making a larger impact in his first season, but an impressive spring and an even stronger fall camp created new momentum for Stepp. He often looked like USC's best running back in August with redshirt junior Vavae Malepeai sidelined by a knee injury for a stretch and junior Stephen Carr seemingly receiving a precautionary light workload.
The coaches were asked then if the big redshirt freshman had earned a larger role and they affirmed. Then the season opener against Fresno State came and Stepp didn't see the field for a single snap on offense.
That was the toughest moment, Marcus Stepp recalls while relaying what he told his son after that game.
"I told him it's going to be the hardest thing, it's going to be the most painful thing, but you have to go through it, you're going to be stronger because of it … but you can't take any steps backward mentally. You have to stay sharp. You have to go 10 times harder, whatever it takes in practice," he said.
Stepp would get 3 carries at the end of the next game against Stanford and turn them into 33 yards, looking as it he was trying to deliver a message with every step. He turned 9 carries at BYU into 53 yards, despite a number of those coming in short-yardage situations as he converted several key first downs. Then it was 3 carries for 11 yards and his first touchdown against Utah.
Whenever he's been asked about his role, Stepp has said all the right things and deferred to the coaches. The thing is, if he was frustrated, he didn't have to say it because a vocal segment of the fan base (and media) had taken up the cause for him, raising the issue on Twitter and in interviews with coaches as to why his productivity was being limited to so few touches.
"Oh yeah, I follow it. I don't try to comment. But you see it," Marcus Stepp said. "That's why I tell him, 'Don't get concerned about it. You don't have to really say anything because the people are saying it. You're like the underground king in here in terms of people saying, hey, give this guy the ball because of the way you carry it once you get in. The power and stuff like that, the speed. The things you do, people see it. … You just have to do the other things and let it fall into place.' That's the hardest thing is to be patient."
Especially when Stepp's strength had always been as a rhythm back, chipping away at a defense before breaking a big gain -- usually sometime after his first half dozen carries, his father says.
So maybe it wasn't a surprise that as he got those season-high 10 touches vs. Washington, he eventually sprung free for a 35-yard burst in the fourth quarter.
"I told him, 'The only thing you can do is maximize what you can control. You can't do anything more than that. You can only control yourself. You can't control the situation,'" Marcus said. "Of course you come in and feel that you're the best. I mean, you wouldn't be playing if you don't feel like you're the best back, and nothing has changed."
Marcus Stepp adds that Malepeai (79 carries for 360 yards and 4 TDs) and Carr (31-189-2) should have the same mindset. He believes it's the mentality that every top running back should carry and he says the family knows that the juniors ahead of Markese are talented backs as well. But it's been a practice in patience all the same -- for Stepp and for his cheering section.
"Of course we want more carries, we want the ball. I'm sure Vae wants 30 and Stephen wants 30. If not then they shouldn't be playing college football," Marcus said. "… My wife, she can get a little feisty at times -- you know how the moms can be. But yeah, it's a learning phase for him and I think he's grown because of it, he'll be better because of it."
Returning home
Whatever factored into Stepp's late recruiting reversal, he gives no indication that he's looking back. Nor does he seem to harbor any negative feelings toward how things ended up with Notre Dame.
"It was hard. You build connections with coaches, players. It was emotional," he said. "But I gave them the best of luck and they were friendly towards me. There was no [hard feelings] and there still [isn't] between those coaches and those players. It's all love."
Stepp's return to Notre Dame on Saturday night is not about the past but the future, and many are curious to see if his increased usage last game -- his 10 carries tied for the team lead with Malepeai -- is indicative of more to come.
The coaches sent different signals on that when asked this week.
"You've seen him grow each and every game. I think his number of touches have grown in each and every game and we'll see where that goes this game -- not to give away game plan," head coach Clay Helton said. "But [he] has grown and you hope that, with a redshirt freshman now in his second year that his role continues to expand. We're really fortunate that he's coming on right now -- Vavae being a little bit dinged, a little bit injured with a knee, it's been able to take some reps off of him. Obviously Stephen is still the home run hitter that he's been. So I do see 'Kese getting some more reps and more opportunities."
Helton noted that Stepp is progressing in pass blocking and in becoming a more natural pass catcher -- something that was a storyline for his development in the spring.
Offensive coordinator Graham Harrell, meanwhile, said that Stepp has done a good job with his opportunities, but he feels the same way about Malepeai and Stepp with theirs.
"So I don't think his role will be increased or decreased necessarily much [from] what it's been, just because we've got three guys that we feel really good about that we feel need to be in the game," Harrell said. "Sometimes it may look like he doesn't have enough of a role -- like I said, he's preparing to play every down just like the other three are and whoever gets the touches gets the touches."
All three running backs bring different traits and skill sets to the table and it will remain an interesting balancing act moving forward. It's indeed possible that Stepp's role might not increase this season, and if USC rushes like it did against Washington (season-high 212 yards with 94 from Carr, 62 from Stepp and 49 from Malepeai) there won't be much to really scrutinize or question.
Meanwhile, everything he's shown so far this season indicates Stepp will just continue to make the most of whatever share of that backfield split he gets while laying the foundation for a more prominent role in the future.
"He does love it there and he just keeps working," his father said. "That's all we got to do, keep working, keep looking at film, keep doing all the little things that are going to make you better."