Elijah Melendez speaks on new USC offer: “I will get up there for sure.”
USC extended an offer recently to Kissimmee (Fla.) Osceola four-star linebacker Elijah Melendez.
Melendez is the No. 257 overall prospect and No. 26 linebacker in the 2025 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He is also the No. 36 player in Florida.
He ranks slightly higher in the On300, being tabbed as the No. 24 linebacker in the 2025 cycle.
Melendez is an impressive athlete, reporting a 4.5-second 40-yard dash at 220 pounds. His speed is evident on film and he plays with a natural aggression and style that allows him to make plays across the field.
I spoke with him not long after getting the offer. He was very excited to get the news he had an offer. Melendez has had his eyes on USC for some time.
“I thought [the offer] was amazing. USC is an offer I have been trying to get for a while.”
I asked Melendez what the main appeals were for USC for him at this time. He is just simply excited to about the location and opportunities.
“It’s a very good program and the location it’s in is a beautiful place and it’s in the West Coast, it’s just so nice. It just seems so amazing, I will get up there for sure.”
As expected, the offer came from linebackers coach Brian Odom. And Melendez can thank himself for making sure Odom watched the film.
“I followed him [on Twitter], he followed me back and I sent him my film. He watched it, told me he loved it a lot and that I’m just as good as the best.”
On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine
The 6-foot-2, 220-pounder holds 24 offers. According to the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine, Florida currently has the early lead to land a commitment from Melendez at 38.4%. Several Florida based and east coast schools are also high up in the odds.
RPM was released to the public in December 2021. The On3 engineering group teamed up with Spiny.ai to create the industry’s first algorithm and machine learning-based product to predict where athletes will attend college.
It factors in machine learning, social sentiment, visits and historical trends. However, expert predictions are still a big piece of the RPM equation.
On3 NIL Valuation
Melendez has an On3 NIL Valuation of $34K. The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets high school and college athletes’ projected annual value (PAV). The NIL valuation does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals an athlete has completed to date. It rather signifies an athlete’s value at a certain moment in time
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