Trojans score in Utah
In front of friends, family, a local television audience and hundreds of people watching via a webcast, Salt Lake City (Utah) Cottonwood four-star fullback Stanley Havili announced moments ago where he was heading to play college football at.
On KUTV's Talking Sports Show, Havili picked USC with a little sense of drama.
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After telling Rivals.com that he was down to USC and Arizona minutes before his decision, Havili first booted the Arizona State hat from the table in front of him.
That then left BYU, Iowa and USC's hats on the table. After he removed the ASU hat off the table, the show then went to commercial. After it returned, he removed another hat off the table, this time it was Iowa that got pushed to the floor leaving BYU and USC.
To build the drama even further, the show then went to another commercial. Then they returned to talk about the Utah Jazz and Utah Utes for about 5 minutes before finally allowing Havili to put on the USC hat with his friends and family screaming in the background.
"I was a BYU fan all my life, but everybody likes USC," Havili said. "I visited with coach Pete Carroll tonight, and I had a feeling come over me when he came over. I knew from them on it was a done deal."
A big deal throughout the recruiting process for Havili was the fact that he wanted to take an LDS mission, but Carroll told the four-star fullback that he would prefer not to have him go on a mission.
"He said they wouldn't like me to go on it, so I guess I'm not going to go on a mission," Havili said.
But it looks like USC's mission to repeat at national recruiting champions for the third time might have gotten another big boost as Havili is one of the nation's best fullbacks and a Rivals250 member.
Ranked as the No. 1 player in Utah and the No. 3 fullback, the pickup was a big one for the Trojans.