Others emerge for USC DT commit
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On Wednesday, Cerritos College defensive tackle and USC commit Dillon Faamatau announced his strong grade point average to the world on Twitter.
TrojanSports.com subscribers will rejoice seeing that tweet. Because of our reporting, they know Faamatau is pushing hard to enroll at USC for the 2017 season. And he would be needed immediately. As everyone knows, USC could use an extra defensive lineman this year.
But when contacted about his grades, Faamatau says he still doesn't know if his strong showing would help him play at USC any earlier.
"I'm not too sure," Faamatau said when asked if his strong spring could impact his ability to get into USC for the 2017 season. "Hopefully it does because it's going to be a major boost to my GPA from what it was before. So that's going to help a lot."
The 305-pound defensive lineman says that regardless if that GPA helps or not, he'll push hard in the summer to enroll at USC.
"I'm really trying to back it in with these summer classes that I'm taking as of right now," Faamatau said when asked about enrolling in USC in 2017. "Hopefully I can get everything done right and it becomes a situation where I can come to SC this June and that would be fantastic. But if not, I'll just weigh out the process from here."
He's currently enrolled in four classes and is on pace to finish with summer school very soon.
"It's intense right now," Faamatau said. "I'm stacked with a math course, I'm taking political science, a communications course and a history course. And these are all six week classes by the way too. I'll have these classes done by the end of June."
After that, he'll know if he has a chance to enroll earlier at USC.
"By the end of June, I'll get my AA degree," Faamatau said. "Hopefully that'll be enough but if not, I'll take an online course really quick and see what USC is talking about from there."
If things don't work out with him and USC for the 2017 season, Faamatau understands that he has options.
"Besides USC, I think I would be able to get into any other university easily," Faamatau said.
And those options are starting to emerge. When we first spoke to Faamatau after his commitment to USC, the Trojan coaching staff was the only one that had offered a scholarship.
Now, according to Faamatau, other name football programs have also extended scholarship offers.
"Louisville offered me and Oklahoma as well," Faamatau said. "Louisville and Oklahoma, they've been trying to get me out there. They've both done a real good job of persuading me too, trying to get me out there to commit to them. Because they want me to play for them as well this upcoming Fall."
Faamatau says he'll consider all his options going forward.
"I know USC is a great opportunity," Faamatau said. "USC is home. But Oklahoma and Louisville are teams that are great as well. Oklahoma is coming back rated as the number four team in the nation, right behind USC this season. Oklahoma willbe number four, USC will be number three. That's kind of weighing on my mind too."
In fact, he plans to visit both Louisville and Oklahoma.
"Next week I have an official visit set up with Oklahoma," Faamatau said. "And then I believe the week after, I have one with Louisville."
And a few other schools might also have a shot to pry Faamatau away from USC.
"Cal is another school that's showing a lot of interest." Faamatau said. "I think they're about to pull the trigger. A little bit from Utah and also Oregon State."
