Hometown: Santa Ana, Cali.
Recruiting ranking: No. 36 overall / No. 8 defensive lineman
Tosh Lupoi’s breakdown: “I think the most important thing you need to know about him is that he’s a national champion. How many champions can we sign and bring that to our culture? Right before the USC game he arrived, we were at the warmups there. I was running up the tunnel to hug my wife and he was waiting at the base of the tunnel. He picked me up and he cracked my rib. So the rest of the season I had a cracked rib and it was also that feeling an absolute beast and me being a helpless man in the air.
4-STAR DL JERICHO JOHNSON
Hometown: Fairfield, Cali.
Recruiting ranking: No. 94 overall / No. 17 defensive lineman
Tosh Lupoi’s breakdown: “Nicknamed “Big Co”. He has his own clothing line “Big Co”. I don’t have the Twitter or IG stuff. This guy really stood out as his game. I was really impressed visiting him in person. He didn’t know we were there. It was me and coach Tuioti. You just hear a voice rising in the locker room before the game and the leadership value. He’s a great individual. He’s extremely high character. Some of the stories you hear about this guy where he motivated seven or eight teammates to go to church with him on the weekdays — I believe it was Wednesday nights. He’s highly involved there. Probably the best signing day announcement I’ve ever seen in my 18-year career.”
4-STAR DL XADAVIEN SIMS
Hometown: Durant, Okla.
Recruiting ranking: No. 112 overall / No. 20 defensive lineman
Tosh Lupoi’s breakdown: “We just call him “day day”. I suggest you do that as well. I really like his versatility. I told our staff the day we were getting him that this guy is going to compete as good as anyone that we’re signing based off of the film evaluation. Then you dive into his family dynamics and get to the know. I’m really excited about this individual. I’m not comparing him, but from a versatility standpoint, you see like a Brandon Dorlus. He has the ability to dominate the C-area, and then get reduced down and a be a problem in the B-gap as well.”
Hometown: Florissant, Mizz.
Recruiting ranking: No. 83 defensive lineman
Tosh Lupoi’s breakdown: “I just saw him listed at 285. That was probably his fourth grade body weight. He’s definitely in the 330s right now. Giant, large man. There’s nothing more exciting for me when you go in to eat breakfast or like last night we had a connection meeting with the fellas… and just to see these giant, massive men who are the size of NFL players today as 17 and 18 year old men. He’s got a long ways to improve. He knows that. We’re excited to do that with him and fine-tune his skillset. From a measurables standpoint, he’s certainly got a head start with that. Just so you know, his nickname is “Da Issue”.
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