Los Angeles Times

USC gets two 5-star receivers

- BY J. BRADY MCCOLLOUGH brady.mccollough@latimes.com Twitter: @BradyMcCol­lough

The late movement that USC coach Clay Helton hoped for with his 2019 recruiting class started to come to fruition Saturday when five-star wide receivers Bru McCoy of Santa Ana Mater Dei and Kyle Ford of Orange Lutheran committed to the Trojans during the U.S. Army AllAmerica­n Bowl in San Antonio.

McCoy, rated the nation’s No. 1 athlete by 247Sports, had silently signed a letter of intent to attend USC during the early signing period in December. With the national stage Saturday, he officially announced his decision, picking the Trojans over Texas.

Ford, rated the nation’s No. 5 receiver, chose hometown USC over Washington, Oregon, Michigan and Colorado.

The additions of McCoy and Ford vaulted USC to 13th in the 247Sports Composite team rankings for 2019, placing them ahead of Ohio State, Notre Dame, Tennessee, Florida State and Pac-12 rivals Washington and Stanford.

As expected, USC did not pick up a commitment from four-star cornerback Chris Steele of St. John Bosco, who originally committed to the Trojans but announced his decision to attend Florida on Saturday.

With McCoy and Ford picking USC, the Trojans will boast one of the most talented wide receiver groups in the nation in 2019. They will join Michael Pittman Jr., Tyler Vaughns, Velus Jones Jr., Amon-ra St. Brown and Devon Williams in new offensive coordinato­r Kliff Kingsbury’s “Air Raid” scheme.

Since being hired in early December, Kingsbury has been emphasizin­g to McCoy and Ford that there will be enough balls to go around to make all the wide receivers in his system happy.

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