The USC Trojans have been in hot pursuit of one of the nation’s top 2025 defensive linemen, Jahkeem Steward, the day after they hired long-time Los Angeles Rams DL coach, Eric Henderson. Henderson has a long-standing relationship with Stewart, which opened the door for SC to land the consensus five-star defender.
According to On3, Henderson and Stewart’s head coach, Clyde Alexander, have a long-standing relationship dating back to their Edna Kerr High School days. That just so happens to be Stewart’s school.
USC Trojans Hosts Jahkeem Stewart On Impressive Official Visit
When Henderson took the job, he reached out to Alexander with one big ask, deliver Stewart to USC.
“He said if he does take the job at USC, he told me he needed me to bring him the kid,” said Alexander. “USC was the first place we visited after he took the USC job in January.”
And Alexander has done just that. Jahkeem Stewart visited the school last weekend in an official capacity.
Once in LA, USC pulled out all the stops, according to On3’s Scott Schrader;
“Over the weekend Stewart, his family, and Alexander met with people from Marvel Studios, they visited the FOX Sports studios when Michael Strahan and the guys were doing their show, they dined at Nobu in Malibu on Friday night and met prominent USC people involved in real estate development.”
While Stewart is interested in the USC Trojans for what it can prepare him to do after football, Coach Alexander recognizes that but also what it can do for him as a player.
“At USC they have an elite staff, great schemes on defense and offense, and an administration all in with adding elite coaches and athletes to the football program,” Alexander said. “We’re not looking at USC’s record or the same stuff fans are, we’re looking at what those coaches are doing with their current players.
“USC has everything it needs to be successful.”
Despite these efforts, Stewart’s home state school, the LSU Tigers is still favored to land Stewart by a wide margin — 67.2 percent to 1.2 percent according to the On3 recruiting prediction machine
