{"id":352249,"date":"2025-12-18T01:05:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T01:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/352249\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T01:05:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T01:05:09","slug":"all-american-receiver-makai-lemon-headed-to-nfl-skipping-his-final-season-at-usc-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/352249\/","title":{"rendered":"All-American receiver Makai Lemon headed to NFL, skipping his final season at USC \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 All-American receiver Makai Lemon is skipping his final season at Southern California to enter the NFL draft.<\/p>\n

Lemon won the Biletnikoff Award as the nation\u2019s top receiver this season after catching 79 passes for 1,156 yards \u2014 tops in the Power Four conferences \u2014 and 11 touchdowns for the Trojans (9-3). The 5-foot-11 wideout with a knack for acrobatic catches and game-changing plays earned first-team All-America honors from The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

Lemon grew up 25 miles from USC\u2019s campus in Orange County. After playing sparingly as a freshman in 2023, he caught 131 passes for 1,928 yards and 14 TDs during his two full seasons with the Trojans.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFILE – Southern California wide receiver Makai Lemon, right, makes a catch while under pressure from Iowa defensive back Zach Lutmer during the second half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Mark J. Terrill, File)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe opportunity to play this game in the city that raised me was something I envisioned long before it became reality,\u201d Lemon wrote when announcing his expected decision on social media Wednesday. \u201cCompeting in front of my family, friends and community made this experience even more meaningful, and I\u2019ll always be proud to have represented this university and this city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lemon is USC\u2019s second Biletnikoff Award winner, joining Marqise Lee (2012).<\/p>\n

Ja\u2019Kobi Lane, Lemon\u2019s friend and fellow starting receiver at USC, also declared for the draft earlier this week.<\/p>\n

USC coach Lincoln Riley already announced that both of his top receivers would skip the Trojans\u2019 trip to the Alamo Bowl to face TCU on Dec. 30. Riley\u2019s team is expected be without roughly a dozen starters between opt-outs and injury recoveries.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP college football: https:\/\/apnews.com\/college-football<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 All-American receiver Makai Lemon is skipping his final season at Southern California to enter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-352249","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}