USC football head coach Lincoln Riley recently talked in a Zoom call about the recruitment of the Arnold brothers, Akili and Easton Mascarenas, and what that might mean for the Trojans in the Big Ten:
We had a couple of conversations and it was one of those that we knew was going to happen pretty fast. I actually flew to Corvallis in a driving rainstorm and I went and met both of them at their apartment. I ended up staying at their apartment for two hours, just the three of us, and we just we had a great talk. It’s not hard to get in pretty deep with them. You could tell right away they were passionate about football, they were passionate about going to a place where they felt like they had a chance to really go win big. They were passionate about hearing my vision for our program and where we were headed, where they could obviously be of service, and where I thought the roles could align.
I got to be honest: of all the recruiting visits and all the home visits and all the ones over the years that sometimes admittedly run together a little bit when you look back on them, I don’t know if I’ve ever had a more high-energy, fun meeting — literally just the three of us in some college kids’ apartment in Corvallis — we had a great time. We ended up leaving much later than anticipated because it was hard to end it, but you could just just feel their vibe and energy towards each other competitively, their passion for it. You could feel it from the minute I walked in the door. It was a lot of fun. They’re glad they’re on our team.
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