BREAKING: Five-Star LB Xavier Griffin Decommits from USC
Although there weren’t any significant signs he was wavering with his USC commitment, five-star linebacker Xavier Griffin has decommitted from USC. Griffin verbally committed to the Trojans last summer on July 31 after a second visit.
“When we left the first time, I told my mom the only thing that was stopping me from going there was the distance,” Griffin said. “But after that second visit, I just felt I gotta take that risk and get out of my comfort zone.”
Griffin’s been back five times since his verbal pledge to the Trojans indicating an extremely solid commitment, but USC has adopted a policy of requiring all commits to shut down their commitments. Griffin also visited Tennessee, Georgia, Alabaman and Texas this winter and spring.
While most of the USC commits have shut down their recruitment and cancelled all official visits to other schools, Griffin intends on taking more visits this spring and summer. So, this was mutual parting of the ways between USC and the talented Gainesville (GA) athlete.
Since the arrival of general manager Chad Bowden, it’s been a huge priority to get top targets committed quickly. Another priority now is not having committed players visit other schools whether unofficially or officially.
Top 10
- 1Live
Super Regionals Set
The field is almost complete
- 2New
Texas A&M shocked
Historic upset in softball
- 3Hot
Field of 64 projection
Predicting College Baseball Tourney
- 4
Baseball Top 25 projection
Big shakeup on deck
- 5
Urban Meyer
'Big Ten has passed the SEC'
Get the On3 Top 10 to your inbox every morning
By clicking "Subscribe to Newsletter", I agree to On3's Privacy Notice, Terms, and use of my personal information described therein.
In 2025, if a prospect commits to USC, the policy is you’re either ALL IN or ALL OUT. The Trojans have chosen not to mess around with committed players considering other schools. This is an approach Dabo Swinney at Clemson adopted many years ago. The Trojans don’t care if it’s a three-star of a five-star player, either.
In the past months, there have been quite a few USC commits who’ve publicly announced they were shutting down their recruitment, with the latest being five-star IMG Academy offensive tackle Keenyi Pepe.
2026 USC Commits
USC’s No. 1 ranked 2026 recruiting class currently has 27 committed players from the 2026 recruiting class in Taylor Johnson, Luc Weaver, Elbert Hill, Roderick Tezeno, Kannon Smith, Vlad Dyakonov, Deshonne Redeaux, Jake Johnson, TomTom Topui, Malik Brooks, Chase Deniz, Jaimeon Winfield, John Fifita, Esun Tafa, Trent Mosely, Simote Katonaga, Jonas Williams, Shaun Scott, RJ Sermons, Brandon Lockhart, Braeden Jones, Madden Riordan, Joshua Holland, Shahn Alston, Andrew Williams and Ja’Myron “Tron” Baker.
