Kyle Ford was in his familiar Cardinal and Gold No. 81 on Wednesday at USC's football media day, back at the university he graduated from and in the program he grew up rooting for, back in an offense he thrived in two seasons ago and with a coaching staff that believes in his ability to make an impact.
Sure, it's not totally the same as it was in 2022 before he transferred across town to UCLA.
Ford was assigned a different locker this time, but he's made peace with that.
"I'm close. I'm like three people down. I think E-Man (6-foot-5, 320-pound offensive guard Emmanuel Pregnon) has my locker, so I probably won't be asking him for that locker," Ford said, laughing. "He's good, he can have that."
And now that he's back at USC, Ford also seems at peace with everything that transpired since he was last a Trojan -- what he calls "the most frustrating year of football that I've had in my life" in his lone season as a Bruin.
"I just felt this was the place where I needed to be to be successful and that challenges me the most," he said of his decision to transfer back. "... For me, it was just a feeling. I remember I told my dad, 'It just feels right.'"
That said, returning to USC a year after leaving the program wasn't Ford's first thought when he hit the transfer portal after catching 22 passes for 236 yards and a touchdown.
But soon after he was in the portal, Trojans wide receivers coach Dennis Simmons sent him a text and head coach Lincoln Riley called to make it clear Ford was absolutely welcome back -- and wanted.
"I didn't reach out to USC at all, to be honest. Coach Simmons sent me a text wondering if I'd be interested in coming back. And honestly, my first thought, I was like, I don't know. I don't know if I want to come back, to be honest. But not to him. Then I had some time, thought it through," Ford said Wednesday, reflecting back on everything that happened over the last year-plus.
"I came to a practice [this spring], was checking everything out, and it felt good. It felt good to feel wanted again."
"My lord, it's totally surreal," his father Dan Ford said over the phone Thursday. "But I'm glad that him and Lincoln kind of came to their meeting of minds and Lincoln welcomed him back. I mean, we never really wanted to leave 'SC -- it was just, we had to go and test the market and see what was out there. UCLA is not the same as USC -- let's just put it that way."
