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Come Fan with UsSaturday, June 20, 2026

USC Recruited Silas Redd Like Ballers

Not gonna lie: The story of how Lane Kiffin and the USC Trojans football staff recruited former Penn St. Nittany Lions running back Silas Redd is baller as all hell. It involved a private jet, a couple of other flights and an attempt at using a helicopter to secure Tee Martin. Yep!

The story came from Kiffin on Colin Cowherd’s radio show:


Shutdown Fullback's Pac-12 Episode

After studying his roster and Penn State's, Kiffin settled on Silas Redd as the Trojans' only target. After a quick conversation, a mutual interest was established. And the game was on.

"I was at the Pac-12 meetings. We were pretty excited about that. We called his dad to see if that was OK and he said yes. So I picked up the phone in true SC fashion, called one of our great donors -- Ted Jones of Fletcher-Jones Mercedes. I called him and we were at the Soho House for the Pac-12 dinner and he said 'Let me guess, you're calling about Silas. Where you at?'

"So he sent his big old Mercedes jet which was in Vegas to pick us up in L.A. We got done with the Pac-12 meetings and flew to, I don't even know, White Plains, N.Y. Myself, my dad, our running back coach, our O-Line coach. We called Coach [Orgeron], he was in Louisiana, and he got on a plane. Our DB coach was in Nebraska; he got on a plane.

"Only two we couldn't get ... we were trying to get our quarterback coach, but he was in Mexico, because everybody was on vacation. And our receivers coach was on a cruise. So we tried to get a helicopter to go get him -- Tee Martin -- but they wouldn't let us do it."

Try saying no to that. Just try.

H/T Coaching Search

For more on Trojans football, visit USC blog Conquest Chronicles, plus Pac-12 blog Pacific Takes and SB Nation Los Angeles.

While we’re here, let’s watch some of the many fine college football videos from SB Nation’s YouTube channel:

Check out the SB Nation Channel on YouTube

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