Tackett Curtis has received more buzz and more hype than any other incoming recruit on the 2023 USC defense — not necessarily the roster, but certainly the defense.
How can we prove it? When USC fans discuss the team’s 2023 linebackers and — more broadly — the full linebacker room, one talking point which regularly emerges is whether Curtis deserves to wear jersey number 55, the ultimate tribute to any USC linebacker. Only the very best Trojan linebackers get to wear that special number. It belonged to Junior Seau. It belonged to Chris Claiborne. It belonged to Willie McGinest and Jack Del Rio.
This number is reserved for the greats. That Tackett Curtis is already being mentioned as a No. 55 candidate says it all.
We are really excited about Curtis and his future at USC. We shared some thoughts with USA TODAY Sports in this piece on the one Trojan recruit we’re most interested in following this year:
“This recruit carries significance for USC because of the national dimensions of the recruitment, the fact that USC beat out future Big Ten competitors for Curtis, and because USC needs a lot of help on defense. If Tackett Curtis is as good as advertised, USC’s defense will become a lot better, and the Trojans will wind up addressing a foremost area of need, taking heat off defensive coordinator Alex Grinch. The only reason Grinch is still on the job at USC (other than being a Lincoln Riley loyalist) is that he didn’t have a lot of elite players in 2022. There was an awareness that Grinch didn’t have a fully-stocked roster. Curtis could prove Grinch’s point that he simply needed better players to improve the USC defense. Curtis could be the guy who saves Grinch’s job and stabilizes the Trojans’ defense this season.”
The USC spring game this Saturday became more interesting because of Kliff Kingsbury’s arrival, but Tackett Curtis is still a bigger storyline this weekend in the Coliseum.
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