Five-Star Wide Receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown Commits to USC
The top wide receiver from the state of California in the classes of 2016 and 2017 picked USC. The top WR from the Golden State in the class of 2018, Amon-Ra St. Brown, is following them. On Saturday, he announced during the fourth quarter of the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio that he is verbally committing to the Trojans. The two other finalists for St. Brown were Notre Dame and Stanford.
USC was considered the frontrunner to reel in St. Brown heading into Saturday. He’d reportedly taken visits to Michigan, Notre Dame and UCLA, but USC had the advantage of bringing in St. Brown’s high school quarterback, five-star pro-style passer JT Daniels, who announced last month that he was pushing up his enrollment a year by reclassifying from 2019 to 2018.
Daniels had said in August that there was “no question” that he would convince St. Brown to join him on the Trojans, and it’s not hard to see why he wanted to keep throwing passes to him. At Mater Dei High in Santa Ana, Calif., this season, Daniels helped St. Brown record 1,320 receiving yards and 20 receiving touchdowns, according to MaxPreps, as the Monarchs posted a 15-0 record.
St. Brown is the younger brother of Stanford redshirt freshman wide receiver Osiris St. Brown and former Notre Dame wide receiver Equanimeous St. Brown, a junior who announced this week that he’s declaring for the 2018 NFL draft. Although Amon-Ra received scholarship offers from both of those schools, he ultimately opted against following in the footsteps of one of his siblings.
At 5’11.5,’’ 191 pounds, St. Brown is renowned for his explosiveness and crisp route running. He rates as the No. 2 wide receiver and No. 12 prospect in the class of 2018, according to the 247Sports Composite. Writing from San Antonio this week, Steve Wiltfong, the director of football recruiting for 247Sports, described St. Brown as the “most dominant high school player in the country.”
The two previous top-ranked wide receivers from California who chose USC are Bishop Amat Memorial high product Tyler Vaughns and Augustus Hawkins High product Joseph Lewis. St. Brown is the only WR in the class of 2018 who’s currently committed to the Trojans, but their 15-member class rates out as the best in the Pac-12 and in the top 10 nationally, according to the 247Sports Composite.
Starting quarterback Sam Darnold revealed this week that he’s leaving school for the NFL, and it’s possible only one of USC’s three leading wide receivers will be back next season. Senior Steven Mitchell expired his eligibility in 2017, and junior Deontay Burnett could enter the draft.
