Charles is a undersized DE who most likely will play LB or FB at the next level. Here are some quotes from his recruitment story over at Scout.com:
“Tonight I got home from football practice and Coach O called me and told me that he and Coach Kiffin talked, and that the entire staff wanted to grant me a scholarship, regardless of if I graduate early or not.“I was all fired up and told him that I want to be a Trojan.”
Burks, who also had offers from Stanford, Duke and San Diego State among others, picked USC because of the coaching staff and the chance to stay local.
“I fell in love with the coaching staff,” he said. “They are all just great people and really good coaches. I love the way that they run things.
I like this pick-up because my theory on recruiting is you get the best results when you pit your elite 5 & 4 star players with tough/hungry 3-star players in each class to create a competitive environment. Charles is the perfect example of a player who might not have the ideal size or elite talent but will overachieve through his work-ethic and attitude. Having players like that make the team better. This brings me back to the old days when we recruited overachievers like Mike Patterson, Ryan Kalil, Fili Moala, Josh Pinkard, etc.
