On June 25 the Rivals USC site, TrojanSports.com, claimed it had broken Steele’s commitment to the Trojans. The site reported Steele’s commitment as news needing to be broken as soon as possible—like a sordid scandal splashed across the front page of the New York Post.

“I was pretty mad about it,” Steel said. “My thing was what if I do end up going to SC? It just kind of ruined my whole moment. I was going to drop a video and everything, and it ended up being USC.”