USC’s 2027 recruiting class has a centerpiece in Honor Fa’alave-Johnson, and the San Diego (Calif.) Cathedral Catholic five-star athlete is already shaping up to be one of the most intriguing pieces in the group.
There’s a reason every recruiting outlet has him pegged as the No. 1 athlete in the country. Fa’alave-Johnson does damage everywhere.
Last season, he piled up 30 touchdowns - 23 on the ground and seven through the air - while topping 2,000 yards of total offense and averaging more than 11 yards per carry. He also hit 22.7 MPH on a touchdown run, the fastest max speed time ever recorded in the UC Report, and added three interceptions on defense.
That production earned him first team MaxPreps Junior All-American honors as an All-Purpose player.
At USC, the plan is to keep that versatility alive, even if the college game forces a little more specialization. Fa’alave-Johnson said the Trojans want to expand him on defense while still carving out a role on offense.
“They’re gonna teach me more on defense,” Fa’alave-Johnson said. “They're not gonna teach me the whole playbook (on offense) just because it’ll probably be too much, but they're gonna get me in the rotation.
Get me at slot, get me at running back, decoy player. Whatever it might be, I’m just trying to get some reps on offense.”
That approach should sound familiar to USC fans. Adoree Jackson followed a similar path with the Trojans, working on offense during his three seasons in Los Angeles before becoming a first round draft pick after winning the 2016 Jim Thorpe Award. The setup for Fa’alave-Johnson looks much the same: defense first, offense sprinkled in.
USC beat out Oregon and Texas for his commitment in March, and even after that, the recruiting traffic never really stopped. Fa’alave-Johnson said he shut things down in early May after five USC staff members traveled to San Diego to meet with him. Since then, he’s kept repeating the same message as outside rumors keep floating around.
“I'm blessed for them reaching out, but I'm happy where I am,” Fa’alave-Johnson.
One of the biggest reasons he feels that way is Aaron Amaama, better known as Coach Dogg, USC’s director of high school recruiting relations. Fa’alave-Johnson said Amaama helped tie everything together during the process.
“He's the guy. I have a good relationship, and he makes it more than football, but family. He really pulled all the pieces together for me,” Fa’alave-Johnson said.
Staying close to home mattered too. That was part of the pitch he made to the Trojans during his recruitment, and it clearly resonated.
“That was really my biggest pitch to them,” Fa’alave-Johnson said. “I want to stay in California, play with all of them, so they kind of made it easy for me. And then just the coaching staff, I trust them."
He also pointed to the comfort of being around familiar faces from the same area.
“Being surrounded by people that you grew up with, or just seeing playing on that youth field, definitely plays a big part," Fa'alave-Johnson said. "You can relate to all the kids over there, all California kids. So it should be fun.”
USC has leaned hard into elite local talent, especially in the 2026 class, and that push has carried right into 2027. The Trojans’ strongest area in the current cycle is the secondary, where four commits stand out: Fa’alave-Johnson, Damien (Calif.) four-star Gavin Williams, Mater Dei (Calif.) four-star cornerback Danny Lang and IMG Academy (Fla.) four-star cornerback Aaryn “J.O.” Washington, who transferred from Mater Dei earlier this year.
The group took official visits together during the final weekend of May, and their photo shoot even featured all-white uniforms, an alternate look reserved just for those visits.
“Chad Bowden came into the room and was like, ‘Hey, nobody did all the all whites before,’ so we're like we got to do something different," Fa'alave-Johnson said.
That kind of detail fits the broader shift around the program. Since Bowden and a revamped personnel staff arrived, the atmosphere has changed, and Lincoln Riley now enters the season with what looks like his strongest staff since becoming a head coach almost a decade ago. With Riley, Bowden and athletic director Jen Cohen in place, USC has built real momentum in Los Angeles.
For Fa’alave-Johnson, that’s part of the appeal. The Trojans have the local ties, the staff, and a role that lets him keep showing off the same rare two-way skill set that made him such a coveted recruit in the first place.
“It's special. It's something I want to be a part of, and I can't wait to be a Trojan,” Fa’alave-Johnson.
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Lincoln Riley arrived at USC in 2021 with the kind of immediate lift that made the hire look like a program changer. His first season delivered a Pac-12 Championship Game appearance and a trip to a New Years Six bowl, the sort of start that can buy a coach plenty of runway in Los Angeles.
The runway has shortened since then. After three straight unsuccessful seasons from 2023 through 2025, USA TODAY Sports now has Riley outside the top five Big Ten coaches, with Curt Cignetti, Ryan Day, Dan Lanning, Kirk Ferentz and Kyle Whittingham all slotted ahead of him. USC did show signs of life last year by going 7-2 in the Big Ten and signing one of the nations top recruiting classes, but the bigger question is whether that is enough to change how Riley is viewed after the recent slide. [Read more 🡒]