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the birthday of juju
john Sherman smith was born in long beach California on November 22 1996 smith is of African American and Samoan descent he is the second-eldest of seven children and identifies as a Christian -
the nickname
Smith-Schuster nickname came from his aunt when he was a few months old she initially called him john-john before opting to call him juju instead. -
a family change
juju biological father was not active in his or his family lives his stepfather Lawrence Schuster was introduced to his mother Sammy when juju was four years old. -
the early years
juju began playing football at the age of eight in his youth he was coached by snoop Dogg when he played youth football with the snoop youth football league -
high school career
juju attended long beach polytechnic high school in long beach California the high school that at that time had the record for sending the most football players to careers in the NFL out of any in the united states he played wide receiver and safety for the school's jackrabbits football team. smith-schuster was rated by rivals.com as a five-star recruit and was ranked as the second-best wide receiver in his class and the 24th-best player overall -
the announcement
juju initially decided to attend Oregon but then announced he would attend the university of southern California USC to play college football under then-head coach Steve Sarkisian during his televised commitment -
college career the beginning
juju earned immediate playing time as a freshman in 2014 in his first career game he had four receptions for 123 yards against Fresno state. against the WSC he had six receptions for 74 yards and three touchdowns. he finished the 2014 season with 54 receptions for 724 yards and five touchdowns. as a sophomore in 2015 juju played 14 games with a career-high 1,454 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns. -
college career the end
as a junior in 2016 the trojans used smith-schuster less he played in 13 games with 914 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns. that year he also helped the trojans to a victory in the rose bowl over penn state catching seven passes for 133 and a touchdown. after the 2016 season juju announced on twitter that he had decided to forego his senior year and enter the 2017 NFL draft. though he left before graduation he later returned to take summer courses at USC in order to work on finishing his degree.