Julian Lewis, at 15 years old, is now the youngest football player ever to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated. The USC quarterback commit has made history.
Last season, Julian Lewis of Carrollton High School (Georgia) had one of the best freshman seasons in recent memory at quarterback. He accounted for 4,118 yards passing and 48 touchdowns to only 12 interceptions on a 65.5 completion percentage. He led Carrollton to the championship game in the state’s highest classification, 7A.
He was crowned the MaxPreps National Freshman of the Year and named to the preseason All-America Team as a sophomore.
He’s currently the top-rated quarterback and the No. 1 overall player in the class of 2026, per the 247Sports composite rankings.
Lewis committed to the Trojans back in August. He has long been considered to be one of the top high school quarterback prospects in the country, regardless of class.
Lewis’ profile leads the Money Issue of the latest SI magazine edition, which is looking into name, image, and likeness rights and payments.
Unlike other cover stars, Lewis is not able to cash in on his NIL rights because Georgia is one of 19 states that does not permit high schoolers to profit.
Lewis is currently the only high school quarterback committed to USC. The Trojans don’t have a high school QB in place yet for the class of 2024 or 2025. However, USC does have Malachi Nelson already on its roster. Nelson was a five-star prospect in the class of 2023 but Lewis could re-classify to the 2025 class, as former five-star quarterbacks Quinn Ewers, J.T Daniels, Austin Simmons and Jake Bentley did.
Congratulations to our guy Julian Lewis, who at 15 years old is the youngest football player ever to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated 🔥 @JuJuLewis10
What an accomplishment for the Under Armour All-American QB and one of the top prospects in the country‼️ #UANext pic.twitter.com/Dlslv56xo0
— The Underclassman Report (@TheUCReport) September 13, 2023
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