When Eric Gentry entered the transfer portal in April after one season as an emerging outside linebacker at Arizona State, his former coach at Neumann Goretti High School in Philadelphia, Al Crosby, received a call from a college coach he knew.

"It's funny," Crosby says, sharing the story Saturday morning over the phone. "Not to call a school out, but this one school when Eric got his name in the portal, the coach called me and said, 'Yo, coach, what's up. Eric Gentry, bro. I need him, I want him, we need him here!'

"I said, 'Bruh, I tried to give him to you a year ago and you weren't interested.' He was like, 'No, man, we just didn't know if he could play linebacker. We just didn't see it. We thought he was going to be a tight end, but then we watched him in the bowl game, man, he was tough.' I said, 'Coach, he's going to USC.'"

Gentry has already proven to be one of the most important transfer pickups for Lincoln Riley and these 4-0, No. 6-ranked Trojans, seizing the starting middle linebacker role and leading the defense with 32 tackles and 2 QB hurries, along with a tackle for loss, an interception and 2 pass breakups.

But it did require some outside-the-box vision to place the lanky 6-foot-6 sophomore in the middle of the defense, where there are few parallels of inside linebackers with his frame and body type.

Well, for now at least ...

"That's now the model for what we need at the Mike linebacker spot," USC defensive coordinator Alex Grinch joked Saturday night after the Trojans' come-from-behind 17-14 win at Oregon State.

Indeed, there was no better encapsulation of Gentry's unique skill set and value than last week in Corvallis, Ore.

Midway through the second quarter he lunged that tall frame and 7-foot-1 wingspan to his left to intercept Oregon State quarterback Chance Nolan after the Beavers had driven across midfield again while already leading 7-0.

But Gentry's best play was still to come, as all Trojans fans know.

After Caleb Williams hit Jordan Addison for the go-ahead touchdown with 1:13 remaining in the game, giving USC a still very tenuous 17-14 lead, the Beavers were on the move again. A 15-yard Trojans penalty on the kickoff and a couple completions by Nolan got Oregon State to its own 46-yard line with plenty of time to get in range for a tying field goal or even drive for the win.

But on third-and-10, Nolan made a critical miscalculation, throwing toward what he thought was an open target down the left seam only to have Gentry dropped 14 yards into coverage in the middle and easily using his ridiculous reach to get a hand on the pass, tipping it up in the air where Max Williams corralled the game-sealing interception.

"He's just rare to have a guy on your defense that has that type of length but also that type of athleticism," Riley had said back in fall camp, already seeing on the practice field what has now manifested on Saturdays. "I mean, you love it defensively. You love his instincts. ... From an offensive perspective, guys like that are a pain."

"It's had a major impact and continues," Grinch said after the game Saturday. "Now, he's got to be in the right spot to do it. It's not just all genetics -- he's doing a nice job."

As Crosby alluded to, Nolan isn't the first to underestimate Gentry and he may not be the last this fall, though word is surely spreading about the Trojans' new defensive star.

It took Crosby a little time to initially see it, too.

He started Gentry out as a wide receiver, but his hands weren't reliable enough and it wasn't really what he wanted to do.

"I didn't like offense, really. I liked to tackle," Gentry said this week, sharing perspective on his football journey.

Gentry went through a substantial growth spurt as an eighth-grader, shooting up from 5-foot-11 to 6-foot-3 while remaining thin as a rail.

"I wasn't really comfortable in my body until I came to my senior year," he said.

"Initially, he was very awkward, but his mom's an athlete -- she played basketball at Rutgers ... so he was always a kid that, it made him a little bit awkward, but he was always coordinated to a point where he could adjust to the change," Crosby says.

Gentry was more of an edge rusher in high school and primarily a weakside outside linebacker last season at Arizona State, but the seeds for what the Trojans are doing with him now started way back in his early 7-on-7 days.

So, no, Crosby says over the phone, he's not surprised to how USC is using Gentry -- or how his former player is thriving in the middle of the defense.

"A little bit but not a lot, not overly surprised. Because he played middle linebacker for us in our 7-on-7. He'd just go out there and put his arms in the air and literally [disrupt] all the throws across the middle of the field," Crosby says. "So if you tried to do a dig, he would eliminate that with his length. If you threw a shallow cross, he would eliminate that because he could rally to it. If you were running a Tampa 2 defense, he could actually take away the post because he could drop so far."

Trying to convince recruiters that he could do all of that at the college level was a different story.

"He was being recruited by a lot of people, but he wasn't being loved by a lot of people, if that makes sense," Crosby says. "He was on radars. ... People were interested, but they weren't really excited, if that makes sense."

Gentry's recruitment as a three-star athlete would ultimately come down to Virginia, which had had success with a player of a fairly similar build, and Arizona State all the way across the country.

It wasn't about geography, though. Gentry wanted someone to believe in him the way that he believed in his own potential. He found that in former ASU defensive coordinator Antonio Pierce.

"I really didn't go to camps. I had confidence in myself I was good, though. I just never had the opportunity to go to camps. Coach AP gave me an opportunity to come out west and put me on the eyes of the Pac-12," Gentry said this week.

Pierce, a former NFL linebacker, wasn't the first to offer Gentry a scholarship but left the biggest impact on him when they started talking in January after the prospect's junior season.

"He was the most important coach that got my attention as soon as he came in. We had like an hour talk when we first talked, he got my attention," Gentry said. "It was a person that I could relate to, had been to the NFL, had seen it all at the highest position, so he taught me a lot really."

Crosby's son had gone to Arizona State, as had another former star player, future NFL wide receiver Jaelen Strong, so he vouched for the Sun Devils with Gentry.

Initially, it felt like the right decision as he embraced the coaching staff and found an early role on defense as a true freshman, playing 341 snaps while tallying 45 tackles, 5 for loss, a sack and 2 deflections. He was named a consensus first-team Freshman All-American.

But Pierce was ousted as Arizona State's defensive coordinator last February, part of the fallout from a recruiting scandal that brought about an ongoing NCAA investigation, other staff departures and led to many talented players transferring out of the program.

When it came time for Gentry to find a new school, Crosby again leaned on what he knew to help guide his former player.

"Lincoln Riley's got a very strong reputation. I was fortunate enough to meet Coach Riley, he was recruiting one of my O-lineman a few years before. He seemed very genuine and was down to Earth, somebody that was easy to talk to," Crosby said. "And being in LA, being at 'SC, 'SC is probably the most prestigious school on the West Coast. You're talking about one of the most prestigious schools in football, top 5 in the country when you talk about prestige. Being a Trojan means something."

It did for Gentry, who commented last month that he chose USC because he wanted "somewhere to start history at, somewhere there was already history at."

The transfer process wasn't easy for Gentry in general -- he's still close with his former teammates and the leftover coaches at Arizona State -- but he said he felt it was just time to start somewhere new.

"It was a hard decision to come here, but I had the confidence that I was going to be an impact player," he said.

Just as importantly, so too did the USC coaches ...

Riley, Grinch and the coaching staff had some of the same questions that have always trailed Gentry, about his slenderness and what that meant for his physicality, etc., but they were also intrigued by the pure potential of his attributes.

"Until you get a chance to meet him, obviously on film he stood out [as] kind of a run and hit type of guy. You see the good stuff, but yeah, you're kind of left to wonder a little bit, quite honestly," Grinch said. "Obviously, we didn't have him in the spring to get a chance to work with him then. One of the things at linebacker, No. 1 attribute is run and hit, but can you fit a gap? There's two backs in the backfield, are you willing to come downhill and take on a fullback? And he can do those things. I think with all guys there's question marks, and I think by and large he's answered those."

Riley thought about it from the offensive perspective, meanwhile, and what it would be like scheming plays with a 6-foot-6 shot-blocker in the middle of the field.

"We talked a lot about it from an offensive perspective of, if a guy like that is in the middle of the defense, his length is so unique for that position, right? You think of typically like a long outside linebacker -- that's not anything new -- but those Mike linebackers are, even in the NFL you look, they're in the 5-11 to 6-2 range. He's rare in that," Riley said. "I know we just constantly talk[ed], especially in this day and age with all the RPOs and play-action stuff over the middle, that his length was, not wasted but why waste it on half the field when we could potentially have him involved in both sides of the field and patrolling the middle?"

That outside-the-box decision might have proved to be one of the main reasons USC escaped Corvallis with that win last week and is still undefeated heading into its home game Saturday night with none other than Arizona State, Gentry's old team.

Speaking after practice Wednesday, Gentry initially didn't seem to want to talk about that storyline at all.

"Another football game. That's it. Another football game," he said, speaking low and looking toward the ground.

He'd later open up a little more when asked about his former teammates and coaches.

"All the coaches there was amazing. I didn't have one coach that I didn't like. Same thing here," he said.

He knows what the Sun Devils are going through this season, off to a 1-3 start with Herm Edwards one of the first coaches this college football season to be fired.

"They're tough. We've been through that last year. We went through a lot last year as ASU players. I know they're built for it, they're amazing football players. It's going to be a really good game," he said. "I still talk to them. It's going to be a good matchup."

As for his new team, Gentry assimilated quickly. He always does, according to his old high school coach.

"It's just what you see. He's not fake. He's a leader amongst leaders, meaning he's not a phony leader. He's not just going to do something when the coaches are watching him," Crosby says. "He's a kid where I think he'll call his teammates out, but he'll call them out respectfully. He'll say something like, to give you an example, he might be like, 'You've got to make these plays, man. If we're not getting these stops then we're shortchanging our team, so I need you to step up a little bit more.' Rather than just say, 'Man, you're not playing good.' He doesn't have a problem doing that."

When Gentry first talked to the local media here near the end of August, he was shy, again mostly looking toward the ground.

But reporters would soon see what his teammates were already seeing behind the scenes. His strong play has put him at the postgame press conference next to Riley, as the defensive representative, in two of the four games so far, and in those moments he's had a presence to him, speaking confidently and insightfully.

That's the Gentry his teammates have gotten to know off the field.

"To me, if you asked me personally, every time he speaks I'm listening and paying attention to what he's got to say because I know just his character he's going to give it his all," redshirt junior defensive lineman De'jon Benton said this week.

That, too, the coaches have learned.

Like Grinch said, any questions that may have stemmed from his build (officially listed at 6-foot-6, 200 pounds), Gentry has answered for them because his impact has not come only through his length and reach but in perhaps more surprising ways.

"I think, why aren't there many 6-6 linebackers? That's the question, right? One, God didn't put many 6-6 people on the planet, and then two, it's a question of leverage, right?" Riley said. "Because it is such a physical position and it's almost like at times like a really tall offensive tackle can have [trouble] when he's trying to block you. Some of these guys that [are] 6-8 or 6-9 and just abnormally tall for their position, that's great pass pro and length and all that, but when they have to come off and try to drive block somebody sometimes that's not the easiest.

"But Eric kind of counters that with, one, he's a very physical player and his ability to bend and really kind of explode out of his hips shows up physically where you get the length but you don't feel like you're losing on the leverage and physicality side. So he's done a nice job kind of counteracting that. ... As effective as he's been dropping in the middle in zone coverage, there's a couple times a game he goes up and spills the you-know-what out of a fullback, which is pretty cool."

Grinch notes, though, that for Gentry to reach his full peak potential, he will have to put on weight.

Gentry understands. He says he knows if he wants to be the next Devin Lloyd or Micah Parsons in the NFL -- the players he looks up to -- he has to get heavier ... somehow.

"That's just fact," Grinch said. "That's not Coach Grinch's opinion or coach [Brian] Odom's or Coach Riley's. Believe me, Eric's not, there's no pushback there. It's just something that you're ultimately judged by -- it's thumbs up or thumbs down. The NFL kind of dictates for us, and we use it with our guys in terms of what size is the expectation. That doesn't mean next step NFL -- he's still a young player, but it's our responsibility to put this in front of him."

On that topic ...

Back in Philadelphia, enjoying watching his former player's success and emergence into the kind of impact contributor he tried to tell college recruiters that Gentry would be, Crosby already knows the same cycle will repeat itself in another year or two.

Same as the college coach who thought Gentry might be more of a tight end than a linebacker/outside linebacker only to realize his fault a year or so too late, Crosby knows that when the time comes there will be NFL scouts and general managers that will only see Gentry for the ways in which he doesn't fit their typical expectations.

He thinks back to Gentry's initial college recruitment again, where a middle-of-the-pack ACC program and a mid-tier Pac-12 program were the finalists for a player who is now among the defensive leaders on the No. 6-ranked team in the country.

"He wasn't under the radar, but he wasn't highly, highly sought after. He's always going to have those issues because he's slender," Crosby says. "If he gets into the position where he's able to get drafted, there's going to be people who sit back and say all the things he can't do because he's slender, but on the flip side other people are going to say all the things he can do because of his length.

"Hopefully, it works out where people look at his ability rather than just looking at his weight."

The USC coaches are sure glad they did.