USC pledge sets visits

There is no question that when USC received the committal of offensive lineman Martin Coleman (6-5, 290, 4.8) from Huntington Beach (Calif.) Edison the Trojans landed possibly the offensive lineman with the most upside for any offensive lineman in the country.

The first time Coleman put on the pads to play football was August 2005. The talented lineman from Tonga took to the game like he had played the game all his life. He went all-league in his first season playing while competing in one of the very top leagues in Southern California.

Coleman didn't have it easy before conference play lining against such stalwart Orange County teams such as Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei, Anaheim (Calif.) Servite, and San Clemente.

Edison went undefeated in league play and won the Sunset League title by beating Los Alamitos, Calif., featuring Washington State bound Toby Turpin.

Coleman isn't resting on his laurels and he is showing Trojan fans that he has the work ethic that will see him fulfill his promise as a football player.

Coleman is currently working on his speed and quickness with Tommy Knox of Beach Cities Fast Twitch, who was also former USC offensive tackle Winston Justice's trainer when Justice was at Long Beach (Calif.) Poly.

Knox has said that both of them are both unbelievable once in a lifetime physical freaks and that he may never train any offensive lineman of their caliber again.

At the NIKE Camp held in Los Angeles Coleman had a very impressive showing. He had 28 reps of 185 and when you consider his wingspan that feat is even more extraordinary. You have to remember Coleman has only been training with weights for one year.

The scary thing for USC fans is a guy with Coleman's talent will continue to be recruited and Coleman has two official visits set up schools other than USC this fall.

"We are definitely taking our official visits to Nebraska and Miami," Coleman's brother in law and guardian Clark Christensen said. "The Nebraska visit is scheduled for their season opener with Louisiana Tech on September 2nd. We likely will do the Miami visit for their game against Virginia Tech on November 4th."

"USC didn't encourage Martin to take visits but they understand why he wants to," Christensen said. "Martin has never had a chance to see much of anything outside of Tonga, so he wants to go out and take a look around."

"Martin was just offered by the Colorado Buffs," Christensen said. "We have not yet decided whether we will do an official to Boulder or not."

"Martin will have a 3.5 GPA this semester, which will bring his overall GPA above a 3.0," Christensen said. "He also took the SAT again last Saturday (May 27th) and he has been doing very well on the practice tests."

"Martin is completely on track to be a full academic qualifier with a December graduation date," Christensen said. "Notre Dame had shown interest, but were concerned about his grades. Perhaps now they will show interest again."