USC Football: Where does USC Stand in the Recruitment of 2025 DL Gus Cordova?

AllTrojans.com spoke with USC recruiting target Gus 'Bus' Cordova to find out where USC stands in his recruitment.

Lake Travis (Austin, TX) 2025 defensive lineman Gus 'Bus' Cordova recently received a scholarship offer from USC defensive ends coach Shaun Nua. Nua recently traveled out to Austin, Texas to meet the 6-foot-5, 250-pound defensive lineman to extend the offer in person. Cordova recapped how the exchange went in our interview this past week. 

"It was great, Coach Nua is a hell of a guy. You could even tell by his voice that he coaches football. He's a great person, all about football, and very enthusiastic. It feels great to have another opportunity to play at the next level by such a good person and good coach". 

Cordova will be on campus at TCU this weekend and is planning on making his way out to visit Oregon next weekend, but Cordova told AllTrojans.com he and his family plan on getting out to visit USC sometime this March. 

Cordova has over 25 scholarship offers but right now he tells us that he's being pursued hard by Texas A&M, Oregon, Miami, Texas, and Oklahoma. 

During his junior season where he tallied up over 60 total tackles, Cordova told us that played about half his snaps at defensive tackle in the early downs, and then moved out to defensive end where he more often sees one-on-one pass-rushing opportunities with offensive tackles. 

Gus Cordova and Shaun Nua

He's got a great feel for his role as a block-eater up front and relishes destroying double teams so his teammates can fly around and make tackles. We asked him what part of his game he thinks coaches are noticing the most. 

"My get off and my explosiveness," Cordova told us. "Usually opposing teams will run away from me or double or triple team me, and that would give my teammates more leniency and they would be able to do their jobs better". 

As far as comps go, I think he serves shades of current Ohio State defensive lineman Caden Murphy insofar as his ability to shimmy and shake between double teams using his quickness. AllTrojans.com will be following his recruitment closely as it develops.