Kenny Bigelow of Red Lion Christian commits to USC

It took Red Lion Christian (Bear, Del.) defensive lineman Kenny Bigelow less than a week to decide where he'll spend at least four years of his life.

Wednesday evening, the 6-foot-4, 285-pound junior made a verbal commitment to attend the University of Southern California.

"I liked the coaches there," Bigelow told MaxPreps. "Coach O (USC defensive line coach Ed Orgeron) seems like the type of guy who will push me until he gets my best, and then push even harder. He won't accept anything less than my full potential and I need that in a coach."

Red Lion Christian coach Dwayne Thomas was excited about Bigelow's opportunity.

"This is a tremendous thing for Kenny because of where he started in this process," said Thomas, referring to the fact that Bigelow recently had to deal with the sudden death of his father. "He could have gone off the deep end when his father died because I know he had a lot of respect for him. Kenny's father put him with people to help his son become the best he could be. Personally, when I look back, for him to overcome the death of his father and to see some of his goals coming to fruition, I just see this as a great step."

Bigelow was offered the scholarship while in Los Angeles over Thanksgiving weekend attending the USC-UCLA game. The Wilmington, Del., native, who was also offered by UCLA, was overwhelmed with the City of Angels.

"I really liked the environment out there," said Bigelow, who had 40 tackles and 20 sacks this season.

Bigelow is the second Red Lion player to commit to Southern Cal. Freshman quarterback David Sills V made national headlines when he accepted Lane Kiffin's scholarship offer as a seventh-grader. Thomas said that Bigelow's decision had nothing to do with Sills' earlier verbal commitment, but rather it was more the opportunity to play for a coach whose methods are similar to his own.

"Kenny is really excited to play for Ed Orgeron," Thomas said. "His coaching style is a lot like mine. He coaches with a lot of passion and fire."

Thomas also pointed out that the offer means even more to Bigelow because of the school's recent NCAA sanctions that resulted in the loss of 30 scholarships over a three-year period.

"USC has a limited number of scholarships and so for them to identify Kenny as a kid they want to offer speaks volumes about him and his ability," he added.

Jon Buzby is a sports columnist for the Newark (Del.) Post, a freelance writer, and on the broadcast team for the 1290AM The Ticket High School Football and Basketball Games of the Week. You can reach him at jonbuzby@hotmail.com.