The bond between USC's Bru McCoy, JT Daniels and Amon-Ra St. Brown

McCoy, who previously starred with St. Brown and USC quarterback JT Daniels together at Mater Dei High School, had of course signed with the Trojans and enrolled on campus in January before quickly transferring to Texas … only to officially return this summer.

"I remember he FaceTimed me, I think this was when he got back from Texas during his break. He was like, he wanted to come back. I was like, 'Damn, you just left,'" St. Brown recalled this week. "But I was all in. I was all in for it and happy that he wanted to come back.

"I believed that he wanted to come back, but I didn't know if he could, if it was possible. But he made it happen."

McCoy has kept a low profile since creating all kinds of buzz earlier this summer with his transfer reversal. He hasn't been interviewed since his decision to rejoin the Trojans, and a lingering illness has kept him from participating in team activities of late, St. Brown said.

"I haven't really seen him much, he's been sick for a while so he hasn't really been doing much of the workouts or anything. Today was one of the first days he's been actually out there -- he didn't participate, he was standing out there, but he's been sick for a while," St. Brown said on Tuesday.

St. Brown has also been absent from USC's player-run practices due to a scheduling conflict with his summer microeconomics class.

So there hasn't been a full Mater Dei reunion on the field just yet -- but it's coming.

While McCoy has not been made available for interviews since his return to USC, he had talked to TrojanSports.com at length back in January before his initial transfer about what it meant to him to team up with St. Brown and Daniels again with the Trojans.

'The mentality that he has is very admirable'

Asked back in January if he and St. Brown had been competitive with one another while both playing starring roles for Mater Dei in 2017, McCoy said their relationship was "competitive in like a very conducive way to one another."

"When Osiris [St. Brown] was on the team, Osiris was like big brother, he kind of led the pack. And so when Osiris leaves, Amon-Ra, it's his turn to be the first one in line, do the drill first. After he takes his one-on-one rep, he watches mine and says, you know, 'Do this better.' Or he'll lose one, I'll win, and he'll be like, 'How did you beat him off that?'" McCoy said.

"So I took a lot of what he did [that year] and transferred it over to the way I practiced. He'd stay after practice every day to catch balls, [so] I stayed after practice to catch balls. He would take extra one-on-one reps with Elias [Ricks] after practice, I would take extra one-on-one reps with Elias after practice. Just because you recognize, you look at Amon-Ra, you want to see what gets him there. I don't care if people say, 'You're copying him.' So what, look at what he's doing."

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When they last played together, catching passes from Daniels on that undefeated 2017 Mater Dei team, St. Brown racked up 72 grabs for 1,320 yards and 20 touchdowns while McCoy totaled 46 receptions for 770 yards and 11 TDs (according to MaxPreps).

A year later, St. Brown went on to lead all USC receivers with 60 receptions as a freshman last fall, totaling 750 yards and 3 touchdowns.

McCoy, meanwhile, was busy stepping even further into the spotlight during his senior season at Mater Dei, where he led the Monarchs with 78 catches for 1,428 yards and 18 touchdowns on the way to another USA Today No. 1 national ranking.

It remains to be seen whether or not the NCAA will grant McCoy eligibility this season after his two transfers. It's a unique case with no known precedent.

But at some point, be it in 2019 or 2020, St. Brown and McCoy will share the field with Daniels in game action again -- along with a bevy of other highly-skilled wideouts, for that matter.

"We were real close at Mater Dei. Bru's one of my good friends, my boy. I loved playing with him at Mater Dei, we killed it, and then having him come here was huge," St. Brown said. "And when he left, he did what's best for him, I understood that, but having him back is going to be fun."

While McCoy talked about how he looked up to St. Brown and tried to take parts of his approach into his own game, he also acknowledges they are different receivers in many ways

"I'm my own person obviously. I'm Bru McCoy, he's Amon-Ra. We have two completely different games, in my head, but the mentality that he has is very admirable. I think I'm trying to get to that point where I think the way he does," McCoy said. "He never turns off -- he's always competing, he's always getting better in everything he does. So I've been trying to mature to that point where I think similar to that."

Speaking back in January, McCoy expounded on what he learned from watching St. Brown up close and how they bring those different skillsets to the table.

"Amon-Ra, he's a better route runner, he's smarter as far as he knows, ok, this corner is bigger than me so how am I going to position myself so that I have space to make a play. He's really good at that," McCoy said. "For me, I'm better at making physical plays, I'm better at lining up man-on-man with somebody and being able to out-physical them. I think I'm a better blocker downfield just because of my size. I'd say he plays the ball at it's point of attack better. I'd say that's something I need to improve on, getting up, catching with both of my hands. Amon-Ra is very well developed in his technique and those are the things I'm trying to get better at right now."

Now that they're reunited -- again -- McCoy will have more opportunity to work side by side with St. Brown in practice.

But perhaps nobody is more excited at the potential of having both of those 5-star talents together on game days again, whenever it happens, than their longtime QB.

'I kind of know the way he ticks'

Daniels spoke publicly last week about McCoy's departure and subsequent return for the first time.

"He knew it was going to be tough,” Daniels said. “He felt he made the decisions he had to make at the time he made them and then he had to make the decision again coming back. I think he just wants it all to be over. He’s here for the team and he’s here to play football.”

While Daniels supported his close friend through those twists and turns, McCoy was the one playing that role last fall as Daniels went through an up-and-down season as a freshman.

A year earlier, Daniels had passed for 4,123 yards, 52 touchdowns and 4 interceptions on that unbeaten 2017 Mater Dei team.

After reclassifying into the 2018 recruiting class and continuing on a fast track to becoming USC's season-opening starter last fall, Daniels had his moments and his struggles while passing for 2,672 yards, 14 TDs and 10 INTs.

McCoy and Daniels talked frequently as that season unfolded.

"A lot, yeah. For him, I kind of know the way he ticks. He'll wear a face of like nothing bothers me, but when people were just drilling him on Twitter, ripping him apart ... I just had his back, like, 'Ignore that, dude. You know who you are, we all know who you are, don't even give that a second thought,'" McCoy shared back in January. "... I just tried to help him in that way. That was really the only football we talked about."

Their friendship predates high school, and as McCoy reiterated, it goes well beyond football too.

"We're really close. We don't even talk football like that. We're just friends, we talk about other stuff like girls and stuff. And we mess around," McCoy said. "Me and him are very similar. There's a time for football and then there's a time to be a kid, there's a time to grow in other ways. So we make a point to hang out with each other and put football somewhere else."

Daniels said while they stayed in touch during McCoy's time at Texas, he maintains he didn't have much influence on his return to USC.

"Obviously, Bru and I always talk. That's my best friend. We grew up together, but not too specifically on this. This was his decision," Daniels said.

Asked if McCoy had any questions for his old QB about things at USC after he left, Daniels said, "We didn't really have to. I've talked to him for years about this place."

And now they're teammates again, just like they used to discuss in those conversations -- even if no one could have predicted how these last six months would unfold.

Daniels has plenty to prove still, and USC has no shortage of talented wideouts around him, but for those that followed the shared rise of the 5-star QB and his two 5-star Mater Dei wide receivers, well, there's certainly a lot of anticipation for this next chapter.