‘He’s got a special gene’: Drake London’s 2-sport USC career is ahead of schedule

LOS ANGELES — Cindi and Dwan London will tell you this was not the plan. At least not initially.

Their son Drake excelled on the football field and on the basketball court growing up and at Moorpark High School. But at some point, one sport would eventually win out.

“We really thought by his senior year, I guess, kind of our plan was he’d narrow it down to one and focus on one,” Cindi said.

Things aren’t going to plan, and that’s been a good thing for USC’s 6-foot-5, 205-pound freshman wideout, who will eventually switch uniforms and join the Trojans’ basketball program once the football season ends this winter. No, if things went according to script, we probably wouldn’t have heard much from Drake London this fall.

USC returned its top four receivers from last year and a promising sophomore in Devon Williams, but London has come on strong, recording 18 of his 21 catches in the past four games and scoring touchdowns in each of the past two games.

One of those catches last weekend against Arizona State earned him some national exposure. In the third quarter, backup quarterback Matt Fink heaved up a 50-50 ball in name only that would leave most receivers facing odds much lower than 50-50.

Sun Devils safety Aashari Crosswell was in great position to intercept the pass and had a hand on it. Then London went into basketball mode, getting two hands on the football like he was skying for the rebound and making a miraculous grab to not only rob Crosswell of a pick but also put USC in field goal range.

Freshman @DrakeLondon_ with a GROWN MAN CATCH.#BeatTheSunDevils pic.twitter.com/8PTD8Cu4gs

— USC Trojans (@USC_Athletics) November 9, 2019

It was impressive enough that Randy Moss featured it on his “You Got Mossed” segment on ESPN’s “Monday Night Countdown” ahead of the game between the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers.

“Not at all. Not one bit,” London said when asked if he thought he’d receive this type of exposure as a true freshman. “I just thought I was going to be on the team, learn a little bit, but here I am.”

Even though it wasn’t expected this soon, London’s progress over these past four games has been a positive development for the present and future of USC, which travels to Berkeley on Saturday to face a tough, experienced Cal secondary.

“He’s a kid we just knew would play an integral part for our offense,” Clay Helton told reporters on Sunday. “We didn’t know how fast it would be, but thank goodness he’s really playing above and beyond his years right now.”

Shortly after London made his “You Got Mossed” appearance, his mother thought back to one his parent-teacher conferences in first grade.

“His teacher said not too many kids know what they’re passionate about, but Drake does,” Cindi London recalled. “And he was passionate about football and basketball, and that was in first grade.”

It’s not that Cindi and Dwan didn’t let Drake play other sports. He played baseball one year and tried track out another. He’d play one sport at a time, and they’d ask Drake what he wanted to do.

He always went back to basketball. He tried soccer but eventually found his way back to football. Hoops and football won out. He grew up as a big fan of Reggie Bush and Andrew Wiggins.

Toward the end of his sophomore year, London started getting attention from college coaches. His parents say football and basketball coaches started showing interest around the same time, but he received football offers first. In that sport, his appeal was obvious.

“Very athletic. Very rangy receiver. Plays with his size well,” Trojans receivers coach Keary Colbert told The Athletic in February about the traits Drake possessed. “He’s a big man but he plays with some little man skills as far as his quickness. Obviously, he has a unique ability to high-point the ball, which comes from his basketball background.”

Martin Bahar, the director of scouting for USC’s men’s basketball program, obviously had his own view.

“Drake was somebody who I viewed, from a basketball perspective, someone who had the potential to be an elite perimeter defender with skill though,” Bahar said. “Not just a physical defender-type but a physical defender who could also drive, dribble, shoot. Obviously had athleticism in the open court. Had to do everything for his high school team at Moorpark. I’m talking inside out, rebounding, making the majority of their 3s, driving to create for others. Drake just showed this special all-around game but also had that football mentality and physicality we thought could help us from a basketball perspective.”

Some athletes play two sports but lean toward one over the other. Take for example another one of the Trojans’ standout true freshmen, running back Kenan Christon.

In addition to being a standout running back at Madison High School, Christon was the California state champion in the 100- and 200-meter dashes as a high school senior this past spring. Christon plans on running track at USC, too. But if you ask his family, football comes first.

Growing up, Drake was often asked which sport he liked more.

“He truly can’t tell which one he loves more,” Dwan said.

“He’s like, ‘I can’t answer that. I love both,’ Cindi said. “As one season’s coming to an end, he starts itching to play the next one. He’s very passionate about them.”

So instead of choosing one, he stuck with both. As a senior, he caught 62 passes for 1,089 yards and 12 touchdowns. Then he averaged 29.2 points, 11.9 rebounds and 3.8 assists. He was an All-CIF performer in both sports, a four-star football player and a three-star basketball player.

USC and Virginia were the only schools who offered London scholarships in both football and basketball. He chose a football scholarship at USC with the intention of playing basketball there, too.

“A good piece of advice he was given is where would you want to be if you didn’t play a sport?” Cindi said. “And everything came back to USC.”

(Joe Camporeale / USA Today)

From an athletic standpoint, USC actually represents a much lighter load than London is used to. In high school, he had to juggle Moorpark’s basketball and football teams with his AAU basketball team and the football camps he had to attend.

“In the fall when he knew I was coming (to see him), he would sneak away right after football practice and do some basketball stuff,” Bahar said. “To have that trait, to be in the middle of football season and to love basketball so much and to want to play pickup and do workouts with your basketball teammates, there’s a reason he’s just a legend at Moorpark.”

All he has to focus on now, aside from academics, is Trojans basketball and football.

“In my eyes, it’s much easier because I’m not bouncing from team to team,” London said. “I’m here doing strictly what I do.”

He arrived at USC in the summer. He turned 18 in July and quickly added 20 pounds to his frame after working with the football team’s strength staff, which caught Bahar by surprise after going a few weeks without seeing him.

Early in August’s training camp, it was clear that London and Munir McClain had the potential to make an impact this season as true freshmen. Those two weren’t the headline receivers in this class, but Kyle Ford, the No. 1 receiver in California last year, was recovering from a torn ACL, and Bru McCoy, the No. 1 athlete in the nation last year, was dealing with an illness that kept him off the field.

So London and McClain received plenty of opportunities to display their promise, enough that Helton singled them out to the media early in camp. But it still seemed like it would be an uphill battle in terms of playing time and targets. USC returned Michael Pittman Jr., Amon-Ra St. Brown and Tyler Vaughns, and their fourth-leading receiver from 2018, Velus Jones, was coming back, too.

“First of all, our mindset was let’s go in there and try to win some playing time,” Dwan London said. “As he was reporting back to me or he was going through it, he was letting me know he was feeling comfortable and he can compete on this level.”

Drake got into the season opener against Fresno State but didn’t record his first career catch until the first series of the Stanford game, when he took a short pass from Kedon Slovis and turned into it a 45-yard gain. He finished with three catches for 62 yards that night.

Over the next four games, London was held without a catch. He was targeted several times, mainly against BYU and Washington, but four of those targets resulted in interceptions.

Drake made his way back into the box score with a four-catch, 52-yard effort against Arizona, but the following Friday night against Colorado is the game that sparked this recent surge. That’s when the game began to slow down for him.

He caught a simple 8-yard hitch on the game’s second drive, and that was all his father needed to see.

“I looked at Cindi and said, he’s fine. He’s back,” Dwan London said. “Then his second catch when he turned, cut it up the middle and put on his little shake, I went ahead and sat down like, ‘All right. It’s show time.’ ”

On the game-winning drive, London came up with a critical 19-yard reception on 2nd and 20, which dramatically changed the complexion of a series that had gotten off to a discouraging start. He finished with seven receptions for 85 yards, both of which are career highs.

He scored his first career touchdown the following week against Oregon.

“You know how they say your life flashes before your eyes?” Dwan said. “You saw him play flag football, you saw him play tackle football, you saw him play Pop Warner, you saw him play high school, and now he’s catching a touchdown in the Pac-12, in the Coliseum.”

(Gary A. Vasquez / USA Today)

So what’s the plan now? Well, it’s not exactly clear when London will score his first points in the Galen Center, USC’s basketball arena. USC has two games left in its regular season and clinched bowl eligibility last week, so it remains to be seen whether London will join the basketball team once the regular season ends or once the bowl game finishes. At the moment, he gets some basketball workouts in on Sundays.

When the transition does take place, his mindset won’t change much.

“Same expectations as football,” Dwan London said. “Keep your mouth shut, come in and work hard and allow the chips to fall where they may. Our motto is defense gets you on the court and offense keeps you there, so we’ll continue to strive for that.”

That approach seemingly falls in line with what USC needs. Bahar said Drake projects as an ultra-competitive wing defender who could be a third guard type.

“He’s someone who’s a two-way player based on the fact he can guard the opposing team’s best player based on his athleticism and physicality,” Bahar said. “There will be an adjustment to this level of basketball for him, but quite frankly there was a level of adjustment for him in football but in his second game he had three catches and played great.

“He’s got it in him. He’s got a special gene.”

And so far, that’s allowed London to outperform even the most well-intentioned plans.

(Top photo: Jordon Kelly / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)