Joe McKnight (born April 16, 1988 in River Ridge, Louisiana) is an American football tailback for the University of Southern California (USC) Trojans football team.

McKnight attended John Curtis Christian High School in River Ridge, Louisiana, located approximately 10 miles west of New Orleans in Jefferson Parish.

For his first years of high school, McKnight played defense as a cornerback; his high school career was complicated by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated his part of Louisiana just before his junior 2005 season. Separated from his mother who had evacuated to Baton Rouge, McKnight temporarily relocated to Shreveport where he eventually enrolled and played two games for Evangel Christian Academy, the same school which previously produced USC quarterback and future teammate John David Booty. His family was able to relocate back to River Ridge, but their home had been destroyed so they moved into a one-bedroom apartment.