USC is sure on Shirley

It was just a couple of weeks ago that linebacker Josh Shirley (6-3, 225, 4.53) from Fontana (Calif.) Kaiser received an offer from hometown UCLA. Just last evening USC joined the fray and with San Diego State already in the offer category, Shirley now has offers from all three Southern California schools. His total offers are up to seven.

"I received an offer from USC last night," Shirley said. "It felt good. I called Brennan Carroll last night to check things out and told me to call Pete (USC head coach Pete Carroll) and when I did, he offered me a scholarship."

"Coach Carroll even stepped out of a meeting to talk to me," Shirley said. "USC is now in the line of thinking, but I'm not making any favorites, yet."

Both local schools UCLA and USC are having their spring game, but Shirley won't be able to attend either.

Before Shirley can break it down to favorites he still needs to see a couple schools, one of them could be Stanford.

"Stanford is a good school with good opportunities," Shirley said. "I don't know when I will visit them. I only have five trips and I haven't narrowed anything down."

"The only school I know I will be visiting is Tennessee," Shirley said. "The coaches want to see me in person."

Things are just heating up for Shirley and it is going to get hotter before spring evaluation is over.

Shirley earned his league's defensive MVP, first-team all-county, first-team all-area, first-team all-CIF and first-team all-state underclass honors for his junior season performance after racking up 123 total tackles, 88 which were solo, he had 17 sacks, 12 knockdown passes and three forced fumbles.

In the wright room, his current bench is 355, squats 495, power cleans 285, dead lifts 605 and has recorded a 35.5 vertical jump.