News / Sports
USC Looking into Recruiting Violations Concerning Joe McKnight
In the cut-throat world of college football recruiting, landing the nation’s top rated player is never easy. So when Joe McKnight made the decision to leave his Louisiana roots and head to Southern California to play for Pete Carroll media attention instantly turned to the recruiting process implemented by the USC head coach.
Carroll had already signed the number two and three rated high school players in Chris Galippo and Marc Tyler and the addition of McKnight vaulted the USC Trojans to the top of the recruiting wars.
But now questions have begun to surface concerning the involvement of former USC Trojan standout Reggie Bush in the recruiting process. At his signing McKnight made references to what sounded like conversations he had with Bush. According to NCAA guidelines former players are not allowed to contact recruits or their family before signing.
Much of the controversy surrounds a claimed conference call that McKnight mentioned during his news conference. Apparently Pete Carroll had set up a conference call between McKnight, his high school football coach J.T. Curtis, and Reggie Bush. The nature of the call was possible sanctions USC may face regarding Bush’s involvement with an agent while playing for the Trojans.
Pete Carroll has denied setting up a conference call, saying “It never happened.” Not knowing that Carroll had already denied the call ever took place Curtis told reporters that McKnight told him "Coach Carroll was talking to Reggie on the speakerphone and Joe was able to listen and hear Reggie Bush's side of the story." After finding out that Carroll denied any phone conversation with Bush and McKnight Curtis quickly recanted his previous statement and said McKnight never heard Reggie Bush on the speakerphone.
The school is currently looking into the matter. USC is already being investigated by the NCAA and Pac-10 Conference for possible violations regarding whether or not Reggie Bush and his family received gifts while he attended the school.
