Joe McKnight

From NCAA College Football Information & Resource

Joe McKnight

Profile
College	University of Southern California
Position	TB
Jersey No.	4
Class	Sophomore
Career	2007 – present
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Weight	200 lbs (90.7 kg)
Nationality	American
B-date	April 16, 1988
B-place	River Ridge, Louisiana
High School	John Curtis Christian High School
Career Highlights
Awards
2007 All-Pac-10 honorable mention 2007 CFN All-Bowl Team Honorable Mention 2007 Rivals.com Freshman All-American 2nd team 2007 TSN Pac-10 All-Freshman 1st team
Championships
2007 Pac-10 Conference Co-Champion
Bowl Games
2008 Rose Bowl

Joe McKnight (born April 16, 1988 in River Ridge, Louisiana) plays tailback for the University of Southern California Trojans in the NCAA college football tournament. Heralded as the second coming of former Trojan running back Reggie Bush, McKnight possesses a combination of speed, quickness, vision and balance unlike any other. The shifty rusher from Louisiana has made a hobby of making his tacklers miss and blow past his defenders during his high school days but has yet to be given the opportunity to take his act into the collegiate level what with the amount of competition the Trojans have in their talent-laden tailback position. Nonetheless, McKnight is expected to have an explosive season anytime soon.

1 Personal Life
2 High School
3 College
- 3.1 2007
- 3.2 2008
4 Highlights
5 Career Stats
6 Achievements
- 6.1 2008
- 6.2 2007
7 References
8 External Links

[edit]

Personal Life

As a kid, Joe, along with his older sister Johanna (who went on to become a basketball and track standout at Richmond) and younger brother Jonathan lived at his grandmother's house (her mother Jennifer's side of the family) in Kenner since his mom was only young and finishing school while his dad, an amateur boxer, left them when he was only a toddler. When he was six, her mother dated a youth-league football coach named Elmo Lee, who "trained" little Joe to zigzag through garbage cans set up in their backyard while carrying a football. Lee also encouraged Joe's mom to send her kids to a private, nondenominational Christian school named John Curtis. For a while, Lee served as a father figure to Joe and his siblings but the relationship did not last long and soon after his mother began to date other men again. Since his mom was busy with work and school, Joe was given an enormous amount of space. He would spend time living with his grandmother or cousins or friends when he and his mother would have an argument which would happen more than once. He said that since he was 11, he had been on his own. But despite the disagreements, Joe admits that he loves his mom. He had Jennifer's name tattooed on one arm above a picture of an angel opposite the other bicep which had a tattoo that reads "Joe" above an image of a tiger.

[edit]

High School

McKnight first enrolled at John Curtis Christian School in River Ridge, Louisiana---founded in 1962 by the father of McKnight's would be high school coach J.T. Curtis---when he was in third grade. Despite not having its own football stadium, John Curtis had quite a successful football program when coach J.T. Curtis took over the reigns of his father in 1969. Coach Curtis, who had won over 400 games entering 2005, does not conduct try-outs nor does it cut anyone from the team. As a sophomore, McKnight's coaches began transitioning him from seeing action exclusively on defense to playing on both sides of the field. That year, the Patriots went undefeated and won their 19th state championship and McKnight was named a Student Sports Sophomore All-American. The following season, McKnight became the centerpiece of a young Patriot them who lost nine of its offensive starters from the previous season. Unfortunately, McKnight's season began unexpectedly when his city got struck by Hurricane Katrina. Without knowing when John Curtis would reopen, McKnight decided to enroll at a well-known private school named Evangel Christian Academy in Shreveport which has produced the likes of quarterback John David Booty, among others. At Evangel, McKnight played mostly on offense as a running back and wide receiver. In his debut against the Texas High Tigers, McKnight twisted his ankle while returning the opening kickoff and called it a night as the Eagles lost, 45-10. The following week, he led the Eagles in rushing and scored a touchdown but Evangel still lost to the Longview (Texas) Lobos, 52-14.

Not long after, John Curtis has reopened and although initially McKnight decided to stay at Evangel, he was later on convinced by defensive backs coach Tommy Fabacher to return at Curtis. He live at coach Curtis' house with another player named Jonathan (Tank) English whose house was flooded in the hurricane. On the football field, the Patriots struggled in their first game back but managed to settle down to sport a 5-1 record which was enough to earn a playoff berth. With McKnight scoring a dozen times, the Patriots swept four straight playoff games to earn a shot at the Class 2A championship. In that game, McKnight reached the endzone thrice to lead Curtis to a 31-6 win over St. Charles Catholic for the Patriots 20th state championship and earn for himself the Most Outstanding Player award. He finished the year with 502 rushing yards on 36 carries (averaging 13.9 yards per carry), had 497 receiving yards on 20 catches (for a 24.9 yards per catch avg.), with averages of 38.7 and 30.0 yards on kickoff and punt returns, respectively, all the while scoring 22 times (9 rushing, 5 receiving, 4 punt returns, 3 interceptions, 1 kickoff return) to earn EA Sports All-American third team, All-State, All-East Jefferson Parish and All-District honors.

The following year, McKnight continued to live with the Curtis but spent his weekends with his mother before finally moving with her after his graduation. During that football season, McKnight once again carried Curtis back into 2A state championship contention and like the previous year, beat out St. Charles Comets handily in the title game held at the Superdome for the school's 21st state title and 11th undefeated season with a 14-0 record. McKnight closed out his high school campaign racking up 1,928 all-purpose yards (22.2 avg.) and 30 TDs, including 711 rushing yards on 46 carries (15.5 avg.) with 14 TDs, 739 receiving yards on 24 catches (30.8 avg.) with 13 TDs, 268 yards on 12 punt returns (22.3 avg.) and a 34.6 average on 5 kickoff returns to earn All-American selections from EA Sports, SuperPrep, PrepStar, and Lemming as well as All-Southwest picks from SuperPrep and Scout.com, and an All-Southeast accolade from PrepStar. The 2006 Parade All-American Co-MVP (share with Jimmy Clausen) and All-State MVP also did his thing on defense with 10 tackles, 8 deflections and 1 interception. McKnight was also named into the SuperPrep Elite 50, PrepStar 100, and Rivals.com 100. He was also invited into the 2007 U.S. All-American Bowl where he played for the winning West squad.

[edit]

College

McKnight received much hype during the recruiting period. He received a 5-star rating from Scout.com and was named as the no.1 running back prospect in the nation. Rivals.com also named him as the best running back prospect in the U.S. and the 2nd best recruit overall. Recruiting analyst Jamie Newberg even called him “the most exciting prospect the state of Louisiana has produced since Marshall Faulk.” During these stages, USC linebackers coach and former NFL All-Pro Ken Norton Jr. was tasked to handle McKnight's recruitment while LSU coach Les Miles himself gave a personal visit on the last possible date before National Signing Day. Despite interests from Mississippi, Arkansas, [[Miami {Fla.)|Miami]], and LSU, McKnight eventually decided to go to USC stating the school's rich football tradition and its Heismans, among others as his main reason why he chose to become a Trojan.

Many LSU fans were disappointed with McKnight's decision, as evident by the boos that his high school's marching band received while performing at a Mardis Gras parade. Coach Pete Carroll also blamed these fans when a minor controversy came out which stated a possible recruiting violation by USC. It was said that McKnight told reporters on National Signing Day that he spoke to ex-USC running back Reggie Bush before he chose USC over LSU. NCAA rules state that an alumni cannot speak to players and attempt to persuade them to join their former school. McKnight and coach Curtis later on admit that the former misspoke during the news conference when in fact he had never met or spoken to Bush previously. Both Bush and Carroll also denied that a conference call ever took place between them and McKnight.

[edit]

2007

McKnight arrived at USC in June. During fall camp, he had to compete with nine other scholarship players vying for minutes at the tailback position. In a scrimmage in August, he tallied 120 yards on six carries including a spectacular 74-yard punt-return for a touchdown. By the start of the season, McKnight would play back-up behing Stafon Johnson and C.J. Gable. He made his collegiate debut against Idaho and had 6 carries for 26 yards, caught an 8-yard pass, and lost a fumble in the 38-10 win over the Vandals. He added a 5-yard run and lost another fumble at Nebraska then had 7 carries for 48 yards while returning a punt for 11 yards in the 47-14 win over Washington State. He saw little minutes in the three-point win at Washington then had a couple of carries for no gain with a punt return for 4 yards in the shocking upset loss to Stanford. Against Arizona, McKnight had 128 all-purpose yards (75 on 13 carries, 49 on 2 punt returns and 4 on 2 receptions) including a 45-yard punt return and 59-yard run that helped set up a Trojan TD and field goal in the fourth quarter of the 20-13 win. His punt return earned a Pontiac Game Changing Performance nomination while he was named the recipient of the team's Jack Oakie "Rise and Shine" Award (for the year's longest run from scrimmage). Against the lowly Notre Dame squad, McKnight fumbled once but still led all runners with 65 yards on 7 carries, including his first career touchdown on a 51-yard escape, while also returning 5 punts for 31 yards in the shut-out win over the Fighting Irish. At 5th ranked Oregon, McKnight rushed 10 times for 34 yards and caught four passes for 30 yards as the Trojans suffered another setback, 17-24.

Against Oregon State, McKnight had a season high 14 carries for 34 yards, caught 3 passes for 38 yards, and returned 4 punts for 22 yards to help the Trojans get back on track with an easy 24-3 win. At No. 24 California, he only collected 9 yards off four carries and caught a 7-yard pass as USC handled the Golden Bears, 24-17. At No.7 Arizona State, McKnight had 108 all-purpose yards (71 yards on 5 receptions, 30 yards on 7 carries and a 7-yard punt return) including his first career TD reception on a 7-yarder in USC's 20-point victory. In the regular season finale against rival UCLA, McKnight had a game-high 89 yards on 13 carries (with a 5-yard TD) and also returned 2 punts for no yards in the 24-7 triumph. In his postseason debut at the Rose Bowl, McKnight got his first career start and responded with 206 all-purpose yards (125 on 10 carries, 45 on 6 receptions and 36 on 3 punt returns) including a 6-yard TD run and a 65-yard scamper with a bobbled lateral to help the Trojans set a USC Rose Bowl-record 633 yards and defeat an upstart Illinois squad, 49-17.

McKnight finished his inaugural campaign tallying 540 yards on 94 carries (5.7 avg.) with 3 touchdowns, catching 23 passes for 203 yards (8.8 avg.) with 1 TD and returning 19 punts for 160 yards (8.4 avg.) in 13 appearances. His performance was rewarded with a Freshman All-American selections from Rivals and The Sporting News.

[edit]

2008

McKnight, who once again battled with USC's bevy of running backs for playing time, missed a lot of USC's spring practices after dropping out of a class which placed him below the minimum number of academic units required by the NCAA to participate in team-related activities. He is expected to regain eligibility by fall.

[edit]