With the thought that NCAA sanctions could potentially come down against the Penn State football program, USC head coach Lane Kiffin and his coaching staff studied the Nittany Lions roster and only one thing made sense: Silas Redd.
Once it became official, Kiffin reached out to Redd's high school coach before getting a call back from Redd's father.
"He said, 'My son is interested in staying at Penn State or going to USC, so we'd like to talk to you,'" Kiffin recalled on the Petros and Money Show on FOX Sports Radio on Wednesday.
The same NCAA that imposed sanctions on the Trojans with a two-year bowl ban and scholarship reductions over three seasons, inadvertently threw Kiffin and USC a bone with a rule change. During a period coaches were not normally allowed to go off campus and recruit, the NCAA suddenly allowed it, Kiffin says. With that change, Kiffin and members of his staff took off for Connecticut for a three-hour meeting with Redd and his family, which was a key component to the Trojans landing Penn State's leading rusher from a season ago.
"It is really big for us. I don't think it was anything that I did," Kiffin said. "I think it really was about a great opportunity to come to USC and at a time where there was a specific need at that position for him. When he got here, and he's in communications and saw the Annenberg School of Communications and was around our players and saw how much they wanted him here and how much they accepted him over his 48 hours here, I think that really helped him make the decision."
USC has prided itself on competition and that won't be any different for Redd. There will "no doubt" be a competition at the running back position Kiffin said on Petros and Money.
"We like to pride ourselves on competition here and it makes us all better and so we got a lot of spots to figure out and that'll be one of them," Kiffin said.
Redd spent time with the Trojans' running backs during his visit over the weekend. He hung out with D.J. Morgan one night and went to lunch at Roscoe's House of Chicken N' Waffles with Kiffin and Curtis McNeal the next day.
The recruitment of Redd was much different than the norm for Kiffin. Before making a move, he first checked with Athletic Director Pat Haden and President Max Nikias "just to make sure."
