USC Trojans poach terrific Louisiana four-star recruit at position of desperate need

On Monday afternoon, USC football landed a much-needed commitment from Louisiana Linebacker Tackett Curtis. Curtis is a four-star recruit for 2023 (all recruiting ratings and rankings in article are as of 247Sports). Curtis also plays Free Safety too, at Many High School in Many, Louisiana.

Curtis is the No. 92 player in the entire country for the '23 class, and also is the No. 6 player in the entire state of Louisiana. That's high praise, but some even higher praise would be his ranking as the No. 5 Linebacker in the entire country.

SC scored his commitment over other Tier 1 and Tier 2 programs like Tennessee, Texas A&M, Penn State, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Nebraska, Michigan, Miami, LSU, Georgia, Florida State, Florida, Clemson, and Ohio State.

It was a dream list going after Curtis, and he wanted to play for this program. He's a very aggressive defensive player and a very hard-hitter. Take a look at some of his highlights shared by Chris Trevino of USCFootball.com:

Tackett Curtis is the fourth-highest rated recruit in USC football's 2023 recruiting class.

Tackett Curtis is also the No. 1 solely-defensive player in USC football's 2023 recruiting class. He's one of two four-star solely-defensive recruits USC has in the class. They do, however, have five four-star recruits overall and a couple of five-stars too.

He is the only linebacker recruit they have in the class, and linebacker is a serious position of need for the Trojans. They did poach four-star transfer linebacker Eric Gentry from Pac-12 South opponent Arizona State this offseason, but don't have a ton of impressive depth in the linebacker room.

To be able to snag Curtis over who was expected to be the other two top teams in the running--Wisconsin and Ohio State--could not have been more clutch.

It moves USC up from the No. 19 2023 recruiting class in the country to the No. 13 class. It marks the 12th commitment in the class, and USC continues to distance its 2023 class from the rest of the Pac-12.