Little did the USC coaches know before they started recruiting 3-star defensive back Trey Davis out of Federal Way, Wash., but they already had a head start on making their pitch.
The summer after his sophomore year, Davis traveled to Los Angeles with his 7-on-7 team and checked out both USC and UCLA, leaving with strong interest in perhaps one day playing for the Trojans.
"Once we got there I just fell in love. As soon as we got on campus, pulled in ... it's beautiful ... the traditions there, it's a great place to be," Davis said. "All my guys on the 7-on-7 team, I told them if SC offered I was going to commit."
Sure enough, Davis was offered a scholarship by the Trojans last May and quickly committed.
And speaking to TrojanSports.com on Thursday, he reaffirmed nothing has changed in his mind since then.
"I'm still standing pretty solid. That's still where I want to be," Davis said. "I'm not planning on switching anything up."
USC is off to a sluggish 4-4 start and head coach Clay Helton just made a couple staff changes this week, taking over the play-calling and letting go of offensive line coach Neil Callaway. The Trojans also recently had 5-star cornerback Chris Steele de-commit, as well as Class of 2020 3-star WR Kris Hutson.
Davis, meanwhile, is being aggressively recruited still by Washington State, but he does not expect to be swayed away from USC, nor does he sound concerned about the Trojans' recent struggles.
"I know it's been tough for the coaching staff over there, but they've got a lot of young guys," he said. "... But as we get into next year and the next year after that's when JT [Daniels], Amon-Ra [St. Brown] and all those young guys are going to start hitting their peak. They're young guys -- they're still learning, they're still getting that experience. They're young, and I know Coach Helton's got something up his sleeve for them."
He added that he maintains good relationships with USC defensive backs coach Ronnie Bradford and quarterbacks coach Bryan Ellis, who took the lead early in his recruitment.
Davis, listed at 6-foot, 185 pounds, is classified as a cornerback in the Rivals database, but that's not where he expects to play.
"[I'm] going to start at nickel as my main position. And if I don't play nickel, I'm going to be like a nickel/safety so I'd probably be a strong safety coming down in the box type of stuff," he said. "I've got a lot of experience there, but I've played everywhere in the back end so I know it all."
That means USC has just one pure cornerback committed in this 2019 class in 4-star prospect Max Williams (Gardena, Calif.). That remains a priority in the lead-up to National Signing Day.
That said, the Trojans certainly need to replenish their numbers at safety and nickel as well after losing safeties Ykili Ross (transfer) and Bubba Bolden (suspension/transfer) with starter Marvell Tell also set to move on after this season along with nickels Ajene Harris and Jonathan Lockett.
Washington State isn't relenting in its pursuit of Davis, though,, taking an aggressive approach, even texting his mother and trying to sell the family on having him stay in-state.
They too have an obvious sales pitch for Davis, who has family ties to Pullman, Wash., and plans to take an official visit to Washington State sometime soon. But he says his family is supportive of whatever decision me makes.
"They're not putting pressure on me to go anywhere. They'll stick with me with whatever decision I make," he said. "But of course that's where my mom's from, that's her hometown, all my grandparents and cousins are over there so of course they want me to go to Wazzu, but they're going to be happy wherever I go. They'll come watch me wherever I go."
He is loosely targeting his official visit to USC for January, but he doesn't have a firm date set.
Meanwhile, he remains firm in his plan to ultimately sign with the Trojans.
"Like I said, that's where I want to go so I'm still pretty solid there," he said.
