Recruiting Duce Robinson featured 'highs and lows' for USC football staff

The five-star tight end/wide receiver hybrid signed with USC last week following a whirlwind recruitment

LOS ANGELES — At long last, Duce Robinson is a Trojan. The five-star tight end/wide receiver hybrid signed with USC last week following a recruitment that featured many "high and lows," according to USC tight ends coach Zach Hanson. 

Robinson, the No. 17 recruit in the 2023 class, picked USC over finalists Georgia, Alabama, Oregon and Texas. Robinson's recruitment went into overtime, extending beyond December's National Signing Day, because in addition to choosing a school, he also had to choose a sport. 

Robinson is a big time baseball prospect as well as a football star, so the USC staff not only had to recruit him to come to the school, they also had to recruit him to commit to playing college football for the next three years over choosing to play professional baseball. 

- Lincoln Riley: Duce Robinson will play football at USC regardless of MLB Draft selection

"It was a long haul for sure and we all kinda knew it was going to be that way," Hanson said. "Duce was very open and honest with us from the beginning...We just stayed true to who we are and knew that if we mapped out that plan for him and showed him that we had everything figured out in regards to what we wanted to do and how it all worked for him, that in the end, we were going to get him. It was a fun process overall and I'm glad he ended up choosing us."

Robinson will have a chance to start right away this fall for USC. In their scouting report on Robinson, 247Sports.com described him as having "unlimited potential."

"We got a lot better as a team," Hanson said. "He's a great kid too and that's the important thing."

ROBINSON'S PATH TO TWO SPORTS

The plan for Robinson, according to USC head coach Lincoln Riley, is to play football at USC even if he signs an MLB contract as a high draft pick this summer. Robinson is expected to also play baseball for the Trojans in the spring if he doesn't sign a baseball deal. He'll follow a plan similar to what Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray did when he played for Riley at Oklahoma.

Before taking over as Oklahoma's starting quarterback in the fall of 2018, Murray signed a contract with the Oakland Athletics that was worth close to $5 million guaranteed and permitted him to play football for one more year at Oklahoma. Murray of course went on to have a fantastic season and ultimately chose the NFL over MLB.

A similar type of deal could potentially be worked out with Robinson and an MLB team this summer. 

"There is two kind of knowns right now," Riley said: "The first, Duce is going to play football at USC, and the second is baseball is going to be in his future … which is really exciting."