Breaking: SDSU signs former four-star

Former four-star recruit and USC defensive tackle Christian Heyward signed a national letter of intent to San Diego State on Wednesday morning and will be eligible play this upcoming season, AztecSportsReport.com has confirmed.

Heyward, a former Rivals100 prospect and Under Armour All-American, left USC last spring after spending his freshman year as a redshirt for the Trojans.

The 6-foot-3, 300-pound defensive lineman has stayed out of the spotlight ever since - something he was known for doing throughout his recruitment in high school - and he has been taking classes at Grossmont community college in order to maintain his eligibility. According to multiple sources, SDSU head coach Rocky Long personally orchestrated Heyward's recruitment and the two came to terms with each other this past fall.

Heyward was associated with the Aztecs long before then, however. Throughout his senior season at San Diego (Calif.) Point Loma high school, Heyward had a top-three that consisted of Oregon, San Diego State and USC heading into National Signing Day.

SDSU was also the last school to host Heyward for an official visit and the sense at the time was that the hometown school had a legitimate shot to land his signature. For one, San Diego State just completed a 9-4 season under Brady Hoke which capped off with the school's first bowl victory in over 40 years. The SDSU basketball team was on the rise as well, ranked No. 4 in the country when Heyward attended a home game during his official visit.

The Aztecs were gaining some national prominence and there was a positive vibe around the program starting to build, but it was still not enough to haul Heyward away from national power USC at the time. During a nationally televised signing day broadcast, Heyward picked the Trojans.

"The coaches are amazing and it's pretty much an NFL coaching staff," Heyward said of USC at the time. "They had everything I want to make me better."

Heyward was undoubtedly one of the most coveted prospects in the nation coming out of high school and he consistently impressed Rivals.com regional analysts. After a strong senior season in which he compiled 86 tackles and eight sacks and also impressed evaluators during the all-star circuit, Heyward received a bump in the rankings from No. 170 to No. 94.

"Heyward is a bull on the inside," Rivals said of Heyward following one Under Armour practice. "He plays low to the ground, which allows him to get a good amount of leverage. He's also relatively quick for his size. Those fast feet made the uncommitted four-star recruit incredibly difficult for interior linemen to neutralize in one-on-ones Monday. It's not his strength or his quickness that caused the most problems. It was his combination of the two."

"Heyward is a bit of an undersized defensive tackle prospect at this point in his career, but he has all the tools to develop into a dominant player on the middle of the defensive front," the Rivals staff added following his bump up to the Rivals100. "He checks in around 6-foot-2, 275 pounds but has great strength and speed that allows him to shed defenders and get into the backfield to create havoc. He is a prospect that could easily play inside or outside on the defensive line at the next level and would contribute in either spot."

San Diego State is holding a press conference at 3 p.m. to officially announce its 2014 recruiting class where Coach Long will be allowed to publicly comment on its signees, including Heyward. More information should become available then.

UPDATE:

Long gave the following statement to GoAztecs.com during its signing day coverage this morning:

"We recruited (Heyward) out of high school; in fact, we thought we were going to get him out of high school but he chose to go somewhere else. Christian is 6-foot-4, 300 pounds and everyone in this town knows how good he was. So now it's up to us to develop him so he makes a huge difference in our program."

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