Report: Kyle Ford suffers ACL injury
A report surfaced Friday night that USC wide receiver Kyle Ford suffered an ACL injury and will miss extended time.
The report from 247 Sports cited sources that said Ford tore his ACL. Ford suffered an ACL tear in high school back in 2018, but the report stated that this injury is to his other knee.
Ford's previous ACL tear occurred in September of his senior season and he was eventually cleared to begin practicing for the Trojans in September of last year. If this rehab follows the same time line, Ford will hopefully be ready to contribute during the 2021 season.
Ford saw action in four games last season and his one reception was a 20-yard touchdown against Oregon.
Ford was expected to take on a much bigger role in 2020, as Michael Pittman is off to the NFL and the 6-foot-2, 210-pound Ford appeared to be one of the young wide receivers who would be relied upon to pick up some of that production.
USC will be okay with the healthy wide receiver talent on hand, but this would be a tremendously disappointing development for Ford, who has had to miss so much football over the past two years already.
USC returns veteran wide receivers in Tyler Vaughns and Amon-Ra St. Brown this season. Vaughns has a great shot at setting the all-time receptions record for the Trojans, while St. Brown could declare early for the NFL Draft with a good season. Sophomore Drake London had a big freshman season, catching 39 passes for 567 yards and scoring a touchdown in each of the season's final five games.
The Trojans should also get a big boost from redshirt freshman Bru McCoy, who missed all of last season due to illness but performed well in USC's one spring ball practice. Fellow redshirt freshmen John Jackson III and Munir McClain could see increased action as well. It will be interesting to see where McClain is with his health after he tore ligaments in his knee against Arizona last season and missed the final six games of the year.
USC will also have true freshmen wide receivers Gary Bryant Jr. and Joshua Jackson Jr., who enrolled early and showed well during USC's spring ball practice.
USC has been carrying some real positive momentum throughout this offseason, as a potent offense looks to improve in Year 2 under Graham Harrell and the Trojans' recruiting outlook appears much better now than it did at this point last year. But this is the second blow to USC's offensive depth, as quarterback JT Daniels announced previously that he will transfer to Georgia.
