Receiver Vidal Hazleton has transferred from USC.
“A lot of things have been going on,” he said. “Football is part of it. My grandfather has been diagnosed with cancer. I wanted a chance to be close to home.”
Hazelton said his grandfather, who lives in Staten Island, was diagnosed about two months ago.
Updates:
- USC football: Recounting Hazelton’s star-crossed season
- USC football: Program-wide reaction to Hazelton’s departure
- USC football: Why Vidal Hazelton is leaving USC
considering all the flashes of talent we saw last year, very puzzling how this season turned out for this young man. unfortunate to lose him but wish him the best!
Agreed. Wish him well. You just wonder what happened. Its not like the current batch is tearing it up.
I liked Vidal and as a fan it’s sad to see a kid start to show some promise and then for whatever reason, not be able to build on that and reach their full potential. Having a good year last year, and then getting squeezed out this year by the WR competition, nagging injuries, etc is sad. That’s the unfortunate reality though at SC where Pete stockpiles the talent and as a player having one good year doesn’t guarantee you anything, plus there’s not enough footballs to go around to all the RBs and WRs to keep them happy, plus if you get an injury you can fall down the pecking order possibly never to climb back up. I’m sure Damian Williams learned the lesson from Vidal’s experience and as such will continue to bust his hump going into next year so as to keep his spot from Patterson and Ausberry, and anybody else coming up at the WR spot. Good luck to you wherever you go.
The reason Vidal had the season he had is he’s been injured. I hope he doesn’t end up at Penn State though. That school isn’t really close enough to his home. This reminds me of Moody. Both players got hurt and lost playing time. Then leave. Moody went to Florida and now he gets less playing time than he got at USC. When he was healthy he got lots of playing time at USC.
Vidal got squeezed out partially because Turner was able to improve so much since last year, while Vidal was dealing with injuries. With Turner leaving, Vidal would have been able to secure his spot again. I guess it’s easy to flinch when you’re faced with so much competition on a daily basis.