Makai Lemon is relentlessly focused on helping USC reach the CFP

The exercise is simple. Just a basic warm-up, called “Pat-and-Go,” that USC and many other football programs do virtually every day. Quarterbacks relax their arms, while pass catchers warm up their legs by running routes through the air. This is the kind of exercise where it’s pretty easy to lose a rep or two. Or to be a little casual, like playing catch in the yard.

But when Makai Lemon stands in line during Pat-and-Go, there’s nothing casual about what happens next. Every representative is taken seriously, every reception is shot with intention. The junior took thousands of those reps, caught thousands of those passes over three seasons at USC, each filed as a data point for Lemon to access later.

USC receiver Makai Lemon celebrates after scoring a 12-yard touchdown against Michigan at the Coliseum on October 11.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen one that he didn’t catch like a game,” USC coach Lincoln Riley said. “He rarely takes a performance that isn’t very intentional.”

It’s a fitting snapshot of the Trojans’ top receiver, one that captures more than just his prowess as a football player. Every action with Lemon is deliberate, every detail considered. That singular focus has made him college football’s most reliable receiver and, come April, a surefire first-round pick in the NFL draft, all while maintaining a surprisingly low profile for a pass catcher of his caliber.

The truth is that as a natural introvert, Lemon prefers this. Head down, eyes forward, mind set first on getting USC to the College Football Playoff before making the jump to the NFL, every step of the way intended to help achieve that goal. The work, over time, will speak for itself.

Makai Lemon bends down to spin his skateboard while his uncle, Jon Rio, lifts his board into the air.

(Courtesy of the Lemon family)

Those who know him best will tell you that’s how Lemon has always worked. His family insists that even before he could pick up a soccer ball, his concentration was unusually singular. When he first became interested in skateboarding at age 3, for example, his parents didn’t expect their toddler to be doing tricks until his next birthday.

“He always amazed us,” said his mother, Brandy Lemon. “Like, ‘Oh my God, there’s no way our 3-year-old is actually doing kickflips and ollies right now.’ »

Makai approached most of his childhood interests with the same intensity. One day, at 6 a.m., he decides to catch a fish, although he has never done so. He also wanted to do it on his own, without the help of his father, Mike. Then Mike watched with amusement as Makai cast his line.

He didn’t believe it when Makai said he was bitten.

“But he reeled it in, grabbed it, and did it all himself,” Mike remembers. “And I’m like, ‘Holy moly, you caught your first fish, son.'”

Lemon came to prefer independence. After all, he was the baby of the family. His sister was five years older. His younger cousins ​​would not be born until later. Most of his early childhood was spent hanging out with adults – playing soccer with his uncles or trying to keep up with his father in lifting weights. His family called him “an old soul” due to how often he acted older than his age. At USC, at least one member of the football staff simply calls him “the old man.”

“It comes from being around a lot of family, a lot of older uncles and aunts,” Lemon said. “I feel like it stuck with me.”

Young Makai expected other children to meet the same standards. One day, after a youth baseball game, he confessed his frustration to his mother because his teammates did not take their coach’s comments after the game as seriously as he did.

He was 7 years old.

“He was angry because he was the only one paying attention to it,” Brandy Lemon said. “‘He told me, ‘Mom, in the dugout, all the kids are climbing the fence. Nobody cares.’

“And I’m like, ‘Son, you’re only 7. It’s okay! They’re still learning.’ But he was not satisfied.

Makai Lemon, who played as a child, has always been very focused and determined to achieve his goals.

(Courtesy of the Lemon family)

He focused on football in college, leaving most other interests aside. His parents, to this day, still wonder if he ever watched a full movie, as his mind always drifted towards football.

“Nothing brought joy, passion, physicality like football,” says Makai.

Sometimes they found him in the yard, practicing the routes alone. And the older he got, the more serious he became.

As a freshman at La Mirada High, Lemon made an impact on both sides of the ball – as a receiver and cornerback. Then, as a sophomore, he immediately took on a similar dual role at Los Alamitos, a much larger high school where the coach, Ray Fenton, wondered if Lemon could be a carbon copy of another USC receiver, Amon-ra St. Brown.

“The reaction time, the way he’s able to change direction, the speed he accelerates, it’s different,” Fenton said. “A lot of great athletes can be explosive when they run and you see their brilliance, but [Lemon’s] ability to stop and start or change direction laterally, it’s like watching it in fast forward, while you see the game in real time.

Los Alamitos receiver Makai Lemon catches a touchdown pass thrown by Malachi Nelson in front of Santa Margarita’s Christian Laliberte on Sept. 17, 2021, in Mission Viejo.

(Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times)

Often, Fenton said, Los Alamitos would simply throw him the ball on the perimeter and let him do the rest. Lemon could outrun tacklers with his speed – or just as easily pass through them. It didn’t matter that defenses knew he was coming.

USC would see his potential early, offering Lemon in March 2020, under former coach Clay Helton. But Lemon especially got along with Riley, who was at Oklahoma. Lemon said at the time that he knew when he flew back that he was committed to the Sooners.

The fact that Riley then took the job at USC only made the fit even more serendipitous.

This wouldn’t always be the case as a freshman. Buried in the receiver pecking order, the coaches had Lemon move to cornerback for depth purposes. He agreed, focusing entirely on being the best defensive back he could be, but he had no interest in staying there long term.

USC receiver Makai Lemon makes a touchdown reception while fending off Utah State strong safety Jordan Vincent at the Coliseum on September 7, 2024.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

Lemon assured there was no cause for concern. Although he entered the following season with the least expectations among USC’s quartet of sophomores, he emerged by mid-October as the most reliable option in the Trojans’ passing attack.

The two most highly touted receivers among the four, Duce Robinson and Zachariah Branch, left during the offseason in search of other opportunities. For a while, it was unclear whether Ja’Kobi Lane would follow them.

But for Lemon, there was never any hesitation about his future at USC. His parents had long hammered home the idea that the grass wasn’t always greener. The reasons he first trusted Riley in 2021 still apply. He had no interest in starting a bidding war with USC or waiting for a bigger name, image and likeness deal elsewhere, even if those deals would have been readily available.

“I wanted to be here,” Lemon said. “My family is right around the corner. This is where I am most comfortable. I bet on my abilities. I knew the circumstances that awaited me. When the opportunity presented itself, I tried to take full advantage of it.”

To say Lemon lived up to that expectation would be an understatement.

Through seven games this season, he has averaged 97 receiving yards, a per-game pace that is second only to Michael Pittman Jr. among Trojan players over the past decade.

USC receiver Makai Lemon scores a 12-yard touchdown while falling backwards in the end zone under pressure from Michigan defensive back Jayden Sanders at the Coliseum on October 11.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

Pro Football Focus ranked Lemon as the highest-scoring receiver in the Big Ten this season, and draft analysts took note, almost universally placing him somewhere in the first round of early mock drafts. A clip of his acrobatic touchdown run in traffic in USC’s win over Michigan should explain his rise.

But in Lemon’s mind, as USC faces Northwestern on Friday night, none of that has changed anything. His eyes are still forward, his focus still on the same horizon, even as the NFL dream he has so long envisioned draws closer.

“He was always the same guy,” Riley said. “He stays particularly focused. That’s why he became the player who did it.”