USC football recruiting: Offensive line commit has stock rising

USC football’s offense line future looks brighter with Mason Murphy drawing strong reviews.

Evaluations for members of USC football’s 2021 recruiting class are sure to be heavily impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

There’s just no way for this cycle to play out as normal with high school seasons moved and recruiting camps facing complications.

At least one Trojan commit is managing to benefit from fresh evals though. That’s three-star offensive lineman Mason Murphy out of J Serra in San Juan Capistrano.

USC football commit Mason Murphy is impressing evaluators.

Recently, Rivals’ Adam Gorney included Murphy in his list of players on the west who have rising stock this summer.

Here’s what he had to say:

"“Murphy was one of the best players at a lineman event this past weekend in Utah that had a lot of talent and he’s been consistently dominant at camps this offseason, so a ratings bump is not out of the question. The USC commit has almost no bad weight and he has tremendous length and athleticism. He doesn’t manhandle every defensive end, but he has quick enough feet to block them and get them off their path to the quarterback.”"

Rivals has Murphy ranked No. 45 at his position and 30th in the state of California.

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Sports Illustrated also has Murphy on their radar. They included him in their preseason All-American watch list.

In an evaluation, they credited the 6-foot-5, 290-pounder with a “ready-made body and solid fundamentals.”

It’s incredibly important for USC to hit on the offensive linemen they have evaluated and committed over the last two cycles. Last year, the Trojans signed six offensive linemen. This year they have three pledged including Murphy, Bishop Alemany’s Saia Mapakaitolo and St. John Bosco’s Maximus Gibbs.

Murphy is the highest-ranked among them in the 247Sports composite. He actually ranks above all but one of the 2020 offensive line class.

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Offensive line coach Tim Drevno has his work cut out for him as the current crop of offensive line starters is nearing the end of their eligibility. Alijah Vera-Tucker, Brett Neilon, Jalen McKenzie and Andrew Vorhees each will graduate after the 2021 season and can leave earlier than that.