Game Changer

By Katie Ryan
Assistant Sports Information Director

They say superheroes walk among us. Some may hide behind secret identities, but others may walk around in broad daylight for all to see.

With his long blonde hair, massive frame and huge muscles, USC's Porter Gustin could easily be mistaken for the Marvel superhero Thor. Thor is known for his superhuman strength and invincibility. When people first look at Gustin, they often see those same qualities.

"I get that comparison a lot," Gustin said with a smile. "And I definitely don't mind."

The 6-foot-5, 260-pound junior outside linebacker was even named after a Mormon superhero of sorts.

In the 1800s, a mountain man named Porter Rockwell traveled with the Mormon founder Joseph Smith to serve as a bodyguard.

"He was called the Destroying Angel because he would protect Smith and would be able to kill anyone who tried to hurt him. And he was really good at it," said Gustin. "Apparently as long as he kept his hair long he wouldn't be hurt."

Gustin's long hair, super strength and athletic ability makes it quite difficult to miss him on the football field.

"He likes to rip up his practice jersey and his pants to show as much of his body as he can out there," said quarterback Sam Darnold. "But that's what makes him great, and that's what makes him, him."

"It's actually quite comfortable and gets some air flow. It is functional. I'm just a step ahead of everyone," Gustin jokes.

However, Gustin was not always the biggest person on the field. Growing up in Idaho with parents (who were collegiate athletes), he was destined to excel in sports. Gustin's father was a quarterback at Wyoming, and he began to follow in his footsteps playing the same position.
At the beginning of his freshman year of high school, Gustin decided to fully dedicate himself to earning a scholarship.

"When you're younger, you just rely on your athletic ability and how competitive you are," he said. "You just go out there and play. I was always the best player on whatever team I was on. But, I was a late bloomer when it came to hitting puberty when everyone gets their natural muscle. Everyone hit it before me, and I just stayed skinny and watched everyone else pass me up."

Gustin was determined to work even harder achieve his goals. He decided to take matters into his own hands.

"I got into lifting, and I said 'I'm going to eat right.' That's when I cut out sweets," Gustin said. "Every meal my mom made me, she knew not to give me sweets or bad food. She embraced it and went all out for me."

Then the fateful time arrived when Gustin hit his growth spurt. As he grew and put on muscle, he continued implementing his self-created lifting and diet program. Lifting became a huge part of his life and the weight room was his sanctuary.

After he and his family moved from Idaho to Salem, Utah, Gustin became the star athlete in his new town. In addition to playing both quarterback and linebacker, Gustin played basketball, baseball and threw for the track and field team.

"My goal for as long as I can remember was to play Division I sports," he said. "It didn't necessarily have to be football. I threw basketball out my sophomore year although I was excelling in it. I knew I wouldn't have the height. It was between baseball and football. I actually had my first scholarship offer in baseball from BYU as a pitcher. But, then I blew up with football. Plus, I like to lift weights, and I can do a lot of that in football."

The football scholarship offers began to roll in. Gustin was recruited by almost every major program in the country and was considered the top high school linebacker in the nation. After narrowing his choices down to USC and Ohio State, Gustin chose to move out west to Los Angeles.

Since becoming a Trojan, Gustin has been the definition of beast mode. He is the first person in the weight room in the morning, and he wants to be the last one there getting extra work.

"If you want to know the one guy on this football team who can rattle off his day from when he wakes up to when he goes to bed, that's the guy," said Ivan Lewis, USC's head strength and conditioning coach. "He has a routine, and it's awesome because he sticks to it. He knows exactly what he's going to do."

"I've never seen anyone take care of their body the way he does," said junior running back Ronald Jones II.

"I remember rooming with him for camp my freshman year and the guy was up at 3 a.m. doing air squats and sit ups. That's just who he is," said junior linebacker and captain Cameron Smith. "You kind of think, 'I want to be like that.'"

Gustin's work ethic has inspired others. The 2016 Campus Insiders Sophomore All-American honorable mention and All-Pac-12 honorable mention is well known throughout the team for his extra lifting sessions. He has a crew of team members who join him daily for extra work.

"There's two types of leaders: those that lead vocally and those that lead by example," said Darnold. "He is definitely one of those guys who leads by example."

"He's changed the culture of the weight room," said Lewis. "We would get together after practice, and I'd show him things to do and then he'd want to do more. Then (fullback) Reuben Peters started joining him, then (linebacker) Uchenna Nwosu. Then all of a sudden, there were 40 to 50 people on the football team this summer getting in extra work after we were done. Just doing extra stuff like some more arms or back or foam rolling or stretching. People were seeing that it was working for Porter, so they wanted to join in."

It would be hard to not buy into Gustin's training program. His reputation for improving his body extends beyond the walls of the John McKay Center. Over the summer, he was named to the 2017 Sports Illustrated Freaks List.

"My workouts will inspire the other guys on the team," Gustin said. "I'll see a lot of guys come lift with us for like a week or two, but it drains them and they leave. But then they'll come back. We see them continue to come back over and over again. It's pretty cool to see a lot of guys come in and get after it."

While Gustin's extra workouts are difficult for athletes to maintain, even fewer of them could stick to his strict diet.

"I've done a lot of research," he said. "When I first started developing my diet, I just cut out sweets. That's how it started. It's really moved into something a lot more complicated. I know what I can eat and when I can eat it. Every meal is chicken, broccoli, sweet potatoes and carrots. Yesterday I had that meal like seven times. If it's not going to help my body function better, I will not eat it."

He doesn't just stop there. In order to consume more calories in a more efficient manner, Gustin will often blend his meals and drink them.

Gustin is extremely strategic when it comes to his choices. Everything is planned out and researched; he doesn't do things on a whim. He makes mature decisions.
"He's willing to be selfish as far as how he's going to take care of his body to get what he wants later," said Lewis. "He's not going to eat sweets or he's not going to put anything into his body that's wrong because he doesn't want to affect his playing capabilities now or his chances of playing in the NFL later. Everything he does is calculated to be the most effective Porter that he can be."

Gustin has never been short on motivation. In 2016, he won USC's John McKay Award for the underclassman with the most competitive spirit. The desire to be successful is what drives him.

"There's a lot of people in my town that almost make it," Gustin said. "I would hear so many stories of people that were super athletic and talented, but never actually played at a Division I school. Or others made it, but screwed up and got kicked out. I wanted to be different from them."

He has been different. This is seen in his confidence when he steps on the field.

"I think I'm fearless," said Gustin. "I try to be. I remember when I was still skinny and playing high school football, my friend and I would always talk about being fearless in games. He was a middle linebacker and I was an outside linebacker, and every time before a play we would look at each other and say 'No fear this play. Play with no fear.' That really stuck in my brain, and it's something I really worked hard on over the years. Every time I step on the field, I definitely have a no fear mentality. I don't care if I get hurt. I don't care what happens. There is going to be no fear."

That no fear attitude is reflected in his statistics. Throughout his career at USC, he has amassed 108 tackles with 23 for loss and 14 sacks. He collected three of those sacks against Texas this season. Those numbers would be even better, but he has been out the last three games due to a severe toe injury.

One of Gustin's most unique characteristics isn't his strength or size, but his strong understanding of who he is at such a young age.

"Not many guys know who they are," said Lewis. "But Porter knows exactly who he is and what he wants."

Imagine an angry grizzly bear charging you at full speed. It's what opposing quarterbacks see when Gustin sprints towards them for the sack. That's probably why some people have called him "the scariest man in college football".

"Ahh it's the best feeling!" he said with a massive grin. "It's just really exciting, but it's also a relief like it's finally all paying off. It really reveals the efforts of hard work."

Gustin may look like Thor, but he's also referred to by other names.

"He's a freakshow," said Lewis. "He's a weight room changer. A football changer. Porter is a game changer."

Players Mentioned

Sam Darnold

Porter Gustin

Ronald Jones II

Uchenna Nwosu

Reuben Peters

Cameron Smith

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