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Salem • In theory, it was to be a low-key, informal assembly Tuesday morning at Salem Hills High.

Except there was the band, marching laps around the gymnasium, and there were cheerleaders filing into position alongside a banner photo of the man of the hour.

Teachers had been told that attendance was optional, but mercy on those who informed their late-morning classes that they'd be missing one of the year's most anticipated events in order to calculate the volume of a sphere.

And thus when Porter Gustin strode to the podium and sat before a backdrop advertising a brand of nutritional supplements, hundreds of students chattered and dozens of media waited to see which of five hats the 6-foot-5, 248-pound phenom would pick up.

It was a far cry from low-key.

Countless more fans around the nation watched Gustin select a USC hat among lids from Arizona State, Utah, national champions Ohio State — and Dixie State, where brother Gunner is a wideout. The band played. Confetti shot into the air. A local USC booster waited to congratulate him at the first opportunity allowed by NCAA rules.

But the big news for most Gustins was that the process was finally at an end.

"It's been a tremendous experience, but very exhausting," said Gustin's mother, Scarlett. "There's stipulations, but we have coaches calling, and there's Twitter, and they want us to come visit on unofficials, as well as officials."

Just being Gustin's parent has been a full-time job. "It really is," said Scarlett, a former basketball player at BYU. John, Porter's father and a former Wyoming quarterback, orchestrated the ceremony. First cousin Scott Higginson handled Porter's social media as he toured schools, and as coaches like Steve Sarkisian, Todd Graham and Urban Meyer visited the Gustin family's living room.

The family deliberated into the night Monday, with most going to bed around 2 a.m. and John telling his son, "Go downstairs and pray about it and think about it, because somebody's got to come up with something because we're on at 11 tomorrow."

Porter's grandmother, DeAnne, never slept.

John said he finally got a text from his son at 3:15 a.m.: "Just figured it out. Good night."

Twenty minutes before the ceremony, Porter called the spurned coaches — the coaches who had survived months of cuts, after a who's who of college football pulled Porter out of classes at Salem Hills.

"Getting to know all them all this time, and them recruiting me, and then having to tell them no, it was rough," he said.

Meyer had apologized on the Gustin family's visit to Columbus the previous weekend for not getting to know him earlier. When Meyer attended Porter's basketball game last week, he mistook similarly tall and blond teammate Connor Hunt for Gustin, introducing himself to a thoroughly confused Hunt.

USC was one of Porter's earliest high-profile offers, and fellow Trojan recruits include Brighton outside linebacker and Army All-American Game roommate Osa Masina.

Sarkisian's approach was more down-to-earth than other coaches, said family, though Meyer, Graham and Kyle Whittingham all made strong impressions. Favorites differed among the Gustin clan. John said Porter told him Monday night, "You know what, I wish I didn't have this many choices."

Porter has played four sports at Salem Hills, lifts regularly, and is so dedicated to his craft that family members say he's refrained from sugar and processed foods for years.

In addition to the madness of his recruitment — which in Utah County includes dealing with frustration from some local BYU fans, despite himself growing up in a pro-BYU family — he had surgery on six teeth and missed two weeks of school in December.

"Some of his other things suffered," Scarlett said. "… We're hoping and expecting and excited for him to get back into a schedule, and make up some of the things that have been pushed to the wayside."

His recruitment may not be completely over, however: Now there are the baseball scouts to manage.

Porter threw 25 pitches at an MLB showcase last month in Sandy, averaging 93 mph, and John says he has a stack of business cards 6 inches thick from people who think his son's future is on the diamond.

"Would $2 million sway him to baseball?" they ask. "And I told them the answer is, unless he can tackle the batter running to first base, he's going to stick with football because he likes physical contact too much."

Porter doesn't believe he will serve an LDS Church mission, and he has the potential to play on either side of the ball at USC as either a linebacker, defensive end or tight end. Don't be surprised if he eventually pitches for USC's baseball team, as Heisman winner Jameis Winston did at Florida State.

Twitter: @matthew_piper —

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