From USC to UCLA and … back to USC? Former 5-star Kyle Ford prepping for Year 6 of college football

Six years. It’s a career length that Kyle Ford never even considered coming out of Orange (Calif.) Lutheran.

He ranked as a five-star recruit. He planned to be a three-and-out prospect when he signed with USC. Instead, he’s in the transfer portal for a second time, looking for his third school in a career nagged by injury.

But that’s OK. Ford knows that every journey is different.

He’s fully healthy for the second offseason in a row. He’s ready to re-emerge as the player that he and so many other people thought he’d be coming out of high school.

Ford wants to prove that he is that player.

“I always like to have a chip on my shoulder,” Ford told 247Sports. “I read something here and there. I even have something as my screensaver that says something along the lines of, ‘I’m not what I used to be.’ I love that type of stuff. That’s what I’m trying to set out to prove and take off from there.”

Ford looked to be on a rocketship trajectory going back to high school. He dominated as a junior, catching 91 passes for 1,468 yards and 13 touchdowns.

Then he put together, arguably, the best performance by a wide receiver in the history of The Opening, which was an annual gathering of the top recruits in the country ahead of their senior seasons.

Just a few months later, however, everything hit pause as Ford tore his ACL during his senior season.

Ford worked his way back slowly, even flashing his potential with a spectacular touchdown grab against Oregon late in his true freshman season with USC. It appeared that Ford would be a huge part of the Trojans’ 2020 offense.

Then, just seven months later, Ford injured his knee again. He needed surgery, which forced him to miss the entire season and the following spring.

Those back-to-back injuries wrecked Ford’s confidence, mentally testing someone who had been only supremely confident in his abilities growing up.

“It just felt like, you know, the world was falling down,” Ford said. “It was rough.”

Ford posted 19 catches for 252 yards and two touchdowns in 2021, but Ford said that he didn’t really fully feel like himself again until midway through 2022, more than four years since he initially injured his knee; Ford posted a career-best 114 yards in October 2022 against Arizona.

Since then, Ford said that he’s never felt better. He transferred from USC following the 2022 season and emerged as a key contributor for crosstown UCLA,…