A busy month of March on the recruiting trail has been followed up with a busy few weeks in April for USC. Spring ball has yet to come to a close for Lincoln Riley's program, but the Trojans head coach has to be feeling good about the future of his team.
Monday, USC added yet another piece to the top-rated 2026 class by securing a commitment from four-star offensive tackle Kannon Smith following a weekend unofficial visit to Los Angeles.
The 6-foot-5, 290-pound recruit has been rising up the rankings this spring and now sits as the No. 1 recruit from Colorado in the cycle according to Rivals. Smith, who plays at Valor Christian in Highland Ranch, is also now the 31st-ranked offensive tackle prospect for 2026 as well.
Smith is now the 23rd commitment for USC in for 2026 extending the Trojans' lead in the Rivals recruiting rankings. No program in the country has more than 14 commitments in the class at this point.
The decision by Smith also continues an impressive run for first-year offensive line coach Zach Hanson. The newest addition is the fifth along the offensive line in the class for USC with all of them committing since the beginning of March.
Smith is the third four-star recruit of that group alongside Esun Tafa and Vlad Dyankonov, who committed to the Trojans less than two weeks ago.
Like so many other commits in the class, USC battled many of the top programs in the country for Smith's pledge. The four-star prospect made a swing through Big Ten country and visited both Ohio State and Penn State earlier this month while he took a trip to Oregon back in March.
Alabama also hosted him for a visit last month. Smith was part of the group that visited USC for its first big junior day back in February, and he had already planned to take an official visit with the program in June.
He also previously scheduled official visits to Michigan, Penn State and UCLA as well.
Though the Trojans have focused a lot of their attention on recruiting at home in California, the staff has continued to build its latest class with top prospects from other areas as well. Smith is the first recruit from Colorado to commit to USC in the class making it seven states that are not represented in the class.
He is the second No. 1 recruit from a state to commit to USC in the class alongside quarterback Jonas Williams, who is the No. 1 prospect from Illinois.
Smith's official visit to USC is currently lined up for June 13. Stanford, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Miami, Arkansas, Ole Miss and Missouri are some of the other programs that offered the four-star offensive tackle.
