page_title: Randall Telfer
section_title: College career
hierarchical_section_title: Randall Telfer / College career
caption_attribution_description: Photos from USC's 2012 loss to Stanford (Jerry Ting/Neon Tommy)
context_page_description: Randall Telfer is a former American football tight end. He played college football at the University of Southern California. He was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the sixth round of the 2015 NFL Draft.
context_section_description: College recruiters saw Telfer more as a tight end than a receiver. He was recruited by eight schools: Arizona State University, Stanford University, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Oregon, the University of Southern California (USC), the University of Tennessee, the University of Washington, and Vanderbilt University. He favored Oregon and USC.
  Head coach Pete Carroll successfully recruited Telfer for the University of Southern California (USC), where he attended upon receiving an athletic scholarship. He was redshirted his freshman year (the 2010 season), after which Carroll left USC to coach professionally for the Seattle Seahawks. In the spring, the NCAA punished USC for numerous rules and recruiting violations, banning the team from playing in Pac-10 conference championship games and bowl games for two seasons. Telfer had the right to transfer to another school, but declined to do so.
  As a sophomore in 2011, Telfer had an outstanding season under head coach Lane Kiffin, catching 26 passes—five of them for touchdowns. He suffered several injuries during the season, but continued to play.
  In his junior year, USC began the season ranked Number 1 in the USA Today Coaches' Poll. Telfer had numerous additional injuries, and according to press reports probably should not have continued practicing or playing. Nevertheless, Telfer asked to continue playing, and received permission from coaching staff to do so. Telfer caught a touchdown pass that led USC to defeat the University of Oregon 38-35, a victory that ended the Oregon Ducks' 21-home game winning streak. USC's 2012 season was a dismal one, as the team finished 7-6. The team played in the Sun Bowl, losing 21-7 to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. A violent altercation (which some media reported as a fistfight, while others said it was verbal) broke out in the USC locker room after the game, in which some younger players criticized senior quarterback Matt Barkley for not playing even though injured and for generally poor leadership throughout the season.
  Telfer played with numerous leg injuries in the 2013 season. Coaching staff permitted him to play, but counseled him several times that he should take a more prudent approach to his health. USC lost three of its first five games of Telfer's senior season, and Kiffin was fired as head coach on September 29, 2013. Defensive line coach Ed Orgeron was named the interim head coach, and led the team to a 6–2 record. Over the past two seasons, Telfer caught another 18 passes, five for touchdowns. 
  Steve Sarkisian was named USC's permanent head coach at the end of the 2013 season. Telfer had arthroscopic surgery on a knee in the spring of 2014, which kept him out of spring training camp. Although many in the press predicted he would have the breakout fifth-year season, and Coach Sarkisian told Telfer he would be an "offensive weapon" in the coming year, Telfer was relegated largely to a role as a blocker. The Trojans ended their season playing in the Holiday Bowl, winning 45-42 over the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers. Telfer ended his college football career with 63 receptions, 12 of them for touchdowns. His USC teammates voted to give him the Chris Carlisle Courage Award for starting every game his final year, despite his significant injuries.
  Randall Telfer graduated from the University of Southern California in 2013 with a bachelor's degree in political science. In the fall of 2014, he began work at USC on a master's degree in communications management, with an emphasis on marketing.
  Telfer suffered a left mid-foot fracture of the tarsometatarsal articulations while playing in the Holiday Bowl. The injury was difficult to diagnose, and he did not undergo surgery to correct the fracture until mid-February 2015. Healing and rehabilitation for such injuries generally lasts four to six months, although eight months is not uncommon.
caption: Telfer in 2012
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