Tobias Raymond is now a major key on the Usc offensive line of uncertainty

When it was first offered to the grill man, Tobias Raymond He had no intention to stick to the role. In no way was experts from grilled meat. He had no cooking on an open flame. However, this first summer barbecue of the offensive line was, and there was someone on the offensive line at the University of Southern California needed to intensify. Even Raymond, a Trojan shirt student in the right -wing student, volunteered.

He did not know what he was entering at that time because what began as a gathering for businessmen in the end, through his fourth repetition or so, developed into a link to the full team. This means hundreds of barbecue on hundreds of hot and hamburger dogs. Raymond, by virtue of being the first to volunteer, became void in reality.

This was not the role that Raymond embraced Tayeb Khater three years ago, when he first reached a USC as raw talent in the attack. Since then, Raymond has evolved into becoming one of the most trusted businessmen in Trojan horses, a critical coordinator in an undievated position on USC.

While standing behind the grill this summer, he turned the burger, his colleagues could see the amount that changed during that time.

“It carried it throughout the summer,” said Junier Reid Center. “He stands there with his shirt, and praises as if he was Captain America. He loves her, man.”

Not long ago, Raymond tried to avoid this kind of activity.

“It was the type of man who will lead the role model and be the most difficult factor in this field, and not necessarily speaking,” said Tim Garcia, Raymond coach in Ventura Hai.

But on the football field, he had a way to convert heads. Play with a medium line standing in complete contradiction with his cold behavior off the field. At Ventura High, the coaches admire his ability to end the blocs and his willingness to pay via a whistle.

At high school, Raymond could have a brute force. He was so sporty for his position to the point that Garcia and his employees gave Raymond in a strict end before his first year, just to find out what he could do.

That sport was sufficient to persuade some university coaches immediately for his football future. But Raymond still has a lot to learn as abusive treatment. His style needed work.

“It was still very green, and very crude as a dangerous attacking man,” said Garcia.

Not everyone wanted to pour the time to develop Raymond will be required. Even USC took up to six months before signing a day to present it.

Garcia said: “There were some of the coaches who came on board and did not care about a bus.” Then others said, “Well, this man has everything. I can do it with him, that with him. “

Raymond wanted the entire recruitment process as quickly as possible. He made one official visit to California in the summer before his first year and then told Garcia that he wanted to adhere. Just get it.

Three days later, USC was offered. Raymond did not want to go to visit at the beginning. He saw USC once before, on an unofficial visit. I think this is enough. He did not want to make a noise. But Garcia convinced him to pass with her.

On that Sunday, after the visit, Raymond Garcia called.

He says, “Coach, will it be fine if committed? “

After that, it will be before Raymond made his mark at the University of Southern California. He was slow to develop as a new student and Redshirted. In his second year, he was directed to work in eight games, which faster in this process.

However, try to fly under the radar.

“I think this was one thing I really need to work on,” Raymond said. “I was always really calm as a student and student student, just enter the college and learn how things go. But I feel that I am in a place where I can start being a more hustle.”

In the period before Bowl’s USC last December, coaches can finally feel comfortable, in the field and outside. It is made from there.

When Zach Hanson took over the offensive line, he continued to challenge Raymond to modify his style. Each time, he says, Raymond was his correction inside a play or two.

“He is not afraid to try different things,” Hanson, who entered his first year as a coach of the attack line at the University of Southern California. “Many men hesitate to do so. But he is a professional in his craft.”

He still gets a comment being a leader in the room. But what he might feel unnatural to him, he says, he says, he started to feel like the second nature. Thinking again about where he started, the USC coach Lincoln Riley described Raymond as “radical about everything.”

Now there is no one in the building suffers from Ain when Riley announces that Raymond “is one of the best players in the team.”

This is what Riley will need Raymond to be this season, if USC reflect on steadfastness along a thin offensive front. It is expected to play properly to start the season. But his teammates and USC coaches expressed their confidence that Raymond could put in his position, if necessary.

This may be, at a point, looks like a worrying suggestion. But Reed, the new Trojan horse center, saw everything he needs to see this summer while watching Raymond heads the most important job in the barbecue.

“He was hot, and he had no problem sitting there in sweating,” said Reed. “He got it, my brother. He definitely did something.”