USC flips coveted OL prospect Amos Talalele's commitment from Cal
Just a couple weeks ago after his first official visit of the month, three-star OL/DL prospect Amos Talalele announced his commitment to Cal.
But USC wasn't ready to give up.
After it initially looked uncertain they would get him back on campus, Talalele indeed followed through with his planned official visit this past weekend and a day later announces his change of plans with a commitment to the Trojans.
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"This was the hardest decision I've ever had to make," Talalele said in his tweet announcing the decision. "I will be decommitting from Cal. I went out to USC and decided my heart is in LA. I am committed to USC."
A versatile two-way lineman who saw his stock soar this spring, Talalele had committed to Cal as a defensive tackle but will be coming into USC as an offensive lineman.
Both schools were among his first offers and had been recruiting him consistently through the spring and early summer.
Talalele is USC's second OL commit in this class, following three-star Tobias Raymond, who announced his decision last week.
Overall, he's the 10th commit for USC in the 2023 cycle and the first to come from the Trojans' massive recruiting weekend, which featured 24 official visitors the last few days (including a handful of prospects already committed to the Trojans).
The official USC football Twitter account had tweeted out four "Fight On" emojis, meaning there is more to come.
"USC has been great. They've talked to me consistently. [OL coach Josh] Henson, Lenny [Vandermade], Lincoln Riley is hitting me up sometimes. USC, they have great coaches, it's a great school. They kind of have everything you'd want, and they look like they have a big future ahead of them too with the new coaching staff," Talalele told TrojanSports.com last month.
"I think one thing that surprised me was how well me and Coach Henson connected. Literally every time we talk, we can like talk for an hour, hour and a half every time. It's crazy, we connected a lot. Very humble guy, not cocky at all. Just straight up with you, likes to laugh, he's funny. Everything's good. ... He's just a great talker and he's a great person."
Rivals national recruiting director Adam Gorney gives his scouting report on Talalele below.
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Rivals national recruiting director Adam Gorney's scouting report
What stands out about Amos Talalele as an offensive lineman?
Gorney: "He's a big, massive, physical kid. He's 6-5, well over 300 pounds. He plays right tackle in high school, which is actually impressive to see a kid that big move that well. But he almost completely relies on his physical ability at this point. That's certainly not bad, but I do want to see his footwork more in pass pro, I do want to see him more than just bully kids onto the ground -- which he does very, very well. So until you see that against better competition, a huge bump in the rankings probably is not going to happen because there are times when people get to the edge and he is beaten and then kind of just gets in their way and pushes them over -- that won't happen at the college level because people will be by him at that time. I do wonder if they're going to use him more on the inside. He's certainly a huge guy that takes up space, and there's no doubt about his physical ability."
If he cleans up those areas, what is his top-end potential?
Gorney: "I think it's certainly significant. You can't teach size like that, so he has that already for him. It's certainly not a question of if he can do it; it's just having the ability to see him. I would be surprised if at that size he was not moved inside and just sort of allowed to bully people around and really beat people like that. I think there's significant upside for him if he can show the footwork at that level that he's going to need in the Pac-12."
He was being recruited by schools as both a defensive tackle and offensive lineman, how did that help his emergence this spring?
Gorney: "That's what's sort of most interesting about him is he legitimately was being recruited as an offensive and defensive lineman by a lot of schools. I actually like that because he kind of knows the tricks of what defensive linemen try to do against him and those kinds of things. It was definitely an interesting thing, because I remember talking to him and being like 'Do you prefer offense or defense?' He didn't seem to care. It was like, 'Which way are schools recruiting you?' And he said, 'It's legitimately both ways.' By no means do I think he's going to play both ways in college, but he definitely has that physical attitude to dominate as a defensive tackle and get into the backfield. He can use that on the offensive line to really muscle people around too."