Young QB chooses Trojans
13-year-old orally commits to USC
Talk about making some early decisions as a quarterback.
David Sills, a seventh grader at Red Lion Christian Academy in Bear, Del., made an oral commitment Thursday to play football at the University of Southern California upon graduating high school in 2015.
The 13-year-old quarterback cannot sign a binding national letter of intent until February, 2015. The middle schooler will also play his high school football at Red Lion Christian Academy, which plays a national schedule.
Sills trains with quarterback guru Steve Clarkson, who is based in Southern California and has a relationship with USC coach Lane Kiffin.
Clarkson’s list of clients includes NFL players Ben Roethlisberger, Matt Cassel, and Matt Leinart; and Notre Dame’s Jimmy Clausen and USC’s Matt Barkley.
“He is extremely special,” Clarkson said of Sills last fall. “I first saw it with Jimmy Clausen. If there was a LeBron James in football, Jimmy Clausen would be the one. Then Matt Barkley was sort of second.
“This one (Sills), he is so unique. I thought he was the Tiger Woods of his position.”
More knowledgeable than your typical seventh-grade quarterback, Sills spends his free time breaking down film of Tom Brady and Peyton Manning.
Sills called Kiffin on Thursday evening. That’s when the Trojans coach offered him a scholarship and Sills accepted it.
“I’ve always imagined in my dream going to USC,” Sills told the Wilmington (Del.) News Journal. “But I never really detailed it to the phone call. All I imagined was playing in the Coliseum. But this is so crazy and out of nowhere.”
The right-handed signal caller is listed at 5-foot-11 and 136 pounds. He’s projected to grow to be 6-5.
There is no regulation on how early colleges can offer athletic scholarships. There’s also no regulation to when or how prospects can call college coaches.