High school coach: Robert Tucker ‘a monster on the field’

A Q&A with newest USC commit Robert Tucker’s head coach Joshua Moore of B.E.S.T. Academy in Atlanta.

Q: What kind of player and person is South Carolina getting?

A: Robert’s a good kid. He’s a great teammate. He’s a good student, a good all-around kid. He just loves to help out anyway he can. As far as playing on the field, once he puts the helmet and pads on he turns into a different person. He turns into a monster out there on the field. He’s really versatile and really locked in on that field. Whatever he can do to help the team, that’s what he’s willing to do. He’s a great all-around kid and a great all-around player. He’s 6-3, 240 pounds. We’ll line him out and get a mismatch with the cornerbacks. He’s a mismatch in the slot for safeties and linebackers. And he’s also big in our run game when we put him on the line of scrimmage. He’s been really good for us on both sides of the ball.

Q: How did his recruitment play out? Who else was interested?

A: He went to Tulane last weekend. He went to Indiana before Christmas break. We’re a new school so this is just our third graduating class. There were very few programs who knew about us. He’s been up to N.C. State. He’s been to Wake Forest about three times. He’s been to Auburn. He’s been to UGA. He’s been up to Georgia Tech. There were schools, especially in the primary area, that knew about him that had been recruiting him for a while. He was just kind of under the radar because it’s a new program, so I lot of people didn’t know about him. He had offers from Syracuse, Louisville, Minnesota, Iowa State. He had a bunch of offers but as far as being on the mainstream we’re just kind of under the radar just because we’re a pretty new school.

Q: Why did he choose South Carolina?

A: Well, he already had a previous relationship with Coach (Bryan) McClendon when he was at UGA. They were recruiting him there, and he loved him there. It’s been all about relationships for him, coaches that he’s gotten to know, the staffs that he’s gotten to know. He was familiar with Coach (Will) Muschamp just from going up to Auburn. He hadn’t really had any conversations with him because they were recruiting him for the offensive side of the ball. Then with Coach Muschamp being able to sit down and talk with Robert and have a face-to-face with him, with it being the SEC and fairly close to home so his family can come see him play, I guess a combination of all of those things factored into him making his decision.

Q: Will he be able to enroll this summer?

A: He’s qualified with his grades as well as his ACT score. He’s good to go.

Q: Any other visits other than South Carolina?

A: No, he’s done. The schools that he’s interested in he’s been to. He was supposed to go on an official to Troy next week, but he’s shutting it down. He’s confident with his decision. He feels like he made the best decision for him and his family.

This story was originally published January 21, 2016 at 3:53 PM.