Intriguing 2023 Swiss Army knife commits to USC football

Lincoln Riley has now picked up quite the Swiss Army knife of a recruit for USC football in 2023 Athlete Kade Eldridge. Eldridge is a RB/H-Back/TE/Edge for Lynden Christian School in Lynden, Washington. Eldridge was recruited to SC as an H-Back and Tight End.

He is the No. 38 athlete in the country, and a three-star recruit (all recruiting rankings and ratings are as of 247Sports). He's the No. 7 player in the state of Washington, which doesn't have a bad collection of high school talent.

At 6-4.5, 235 pounds, Eldridge certainly has enough size to be a successful hybrid H-Back/Tight End type of player. Eldridge is certainly on-board with it.

"I learned about how important and versatile that [H-back] role is and has to be in their offense," said Eldridge in an interview with TrojanSports.com.

Kade Eldridge wants to be that next great tight end for USC Football Head Coach Lincoln Riley.

New USC Football Head Coach Lincoln Riley does like to include tight ends in his offensive attack, and Kade Eldridge was attracted to that.

"[Coach Riley and I talked about] how he wants to use me and my skill sets on the field," said Eldridge after his USC visit. "I feel like they will use me a lot if I decided to go there. Coach Riley likes to use his TEs a lot and knows how to use them to expose their best talents."

He's right, as Riley was famously credited for the development of standout college AND NFL Tight End Mark Andrews when Riley was with Oklahoma as both his Offensive Coordinator and Head Coach. He used Andrews as a bit of a Swiss Army knife too--as someone who would be used like both a tight end AND wide receiver.

Andrews had 958 receiving yards in his third and final year on the field for OU and caught eight touchdowns.

He ended up getting drafted third round by the Baltimore Ravens and was just named to the First-Team All-Pro team in the NFL this year; after collecting an absurd 1,361 receiving yards on 107(!) catches. He did that with Ravens starting QB Lamar Jackson out for much of the year....Again, Eldridge wants to be the next Andrews.

This commitment is No. 11 for the USC Trojans' 2023 recruiting class, and the fifth three-star of the class. They have four four-star commits, and two five-stars. They now have the ninth-ranked class in the country, and have a commanding lead over the second-best class in the Pac-12 (Colorado), which is ranked No. 25.