Korey Foreman to play senior season at Corona Centennial
When it was announced that California would postpone the high school football season to January, No. 1 overall prospect Korey Foreman (Corona, Calif./Centennial) was one of the first to state that he would bypass his senior year in order to enroll early at his college of choice.
On Wednesday, Foreman announced an adjustment to those plans, as he said during his All-American Bowl jersey presentation that he would instead remain at Corona Centennial and play his senior season, according to 247 Sports’ Greg Biggins.
Foreman has been genuinely torn during this recruiting process. He made an initial commitment to Clemson but backed away from that, in part because they wouldn’t allow him to take official visits to other schools and remain a Clemson commit.
USC’s defensive staff has thrown everything they have at Foreman since taking over, as the Trojans remain a viable option for the talented defensive end. Clemson, Georgia, LSU and Oregon are seen as the other teams in the mix, though Foreman has not publicly released a top group recently.
Two big developments for Foreman came in recent weeks, as he took unofficial visits to Georgia and LSU, along with some of the major commitments and targets for each school. While Foreman was unable to take an official tour or interact with coaches during the dead period, simply getting him on campus right now is a big win for both schools.
Had Foreman gone ahead with his plan to sign during the December early signing period and enroll early, he would have done so without visiting USC again. Now, if schools are able to host official visitors in January, the Trojans will be able to fight for one of those trips and potentially get Foreman on campus for the final visit–always an important aspect of any recruiting battle.
This is the third-consecutive year that a top-10, five-star defensive prospect resides in Southern California and the Trojans are hoping to find success here after missing on the previous two. While Kayvon Thibodeaux signed with Oregon in 2019, the Trojans were able to bounce back by signing fellow defensive end Drake Jackson. No such rebound was available when USC missed out on Justin Flowe–also to Oregon–in the 2020 class, and similarly this year, there is no local fallback plan anywhere close to Foreman.
USC’s 2021 recruiting class currently has just two commitments along the defensive line, in defensive end Colin Mobley (Hyattsville, Md./DeMatha Catholic) and four-star defensive tackle Jay Toia (Simi Valley, Calif./Grace Brethren). Four-star defensive end Aaron Armitage (Blairstown, NJ/Blair Academy) remains a top target, as does five-star defensive tackle Maason Smith (Houma, La./Terrebonne).
Smith and Foreman have become very close during this recruiting process and have said they are a package deal. That could mean that USC has twice the work to do in order to bring Foreman in, as Smith will not be easy to pull out of SEC country and away from Georgia or LSU, which want both Smith and Foreman badly.
