Jide Abasiri’s path to USC started with a secret.
As a kid in Minnesota, he kept asking his parents to let him play football. They kept saying no, worried about injuries and focused on school. So when Abasiri finally got the chance in high school, he went to practice without telling them.
“He went and registered and never discussed it with us,” Abasiri’s father, Eric Okpala, said. “Never let any of us know because he knows that if we know, we’re not going to support him.
“But he went and registered and finally we gave up. We said, OK, if that’s what he wants to do, then let’s give him the chance.”
That decision has taken him a long way. The 6-foot-5, 280-pound junior has become a key part of USC’s defense and one of the Trojans’ top 2027 NFL draft prospects.
Pro Football Focus ranks him No. 18 among pass rushers in the defensive interior, and he has rushed the passer on 128 of 131 passing snaps faced. ESPN draft analyst Jordan Reid included him among his top 50 prospects at the start of October.
“I just remind myself where I came from,” Abasiri said. “You have to work super hard to come to a place like this. I remind myself to always keep that fire lit inside of me, and remember my roots.”
His rise is even more striking considering how late he started. Abasiri played on the freshman team at Prior Lake High School, then moved to varsity as a sophomore because of his size and athleticism.
His parents, Nigerian immigrants, had their own path in mind for him, while his three older brothers are deep into medical school. He chose something different, and it’s paying off in a big way.
Prior Lake coach Matt Gegenheimer remembers the kind of environment Abasiri grew up in on the football field. He recalled a state quarterfinal from roughly seven years ago, when the players were bundled up around sideline heaters in snow, subzero temperatures and a 15-below wind chill.
“We as coaches still talk about that being the coldest game we’ve ever been a part of,” Gegenheimer said.
Minnesota football, he said, has stayed physical and run-heavy, and that toughness suited Abasiri. At first, pure size and raw ability carried him. By his junior year, he was starting to put it together.
“It was during his junior year where he was really starting to figure it out,” Gegenheimer said. “For a while it was like, raw talent and being able to hold his gap or hold his own. And then all of a sudden it turned into, ‘Not only am I going to hold my own, but I’m going to go make a play.’”
A big part of that development came from wrestling. Abasiri said he joined because his football coach thought it would help and because he knew one of the upperclassmen. He wrestled at heavyweight and also competed in track and field, while watching clips of Gable Steveson and Anthony Cassar as he learned more about leverage, hand fighting and body control.
“My football coach said it might be good, so I gave it a shot because I knew one of the upperclassmen,” said Abasiri, who wrestled at heavyweight and also competed in track and field. “I’m definitely a lot more flexible because of wrestling, and it definitely helped with conditioning.”
That background helped shape the player USC wanted. He is one of only five Trojans football players from Minnesota in the last 20 years, and he sits atop the “alumni in college football” page on the Prior Lake football website, with a photo of him in a USC uniform leading the slideshow.
Even so, Lincoln Riley saw him as a calculated gamble when USC recruited him. Riley liked the physical tools, but it was the mindset that mattered most.
“Some guys, you just feel a different level of hunger,” said Riley, whose No. 16 Trojans (6-1, 3-1, Big Ten) play at Wisconsin (4-2, 2-1) on Saturday.
“There’s a confidence past his physical skills that this guy’s gonna find a way to be good. His sense of where he was at and the work it was going to take to get it done and that he was going to have to have some patience … and grow and probably have some missteps a long way.
“We left it thinking, like, there’s a little bit of a risk. But man, it’s hard to bet against this kid.”
Abasiri’s work hasn’t stopped since arriving at USC. He spent the offseason with director of sports performance Trumain Carroll and lost 15 pounds to become more athletic. His production has stayed steady even though he missed most of the Penn State game because of injury concerns.
USC’s run defense has improved, too. The Trojans allowed 143.23 rushing yards per game in 2025, and this season that number is down to 111.
For his parents, the football journey matters, but so does what comes with it. Abasiri is majoring in cognitive science, and that keeps them happy.
“His education is what matters to us a lot. If he can finish it and he ends up being so good to go to the NFL, so be it,” Okpala said.
“He always wants to be the best. Ever since he was a child, he wanted to be the best.
Whether it’s in school, whether it’s in football.”
The sport he once had to hide is now part of who he is. Abasiri built his path by taking a chance, and by sticking with it long enough to turn that risk into something real.
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