USC kicker McGrath enters the transfer portal

Chase McGrath came to USC as a preferred walk- on, determined to earn his place at his dream school. Now, after three seasons as the Trojans’ primary kicker and a handful of big kicks, McGrath has decided to leave the team.

The redshirt junior kicker entered the NCAA transfer portal this week after losing his starting job to freshman Parker Lewis this season.

Few expected McGrath to be usurped after a strong 2019 season in which he made 14 of 17 f ield- goal attempts. But tendinitis in his knee and hip opened the door for Lewis in training camp, and the freshman took advantage. Lewis has made six of his seven f ieldgoal attempts, the most of any kicker in the Pac- 12.

That made it unlikely that McGrath would win back his job when fully healthy, even after USC coach Clay Helton called him “one of the better kickers in the country” earlier this season.

“Chase took it like a pro,” Helton said then. “[ He] said ‘ Coach, I’m there for you, and I’ll be there for you if you need me.’ And he’ll continue to get better and get healthier, and hopefully that pain will go away.”

It took a fortuitous sequence of events for McGrath to earn his initial opportunity at USC. After attempting just f ive f ield goals as a senior at Santa Ana Mater Dei, he had one scholarship offer coming out of high school.

It took a suspension of its starting kicker, Matt Boermeester, in February 2017, for USC to offer a preferred walk- on spot to McGrath, who joined without any guarantee of a scholarship.

He earned the job in camp and was thrust into a high- pressure situation in the season’s third game against Texas, kicking a field goal on the final play of regulation to send the game into overtime. He won the game with a f ield goal in the second overtime.

McGrath missed most of the 2018 season with a knee injury before returning as the starter in 2019. He was named USC’s special teams player of the year and earned All- Pac- 12 honorable mention.