Clay Helton praises Korey Foreman's coachability, provides injury update

Southern California’s highly touted defensive end Korey Foreman was one of the nation’s top recruits coming out of high school. The Corona, California, native is rated as the fifth-best overall prospect in the 2021 class, according to On3. Head coach Clay Helton has been impressed early by not only the skill level of Korey Foreman, but his coachability.

“The one thing I do appreciate about him is his work ethic,” Helton told the media during Tuesday’s media availability. “He’s extremely coachable and being that high profile of a guy and that coachable, I’m very appreciative of that.”

The seventh-year USC coach is already working with the defensive coaches to get Foreman involved early in the season. While there is room for growth, Helton believes there is one area the Korey Foreman’s coachability will help him dominate.

“I know he can do one thing, he can rush the passer on third down,” said Helton. “And I think that’s where [defensive coordinator Todd Orlando] has used him the most in these packages and he’s done a nice job picking it up. There’s some technique, some fundamentals that he’s still learning on first and second down within the system and he’ll get there.”

Injury update

Foreman was seen walking around the sideline during the media viewing portion of Tuesday’s practice, leading to questions about his availability.

“He’s got a little bit of a groin [injury], little bit of elbow [soreness],” said Helton. “He had a good scrimmage, had a good practice on Monday, dinged it a little but today so we just pulled him. Just hopefully get him back here in a few days or so.”

Helton added that his week one availability will be determined by the severity of his injuries.

More praise for Korey Foreman

Korey Foreman has received praise from a number of former players and commentators since arriving at camp, including Matt Leinart of FOX Sports.

“I’m talking about the impact he’s going to have off the field and on the field,” said Leinart. “First off, we just saw [he’s] the highest rated recruit in 12 years–since Matt Barkley. So what that tells me is, obviously USC has not been able to keep these homegrown kids from Orange County, LA, home. Because they’ve had a lot of the top ones, go back to Bryce Young, a couple of years ago. One of the top-rated quarterbacks in the country, right in their back yard and he left.

“The impact off-the-field, getting a guy like Korey Foreman. The hope is to have that domino effect of starting to get these types of players back into the USC pipeline on both sides of the football. Especially with NIL and the way that college is. USC is still a massive brand. So I think his impact off-the-field, with just being that recruit, recruiting other players in LA, in that area. I think that could be huge. Then on the field…all of the coaches are saying he is as good as advertised and he is everything they hoped he would be.”