USC and Lincoln Riley salvage challenging signing day by landing Jahkeem Stewart
It had been a turbulent morning, at the end of a turbulent recruiting cycle for USC and Lincoln Riley.
Ten prospects already had decommitted during the last six months, among them a handful of top-100 talents. Several of the state’s top players also had spurned the Trojans in favor of more far-flung football powers, like Alabama or Texas A&M or Penn State, all of which inked more top California recruits for their 2025 classes.
Signing day had been trending in a disappointing direction for USC, well before Wednesday. Then, just as the class was coming together, one of USC’s prized defensive assistants, Matt Entz, took the coaching job at Fresno State, leaving the Trojans in an even tougher spot, scrambling to secure two top linebackers who seemed solid just the night before.
It was hardly the preamble Riley had hoped for ahead of the early signing window, at the start of his fourth season as the Trojans coach. Riley, at one point, even found himself reiterating his allegiance to USC, after a report linked him to the coaching job at Central Florida.
A look at all the players who are transferring in and out of UCLA and USC in the NCAA transfer portal ahead of the 2025 college football season.
But when all was said and done, Wednesday still concluded in just the way USC’s coach had hoped, with the biggest signing of his Trojans tenure.
The flourish at the finish of USC’s 2025 class came courtesy of five-star Louisiana defensive lineman Jahkeem Stewart, a game-wrecker on the interior who fittingly calls himself “Thanos,” referring to the intimidating supervillain featured in several Marvel movies.
“It was important,” Riley said of reeling in Stewart. “He’s one of the more talented defensive linemen that I’ve had a chance to be involved with recruiting. And it’s just, this is one of those things where everything about this just fits. We’re really glad he’s a Trojan.”
That was obvious as his signing became official, with a bevy of USC staffers, including defensive line coach Eric Henderson, posting photos on social media wearing Thanos’ famous gauntlet with two of its golden fingers shaped in USC’s “V for Victory” sign. Henderson especially had been critical in reeling in Stewart, who transferred to Henderson’s former high school, Edna Karr in New Orleans, ahead of reclassifying to the 2026 class.
Whether Stewart will be able to make an impact right away on a USC defense that definitely could use him is a question. The 17-year-old Louisiana defensive tackle hasn’t played a football game in more than a year and has played only 12 games at the varsity level because of rules regarding his transfer. But after watching him wreck opposing offensive lines up close, Riley didn’t seem bothered by that.
“There’s a lot of people that I don’t think would be ready, physically or mentally, to do that. But he is one of ’em,” Riley said. “We had zero hesitation to target him and had zero hesitation or questions about what he brings to the table here.”
Stewart’s signing bumped up the Trojans to the 13th-ranked recruiting class in the country, according to 247 Sports,and helped make up for the prospects USC couldn’t close on.
Several rumored flips fell just short for USC in the final hours, while two linebackers expected to sign with the Trojans instead looked elsewhere in the wake of Entz’s exit.
San Juan Capistrano four-star linebacker Madden Faraimo, the highest-rated prospect left in the state, opted to sign with Notre Dame, handing USC its biggest recruiting defeat of the day. USC also wasn’t able to sign four-star linebacker Jadon Perlotte, who was expected to flip to Tennessee.
USC managed to secure a flip from Michigan four-star cornerback Alex Graham, but otherwise made few waves outside of securing Stewart.
Most of the turbulence that defined USC’s recruiting cycle already settled a few weeks earlier, when five-star Corona Centennial quarterback Husan Longstreet announced last month that he would sign with the Trojans. His commitment came right on the heels of another five-star quarterback, Georgia’s Julian Lewis, pulling his own pledge to USC in favor of Colorado.
That dance between two elite quarterback prospects had been a delicate one, as quarterbacks coach Luke Huard was tasked with maintaining a relationship with Longstreet and his family through the process, even as Lewis kept his commitment for more than a year.
That preparation proved prescient.
When it finally became clear Lewis wouldn’t sign with USC, Huard moved quickly to secure Longstreet, who had been committed to Texas A&M and whose arrival was, like Stewart’s, an important salve for a class that otherwise had just two signees ranked in the top 150 nationally.
“This was really about Husan, and the more we got to know him, got to evaluate him, the more we got to see his mental makeup, how team-oriented he was, how serious he was about the game, we just felt like in the end, there wasn’t a better fit for us,” Riley said.
In spite of what could have been with USC’s class, Riley assured anyone who would listen that he was satisfied with where it ended up.
USC inked four offensive linemen, including two ranked in the top 150, to help bolster its offensive front.
It also took steps to rebuild its secondary, replenishing a room that’s set to lose seven contributors after the bowl game. The Trojans signed five defensive backs, including Upland four-star cornerback Trestin Castro, who was one of just three signees at USC ranked in the top 20 of the state.
There was still work to do, including adding a third quarterback for “depth” via the transfer portal, Riley said. Other coaches also could leave in the coming weeks, even as Riley assured reporters that no more staff changes were imminent.
But after a roller coaster of a recruiting cycle, the coach said he was leaving Wednesday with “a great feeling.”
The question now, with the transfer portal set to open Monday, is how long that feeling might last.
