After spending all of the most recent baseball season dealing with injury and rehab at The University of Texas, former Badger standout Ace Whitehead will head out west to play for the University of Southern California Trojans in his final collegiate baseball season.
After a breakout season on the mound in 2024 when Whitehead posted a 4.16 earned run average over 67 innings and opposing batters hit only .237 against him while he was dealing with a shoulder injury, Whitehead had surgery in the offseason. He had hoped to be back to start again in this most recent campaign, but rehab took longer than expected, and he was sidelined the whole season.
Whitehead is excited for a fresh start in a new place while reuniting with a familiar coach Sean Allen, who is the pitching coach at USC and recruited the Badger out of high school to play for the Texas Longhorns.
“My relationship with Coach Allen has always been great …,” Whitehead said. “Coach Allen recruited me to Texas in high school. We’ve always had a pretty good relationship, and I think the familiarity for the two of us was a big part of going to USC.”
On top of that, Whitehead said he feels healthier than he has since maybe his freshman or sophomore season at Texas, and that the extended rehab year may work out as a blessing in disguise. It forced him to fully heal rather than pushing himself and pitching at 80% or worse.
Whitehead added that Texas was his dream school, and he always wanted to wear the burnt orange. He was able to do that and graduate with a degree from The University of Texas. Now it is time for a new chapter.
“It’s exciting, I always knew they had a great program and a great history,” he said of USC. “… coming from a place like Texas where the standard is the standard and going to another place where the standard is so high [works for me] because I like competing at that level.”
The former Badger said anyone who has watched him play knows he is always going to go out and compete, throw strikes, and put everything he has into every outing.
Whitehead said he thought his experience and his ability to hit the mound each week and compete was a big reason why the Trojans wanted him.
“Their idea was pitching is important; starting pitching is really important,” he said. “Me being an older guy that has pitched in a lot of big games is why they’re bringing me in.”
He knows he has to go in and compete, gain the trust of his coaches and his teammates, and earn the right to get the ball.
Playing for a Southern California team undoubtedly will be a big change for Whitehead and his parents. He hasn’t competed this far from home in his career, but that is part of the excitement.
Whitehead said he visited Los Angeles to tour the USC campus and fell in love with the weather and the school, as it actually reminded him of the UT campus that he loves. When the plane landed, it was 72 degrees in California, and having to come back to Texas when it was in the mid-90s made him miss that weather.
His mother, Kenna Whitehead, probably will struggle with her son being farther away, but Whitehead added that both Kenna and Kirk Whitehead only wanted what was best for him.
“The flight from Austin to LA isn’t too bad,” Whitehead said.
There probably will be other long flights next season, as USC now is part of the new Big 10 and plays teams such as Rutgers, Michigan, Ohio State in addition to schools across the Midwest, often resulting in cross-country flights.
“That’ll be different, and it’s probably one of the biggest downfalls of the Big 10 now -- leaving LA and going to Rutgers or wherever … but it’s something that I’ll look back on with fond memories later on,” Whitehead said.
The 2026 baseball schedules are not yet available, but Lampasans may want to keep an eye out for the former Badger pitcher getting back on the bump out West.