Generational prospect Jahkeem Stewart keeps defying expectations and climbing at USC <\/p>\n
Along the West Bank of the Mississippi, directly across the way from downtown New Orleans, there\u2019s a levee that rises up beside the riverbank. At the top, about 40 feet up a steep, grassy hill, the skyline of the French Quarter unfurls into clear view over the river.<\/p>\n
To run up the levee and gaze upon that view of downtown was something of a rite of passage for kids in the neighborhood. But to the boys trained by Clyde Alexander, it was sacred ground. They called it Mecca, and every week, they came to the same stretch of levee next to an abandoned warehouse where Mardi Gras floats were once built. <\/p>\n
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Six years ago, before he was seen as a budding star at USC, Jahkeem Stewart stood at the base of that levee in Algiers on a muggy day, drenched in sweat. He was only 12 years old at the time, much younger than any of the other kids Alexander was training. He also happened to be 6-foot-4 and 360 pounds, bigger than any kid he\u2019d ever seen at that age.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t require much imagination to see how scouts would one day declare him the rare defensive line prospect worthy of the word \u201cgenerational.\u201d Or how Stewart\u2019s path, starting that day on the levee, would eventually lead him to USC, where his impact as a freshman was felt as soon as he joined the Trojans\u2019 front.<\/p>\n
But Alexander saw enough talent squandered in New Orleans to know that size and strength alone couldn\u2019t ensure a ticket out. It\u2019s why he was skeptical when a local travel coach contacted him, raving about a huge sixth grader he knew had the tools to be great. Video clips showed Stewart\u2019s combination of size, strength and speed was unstoppable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one thing you can\u2019t teach on Planet Earth is size,\u201d Alexander says. \u201cWhat he has, that\u2019s just God-given.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Generational prospect Jahkeem Stewart keeps defying expectations and climbing at USC Along the West Bank of the Mississippi,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[54445,64,63,64385,43405,96466,596,5588,36826,127911,8440,127910,127912,46907,85,6618,96461,127909,96460],"class_list":["post-206600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-ann-arbor","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-big-ten","tag-block","tag-coliseum","tag-football","tag-front","tag-last-season","tag-mich","tag-michigan","tag-michigan-live-update","tag-old-fashioned-big","tag-saturday","tag-sports","tag-time","tag-trojans","tag-usc-coach-lincoln-riley","tag-usc-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}