Makai Lemon hardly came off the field while playing high school football at Los Alamitos. Not only because he didn’t want to leave – it was also because he outmatched just about anyone on the field whether playing at receiver or cornerback.
“I don’t think we ever saw it where the first guy was able to tackle him,” Los Alamitos coach Ray Fenton said. “Maybe touch him, but once he got his hands on the ball, man.”
Lemon remains untouchable at USC in the physical sense, and his dog-like mentality has made him unflinching at receiver and on special teams. He’s become one of the most valuable pieces of the team with a future of playing on Sundays.
“I’m not gonna let anybody get in my way of feeding my family,” Lemon said. “I just gotta do what I gotta do.”
Sticking with USC
Troajns head coach Lincoln Riley was already aware of Lemon while he was on the recruiting trail as head coach at Oklahoma. He was drawn to the competitiveness, physicality and aggressiveness Lemon showed regardless of what position he was playing.
Even while he watched film on Los Alamitos quarterback Malachi Nelson, who came to USC before transferring to UTEP, Lemon still popped.
“I just remember getting to know him a little bit through recruiting Malachi just because Makai was very, very reserved,” Riley said. “But we noticed him watching Malachi’s tape. We knew who he was, I think that just opened up the communication channels a little bit more early on.”
Lemon collected 20 offers from Power Five schools and signed a National Letter of Intent to play at USC on the first day of the early signing period in 2022. He graduated high school a semester early and enrolled at USC.
He’s stuck with the school ever since and is one of multiple homegrown talents reaping benefits this season.
“This is home,” Lemon said. “It’s in my backyard, got my family here, such a great program. I wouldn’t want to be nowhere else. Every time I step in onto this campus, I just gotta do my best and leave such a great legacy behind.”
Becoming unstoppable
Lemon hit a career high in single-game receiving yards against Georgia Southern when he hauled in four passes for 158 yards and two touchdowns. It was the most yardage collected by a Trojans receiver since January 2023.
The touchdowns were 62 yards and 74 yards, but it’s the 113 yards after the catch that truly speaks to Lemon’s abilities as a receiver.
“He made a career out of screens,” Fenton recalled of Lemon’s prep days. “We’d just throw him the ball and he’d make people miss. It was an easy throw and you go 60 yards on a 5-yard pass. It’s very common for him to do that. It makes our quarterback look really good and it made the offense a lot easier.”
Defenders fall to the ground like leaves off a tree when Lemon sprints to open spaces. If a player grasps his leg, just a few hops is all he needs to get back on track. His center of gravity is steady, and the ball remains secure in the crook of his arm.
“There is a knack for just knowing where the open space is or knowing to keep running on your pattern,” CBS play-by-play sportscaster Brad Nessler said. “He gets into some open spaces and that’s why he’s averaging that many yards per catch. I think that’s just an instinctual thing that really, really good football players have.”
Special teams beginnings
Riley announced that Lemon would be USC’s primary punt returner on Aug. 14 – the 13th day of fall training camp.
Athleticism and versatility allowed Lemon to record 514 yards on 19 kickoff returns and a season-long return of 80 yards in 2024, so it made sense to allow Lemon to pick up where he left off.
“The kickoff return, for Makai, was probably what opened my eyes about him last year,” Nessler said. “He’s a big-time player and he’s gonna cause havoc no matter who they play this year.”
His special teams abilities can pay off in the long run, too, as Lemon gathers tape for a career in the NFL. However, it’s not just long runs on a television screen that scouts are taking into account.
“When they come up here – because we have NFL scouts and personnel here all the time – they want to get to know who you are and they want to get to know what they would be bringing into their locker room,” Riley said, “and if that’s positive, that’s a good thing. NFL teams are very careful about that. And that’s the same for any player.”
Lemon was soft-spoken in high school and is not a player who will give a rousing speech in front of the team. His presence is still felt, and he’s matured vastly. It’s hard to believe he received a pair of unsportsmanlike penalties for excessive celebration in high school.
He now celebrates touchdowns with teammates, he said, sharing the attention as a thank-you for helping him get to where he wants to be.
“I’ve found over the many years that the guys that don’t look for (attention) are the guys that get that,” Fenton said. “Because they keep their head down, they take care of their business, they take care of what they should be focused on and the rest of the stuff just comes. But he’s not looking for it.”
