LOS ANGELES — When their sons were just beginning middle school, Sheva and Renee Branch brought their boys to a sporting goods store at Pier 39 in San Francisco.
“Let’s do a commitment video right now,” father Sheva told his burgeoning youth football players.
And so Zachariah and Zion Branch each sat at a table, Sheva laying out a spread of collegiate program hats in front of them, as each pretended to pick up a USC hat and announce his decision to commit to the Trojans.
Improbably, as Sheva once reflected, that decision became real, sitting in the stands at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and watching their sons run out of the tunnel for the first time together in USC uniforms in the fall of 2023. Their journeys bloomed with promise, receiver Zachariah taking the college football world by storm with a two-touchdown debut against San Jose State, safety Zion flashing hints of stardom when he wasn’t sidelined by injury.
But the road through USC appears to have ended here, as multiple outlets reported Tuesday that the Branch brothers have entered the transfer portal.
It’s a two-for-one blow to USC’s roster, the circumstances of Zachariah Branch’s departure particularly painful for what could have been, the former Las Vegas product once a five-star burner and one of the top prospects in the nation. After being named an All-American returner as a freshman and racking up 1,164 all-purpose yards in 11 games, the younger Branch seemed poised for a true breakout as a sophomore, after an offseason of speed training with USC’s track and field team and a refined IQ in the passing game.
“I think he’s done a really good job in honing in on becoming more – not just a speed guy, but a more complete receiver,” head coach Lincoln Riley said of Branch.
Those developments never quite materialized, though, in a sophomore season in which Branch racked up 47 catches – tied for the team lead – but seemingly never found a consistent foothold as a top downfield option for USC. He finished with 60-plus yards in a game only twice. At midseason, his kick-return duties were given to fellow sophomore receiver Makai Lemon, with Riley saying the goal was to let Branch “zero in” on punt returns.
He frequently looked tentative and trigger-happy on fair catches, though, racking up just 74 total punt-return yards after finishing with 332 as a freshman the year before. When asked in late November how mentally tough the season had been, Branch mostly shrugged it off, saying he felt he’d been “the same person every day.”
“I feel like it really hasn’t been any toll on me mentally,” Branch said then, “because I know who I am as a person, and what I can do every time I step on that field.”
He’ll do it for another program now, Riley’s offense losing a massive weapon.
Older brother Zion, too, is on his way out, a former four-star safety who saw his USC career marred by injuries and stuck behind senior defensive backs despite clear upside.