Zach Banner has made a habit out of leaving home.Â
First it was his decision to attend Lakes High School, across town from his designated school Lincoln High. Though he was able to chalk the choice up to easier transportation with his father working as a principal at a school nearby, he willingly admits it was a football decision. "In my heart wish I could've gone to Lincoln, but the best business and professional decision was to go to Lakes," he said.
Standing at 6-foot-8 and just about 300 lbs. as a senior, Banner attracted the attention of college football programs across the country and quickly rose up the recruiting charts for his position. "I always wanted to just play professionally, I never thought about the college factor," he said. Idolizing his hometown Supersonics and Seahawks, he never put too much thought into the bridge to the big leagues. "I never knew until I got to high school that so many people were going to try to put pressure on me to stay home. It didn't scare me to stay home, it didn't scare me to leave."
Unlike most of the Trojan roster, Banner grew up outside of California ,in Tacoma, WA, located about 45 minutes south along the Puget Sound from Seattle... and the University of Washington campus.Â
"'U-Dub' was the only school where I had been to a practice," Banner said. "I had gone to almost every single home game every year. I was very entrenched into their program and their recruiting." But for Banner, a 10-and-2 season, early draft picks in offensive tackles Matt Kalil and Tyron Smith and top-notch Annenberg journalism program made USC too good of an opportunity to pass up.
Through Banner's first four years as a Trojan, USC has faced the Huskies two times.Â
The first matchup came in his redshirt season. Though he'd be held out of the game, former head coach Lane Kiffin let Banner travel with the team. The heckling from the Husky sideline came easily with Banner on the bench. "When I was there, there were a lot of people talking, just saying, 'You wouldn't have [redshirted] if you would've stayed home.'" Though he didn't have any time on the field, his teammates silenced the taunting with a 24-14 win.
When the two teams battled it out again last season, the trash talking continued. "There were a lot of personal things going on on the field," Banner said. This time around, with Banner as a starting offensive tackle, the Trojans fell to the Huskies 17-12.Â
In the weeks to come, Banner would consider the option of heading to the draft, or sticking around for his last year of eligibility. That he would get one more opportunity to beat the Huskies did not go unnoticed.
"I can say that played into the decision a little bit," he admitted. "Since I decided to come back for my senior year, I knew that was going to be a thing, like, 'Oh man, I'm going back to Seattle.'"
Besides putting in work on the practice field, Banner has spent the past week scrambling to coordinate a bundle of tickets for the big group of family and friends who'll attend today's game. Despite his best efforts, he's still pretty confident "there are going to be a lot more boos than there are cheers" for him at Husky Stadium. Even so, "they're still a lot of people supporting me back home because they know my heart's in the right place," he said.Â
Because as his distance from home has grown as his football career has progressed, he's never forgotten the community that raised him.
While still in high school, that meant dedicating most of his free time to coaching the local team he played on growing up. "I didn't want to distance myself because I did go to high school in Lakewood which is twenty minutes from my home town neighborhood," he said. "I didn't want them to think I was leaving. I didn't want them to think I was abandoning them."
With the NFL draft on the horizon, Banner realizes that this could be his last day of football in front of a hometown crowd; that home could only grow more distant. "Knowing that I'll never play there unless I play in the National Football League and I play at or in Seattle...," he said before stopping himself. "I just know that it's not over. That's where I'm going to be living, that's where I plan on raising my family and everything."
For now his eyes are on the challenge ahead, taking down the No. 4 Washington Huskies in a notoriously wild Husky Stadium. "The people in Washington and in the Northwest, they take their sports very seriously. They stay the whole game, win or lose; they support the team," Banner described. "They're going to be loud, they're going to be crazy," he predicted. "Playing in that environment...it's going to be fun to be the opposing team."
The feelings of hype and hysteria won't come without something more sentimental, though. "Walking in, I'm going to treat it just like any other game. Walking out -- win or lose -- I'm going to take a breathe of the fresh air of Washington, back home, and understand that I had a great time playing there."
You can watch Banner and the Trojans take on the Huskies today at 4:30 p.m. on FOX.
