Andrew Vorhees has now had four different offensive line coaches during his time in the USC football program, and he says he's taken something from each, but in putting his now six-year college football career in perspective he goes back to the beginning.
"One quote that I got from my offensive line coach my freshman year, Neil Callaway, he just said, 'Work hard and good things will happen.' That's really something that I've bought into and really took to heart. It's just everyday just coming in and just keep stacking those little wins, over and over, and you look back and just think, wow, I started from a three-star no name offensive lineman to, I mean, we see what's going on in the media," Vorhees said before the start of fall camp.
"It's just crazy what can happen when you just put your head down and just work hard. It's nothing that anybody else on this team or this O-line room specifically couldn't do. If you can commit to it, it's for everybody."
What's 'going on in the media' is a lot of talk about Vorhees' stature as one of the best offensive linemen in all of college football entering his final season.
PFF ranked USC's veteran left guard as the No. 1 interior offensive lineman in the country, and he was named to the exclusive and prestigious Associated Press preseason All-America first-team.
He says he tries not to focus on such things, but of course it's impossible not to notice, especially when friends, family and random fans are sending him the links on social media.
"I always try to do my best to respond to them. If they take the time to reach out to me, I should take the time to reach back out to them, right?" he said. "So I see it, I'm aware. It's been awesome to think I'd be here now -- it's remarkable."
To be fair to the historical record, Vorhees was rated a four-star Rivals250 prospect coming out of Kingsburg, Calif., in the 2017 recruiting class (but other recruiting services did indeed have him as a three-star.)
Whatever the outside expectations, though, Vorhees had a plan for himself coming into USC.
"Just knowing where I came from, I was going to make sure I worked hard every day. So I came in January once I was cleared with all my medical stuff and I was integrated into the team. I just said, hey, I'm going to pick one dude on the O-line and everything he does I'm just going to try to beat him in all of it," he shared. "So it was another young guy, it was Frank Martin actually. I don't know if I've ever told him this, but everything that Frank did -- because I knew him through recruiting because he was only a class above me and he's a California kid -- I said, hey, I'm going to beat this kid in all the conditioning stuff, I'm going to try to work harder than him, whatever it was, every category you could think of.
"I just said, we'll make Frank the standard and I'll just try to do everything he does but better. I just slowly kept on creeping up the ladder, and once I kind of knew the room more and was more aware of everybody and the talent levels, I just kept raising the standard. So that was something that I thought helped me out a lot."
Vorhees started the final nine games of his true freshman season in 2017 at right guard, made 11 starts there in 2018 and then missed all but two games of the 2019 season due to an ankle injury. But that allowed him to redshirt, and combined with the free COVID year in 2020, is why he's still here now, as a crucial lynchpin for the Trojans as they launch the Lincoln Riley Era on Saturday vs. Rice.
Last season, Vorhees started the first eight games at left guard and the final four at left tackle, and it didn't matter what spot he was in, he was a model of consistency for USC.
He graded out at an elite 90.0 from PFF for his work across both positions while allowing 14 pressures (1 sack, 11 hurries, 2 hits) over 902 snaps, per their data.
That 90.0 PFF season grade ranked tied for 10th nationally and tops in the Pac-12 among offensive linemen who played at least 450 snaps.
Vorhees considered riding that momentum into the NFL, but he opted to return for one final season at USC, in part because of the arrival of Riley as head coach.
"It was honestly just seeing Coach Riley's commitment to the team and building the culture was ultimately probably the sales pitch that I decided to stay for," he said.
Vorhees is a big -- we're talking 6-foot-6, 325 pounds -- reason why there is more optimism for the USC offensive line now than there has been for quite a while.
And he quickly made a strong impression on his fourth offensive line coach in six years, Josh Henson.
"I think the best thing that he's done is he's continued to get better. He hasn't just said, 'I've arrived, I'm here.' He's working on little things every day. He's improving his game every day," Henson said. "When your younger guys see your older guys pressing to get better, even the veteran guys around him see him pressing to get better, that's leadership. ...
"A lot of guys get in that role and they lose their passion or desire or they trick themselves into thinking they've arrived, and that's not Andrew. Andrew's continuing to press and get better every day so I appreciate that leadership out of him."
Vorhees says he's "not naive" and is certainly aware that NFL scouts will be evaluating him closely all season and perhaps some national honors or awards are in reach for the former "three-star (or four-star) no-name" offensive lineman from Kingsburg.
"But without a doubt I'm mostly committed to this team, this coming season and serving this team in every way possible I can," he said. "Because in the end, in reality, coming off a winning team is going to be most beneficial for my personal goals in the long run."
But, yeah, he allowed, there is one personal goal that really does matter to him -- he'd like to be a first-team All-American at the end of the year and add his name the Trojans' prestigious All-American Walk.
"I think that'd be awesome. There's one other dude on that wall from my hometown, Kingsburg, Calif., and it happened about 100 years ago," Vorhees said. "To submit that legacy would be something huge."
