THOMASVILLE – Thomas County Central star Kendarius “Dee” Reddick put pen to paper on Wednesday morning, joining the University of Southern California’s 2025 recruiting class.  Reddick, who played all four years of his high school career at Central, said he ultimately chose USC because it felt like Central. Despite being 2,292 miles away, it felt like home.

“Why SC? Because it feels like home. When I first stepped foot in there it felt like home. I know it’s far away from home but, hey, you have to pick your home one day, right,” Reddick said. “A lot of things were similar to Central. Just the coaches, Coach (Lincoln) Riley when I first got there they treated me like I was one of them. At the end of the day, they wanted to make sure I was alright and our bond from there it just rapidly went up. On the phone with each other almost every day.” 

During his signing, when Reddick addressed the crowd of supporters he grew a bit emotional and made it clear that Thomas County Central means a great deal to him.

“These four years you see and learn a lot at this place from the brothers to the classroom. There’s a lot of people I will miss,” said Reddick. “That’s why I was getting emotional. From the teachers, coaches, just playing high school football in general and I’m just glad I was able to play high school football at Thomas County Central.”

That being said, Reddick also expressed his excitement to get to work in Southern California. 

“I can’t wait. We’re all going there for the same thing, to play football. It’s going to be the same thing, a little different, but as long as I stay focused on the main goal I don’t have to worry about nothing.”

Reddick did have a unique recruitment. Just take a look at his 247 page. Reddick received a bevy of offers from nearly 20 schools, including Michigan, Ole Miss, Miami, Florida, and Alabama. Reddick initially committed to Auburn in mid-October of 2023. The offers continued to pour in and, in February of 2024, Reddick flipped to UCF. However, he took an official visit to USC, a program he would later describe as “like home”, in June. Reddick flipped for the third and final time to USC on August 12, 2024. Committing to three schools is something Reddick caught a bit of flack for, something he had to work through.

“My recruiting journey, it has been a little bumpy if you’ve been watching me. But, once I talked to the coaches at SC things just started going smooth,” Reddick said. “I’ve just been trusting God through the whole situation. That’s the main thing because at the end of the day being one of the top high school players it can get a little rough. Every day isn’t sunshine. You will have trials and tribulations that you will have to overcome.”

Now that he is signed with the Trojans, Reddick joins an elite signing class. The USC 2025 recruitment class is ranked 16 in the nation and boasts one five-star QB and six four-stars out of 20 recruits. Of the 20 recruits, 17 have signed at time of writing. Reddick joins five other Georgians who are headed to USC. Four-star offensive tackle Alex Payne out of Gainesville and three-star corner James Johnson out of Douglas County have signed. Four stars Jadon Perlotte out of Buford and Steve Miller from Greene County are two of the three hard commits who have yet to sign. 

When asked about what it means to be joining such a highly ranked class, Reddick said he didn’t think about it much. The Power Five cache and the four-star tag seem to take a back seat to simply playing the game of football for the young Yellow Jacket. He was quick to say that signing doesn’t mean that the job is done. For Reddick, it has only just begun. 

“You will never see me get complacent. The job’s not over even when I make it there to the school, it’s still not over,” Reddick said. “We all have the main goal and the main goal will stay the main goal.”

As he wrapped up his comments on his signing day, Reddick had one final thing to say. 

“Fight on”.