Five teams are still in the mix for the services of Chosen 25 WR Bru McCoy: USC, Texas, UCLA, Washington and Oklahoma.
But four days before he announces during the All-American Bowl in San Antonio, McCoy said two teams have taken the lead.
Right now, USC and Texas are ahead of any other.
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McCoy noted that both schools have strong degree programs, alumni networks and historically strong football teams before delving into details.
“Both of them are at a spot where they have potential,” he said. “SC, a lot of people look at it more negatively, but I think they still have a high ceiling and a lot of room to grow. They got a young team, a young quarterback.
That QB just so happens to be JT Daniels, who threw to McCoy for three years at Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) and won a National Championship in 2017.
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“We’re still cool so if we went to school together it would just be like we just picking up where we left off,” McCoy said.
He’s not worried about the Trojans’ down season in which they went 5-7 and ended with rampant speculation about the future of head coach Clay Helton before he was retained.
“I’m going to school to get a degree. Whatever coach is there, I’m going to work my butt off. I don’t care who’s coaching me necessarily. Unless he’s some horrible coach, but USC’s not going to hire no off-the-street coach that everyone’s going to hate. It’s USC,” McCoy said.
“The turmoil in a sense, that’s business. That happens at every school. This whole thing is a business anyway. You never know, that could happen at any school.”
Texas isn’t making it easy for him. With a 9-4 record, the Longhorns got to the Big 12 title game and play in the Sugar Bowl on Tuesday night.
“Texas, with the track they’re on with Coach (Tom) Herman being there, and his system, their receiving coach there, Coach (Drew) Mehringer, he’s the best,” McCoy said. “It’s a tough decision.”
In the end, the education system is going to play a large role. McCoy specifically mentioned the USC Marshall Business School and said he plans to pursue business marketing or political science.
One avenue he would look into is a career in sports marketing after retiring from football.
But he’s also driven by the idea of helping wrongly incarcerated prisoners.
He said this spark came from documentary.
“(In low-income cities), public defenders struggle almost as much as the people they’re trying to defend,” McCoy said. “There was this lady, she’s fighting to put change into the gas pump just so she can get to the courthouse to go defend somebody, and then after she gets done fighting the case, the guy gets found guilty. She knows he didn’t do it, but she was so tired and exhausted just from being broke and having nowhere to be, all that stuff, that she couldn’t put her whole heart into the case and win it for him.
“I want to be on the other side. That dude who the public defender didn’t defend correctly, I want to be able to help him out.”