USC legend says he's given school officials strong answer on whether he'd unretire number for recruits
No USC Trojans football player will be wearing No. 11 on the gridiron any time soon.
Of course, that seemed to be obvious when it was retired for Matt Leinart almost immediately after he graduated.
However, the USC legend revealed that he has been approached by USC officials "multiple times" about whether he would unretire the number "for some five-star prospect."
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"And do you want to know what I told those guys straight up? I said, ‘Absolutely f---ing not,’" Leinart said on his "Throwbacks" podcast. "I am never going to unretire my jersey for some random dude who, by the way, now could wear No. 11 and transfer after a year."
There are rare exceptions, of course.
"The only person that will ever wear my USC No. 11 would be [my son] Cole, who’s not there right now. He’s at SMU. Or two of my boys if they end up going to USC and playing football. That is it," he said.
Leinart won a national championship with the Trojans, losing just two games in his entire career. The second was during his quest for a third consecutive title, but Vince Young and the Texas Longhorns pulled off the victory in the championship in what has been considered one of the greatest college football games of all time.
Leinart led the then-Pac-10 in passing touchdowns in his first two playing seasons and led in passing yards in his third and final. He was named the 2004 Heisman Trophy winner and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2017.
He was the 10th overall selection in the 2006 NFL Draft by the Arizona Cardinals. However, he did not find similar success and was out of the league by 2013.
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