USC Edge Braylan Shelby’s Poised for Impactful Freshman Season

Prior to USC Edge Braylan Shelby announcing his commitment to the Trojans, WeAreSC had an opportunity to spend a few days with him at Friendswood High School. Friendswood (TX) is about 30 minutes south of Houston for those wondering. It’s a town of 40+ thousand people, but definitely has a small-town feel to it.

As you can probably imagine, Friendswood’s a close knit community full of extremely welcoming and humble people. The football program, led by then head coach Robert Koopman, had a collection of impressive young guys who were well coached. It’s one of those programs you look forward to being around as often as possible.

Over the last 60 years, only four men have held the head coach position for the Friendswood varsity football team. With the hiring of former Denton Guyer head coach Jordan Johnson this offseason, the Mustangs now have their fifth coach in 60+ years.

First impression of Shelby

Inside Texas expert and On3 regional analyst Gerry Hamilton provided WeAreSC with a lot of background information on the program and a heads up on Shelby very early in the process. I made my first trip to see Shelby Friendswood in March 2022 and Hamilton, who’s a Mustang alum, happened to be there the same day.

It already had a USC vs Texas feel to his recruitment, despite several months remaining in the 2023 recruiting cycle. As it turned out, that’s what it came down to. The Trojans and the Longhorns battled it out and each wanted Shelby bad.

Both Koopman and Hamilton raved about Shelby’s size, strength and athleticism, but what stood out most was how they spoke about him as a young man. Shelby comes from a football family, so hard work and dedication and weren’t foreign concepts to him. Despite many of the elite football programs pursuing him, Shelby’s humility also shined.

Why USC?

 After Shelby’s June 16-18 official visit, we asked him why USC could be the school for him?

“First of all the degree,” Shelby said. “My mom is very high on academics. At USC you get the best combination of academics and football. And I really feel we can rebuild the program with Malachi Nelson, Zach Branch and the others. They only signed seven guys in the last class and that also gives me a great opportunity to compete to play early.”

When you read commentary USC can’t sign elite ballers without significant guaranteed NIL deals, I’ll remind USC fans Riley and staff signed several like Shelby.

Roy Manning’s getting results

We should add Roy Manning deserves a lot of props for his recruiting effort since arriving at USC in November of 2021. He lured Shelby and DJ Peevy in the 2023 class, and has commitments from top 2024 Edge targets Eli Newby and Kameryn Fountain. Fountain is a Top 100 level prospect and Newby Top 200 for me.

Manning has a shot at gaining another 2024 Edge commitment from 4-Star Jaylen Harvey, who’ll be at USC for the San Jose State game Saturday (8/26). Harvey plans to announce his school choice by week three of Quince Orchard’s season. Harvey said a commitment could come as early as next week, though. Stay tuned.

Class of 2023’s potential impact

Ultimately with championship programs, the personalities need to fit as well as the skill sets. Shelby scores high marks on both ends. My extremely high first impression of Shelby hasn’t changed in more than 17 months.

The same can be said with Tackett Curtis, Zachariah Branch, Makai Lemon, Malachi Nelson, Elijah Hughes, Christian Pierce, Elijah Paige, Alani Noa, Quinten Joyner, Duce Robinson and Ja’Kobi Lane. The are the other true freshmen listed on the USC Depth Chart released Wednesday night.

A lot of time and effort goes into evaluating prospects talent level, but vetting the personalities requires a lot of effort too. That’s an element of recruiting we don’t spend as much time talking about, but it’s a vital aspect to building elite football programs.

As crazy as it may seem, especially considering Shelby didn’t enroll until after Spring Ball, he’s among the three rush ends who could start Saturday vs San Jose State. In theory anyway, because as of today, it’s Anthony Lucas OR Jamil Muhammad OR Braylan Shelby.

Look, we’re not delusional and won’t attempt convince USC fans Shelby will likely start in two days, but the fact he’s listed as a potential starter speaks volumes about him as a young player. Shelby came to USC in large part because of the opportunity to play early. It appears he’s grabbed that opportunity and ran with it. Shelby’s one of the offseason additions many have been most excited to see play this season.

Appears Riley was right

Back on April 25, we had an opportunity to speak to Lincoln Riley one-on-one about recruiting. There were about 7-8 topics discussed that day, including his thoughts on Shelby and Elijah Hughes. Whether they could make an impact as true freshmen?

“I don’t think there’s any question Braylan and Elijah can make an impact right away. We felt throughout the process both would have an opportunity to contribute early. They’re obviously different type of players. Braylan’s got the prototypical length, athleticism and explosiveness coming off the edge that you want.

“It’s going to be exciting to see what his body does when he gets in this strength and nutrition programs. Does he really become a 6-6, 260 pound monster, or stay a little leaner at the 230 to 240 pound range? It’ll be fun to see and I’m excited to get him here.”

Turns out USC’s evaluation of Shelby was pretty spot on. Obviously we don’t have much more to go on than expectations for Shelby, but they’re sky high heading into the season opener.

One Of The Top 2023 Rankings Risers

Braylan Shelby, EDGE, Friendswood (Texas) High: An impressive spring, summer and 2022 season resulted in a leap to No. 37 from No. 254 in early 2023 On3 rankings.

On3 Director of Scouting and Rankings Charles Power offered his take on Shelby last Summer.

“The Friendswood (Texas) High product is one of the more physically imposing EDGE prospects in the 2023 cycle. Shelby is a fluid, explosive athlete at that size and is growing into more of a pass rush role for Friendswood after previously spending time as an off-ball linebacker. He was highly efficient in his pass rush attempts as a junior (8 sacks in limited opportunities) and looks primed to take off as a senior. Like others in this story, Shelby is young for the class, not turning 18 until August (2023).

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