Joshua Garnett to Stanford: Does This Make USC the Front-Runner for Kyle Murphy?

Last night, Joshua Garnett, one of the top offensive line prospects of the 2012 recruiting class, made his much anticipated college decision known to the world, when he announced that he was picking Stanford over Michigan. 

The Washington native’s decision to stay in Pac-12 country certainly wasn’t unexpected, as he had shown some heavy interest in the Cardinal for the past few months, however, Garnett’s decision could actually end up having an impact on another top offensive line recruit who was strongly considering Stanford, OT Kyle Murphy, a 5-star prospect out of California’s San Clemente high school.

After being pursued by some of the nation’s top college football programs for the past year, Murphy has reportedly trimmed his college choices down to just two schools—Stanford and USC.

Garnett is now the fifth offensive linemen to commit to Stanford this year, with Nick Davidson (Eden Praire HS, Minnesota), Brandon Fainaka (Pleasant Grove HS, Utah), Johnny Caspers (Glenbard West HS, Illinois and Graham Shuler (Brentwood Academy, Tennessee) having all already pledged their services to the Cardinal.

With so many talented offensive linemen headed to Palo Alto, you have to wonder if Murphy may now start to favor USC, where he’ll probably be able to stand out from the crowd more.  

The top tackle prospect has taken official visits to both schools over the past few weeks, with his most recent trip being to Los Angeles this past weekend.

It’s hard to say that Murphy could go wrong picking either school, as both are great institutions and both programs seem to be trending upwards. It also helps that both the Trojans and the Cardinal each have a gaping hole to fill at left tackle, as both USC’s Matt Kalil and Stanford’s Jonathan Martin opted to leave school a year early and declare for the 2012 NFL draft.

The catch is that USC only has a limited number of scholarships to hand out this year due to the restrictions handed down by the NCAA after the Reggie Bush scandal.

Still, you have to believe that coach Lane Kiffin would be able to find enough room for a blue-chip recruit like Murphy by any means necessary.

One thing’s for sure, it will certainly be interesting to see how it all plays out on National Signing Day, when Murphy will announce which Pac-12 school will get the benefit of his services.