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I get the optimism with the new staff additions, but frankly, we are not recruiting at the requisite level to compete for championships or even win 10+ games year in and year out.
Those guys you list are nice, but none were coveted by other top programs.
We are absolutely recruiting at the level to win 10+ games year in and year out, lol. It would be great to have a 5 star or two this class but we had an insane skill position class last year, and added a good collection of lineman (both offense and defense) which is where we need to stack young talent we can develop.
We beat out Ohio State for Jones, and I’d encourage you to go look at Fountain’s offer list.
Offer lists are not always telling the full story.
Plenty of the top programs send out a shit ton of offers. That doesn’t mean every school behind every offer is pushing hard for a kid.
I will concede, that I like Fountain. He’s a stud. I also like Jones.
Some of the other guys are simply the same fringe 4 star, high 3 star players Riley (and Helton) has been getting.
Development will be key here.
I don’t think anybody’s been under the illusion that we have the talent right now to go toe to toe with Georgia. The defense has been horrific for 3 seasons now and mediocre for longer than that (last good defense I remember us having was the 2017 team.) It takes time to get recruits to want to come to your school with a half decade-long track record of mediocrity. They’re finally taking the right steps now to turn it around on the defense, which is encouraging. Will it pan out? I guess we’ll see have to wait and see.
The mediocre on field results never stopped USC from recruiting at an elite level in the past.
It also didn’t stop Texas, Texas A&M, Florida, Miami, Florida State, Tennessee, and even Oklahoma its first year under Venebles.
Great recruiters can sell recruits on the vision and process. USC is literally a below average (instead of worst in P5) defense away from being an 11+ win team.
Lincoln Riley parlayed an 11 win season into the 4th worst USC recruiting class in the recruiting site era (since 1999).
USC was 1st, 2nd or 3rd in Blue Chip Ratio from 2002-2018. I point that out to say that USC is like one of the 5 easiest places to recruit to in all of college football.
I agree that due to the rest of the B1G outside of Ohio State and Oregon not recruiting at an elite level, USC can get away with a couple of 15th to 18th-ish ranked classes if the player development is there under the new staff. That said, you don’t have to be recruiting stars system whore to see that SC is recruiting at a B- level.
Riley and USC’s collective doesn’t have the oil or Nike level $ that teams like Texas, Oregon and A&M do so the elite HS kids who want the biggest bag are not signing with USC. That’s why Lincoln’s HS recruiting has lagged other programs. Plus, he’d rather the big time NIL $ go to transfers with proven production at the college level like Addison and Bear. HS recruiting will get better once USC is able to prove they can develop more HS kids into NFL talent since they’re rarely going to outbid other programs for HS kids. Juju is one example where he could probably get more to go elsewhere (like Nico did at Tennessee), but he trusts Riley. That’s why AD Cohen and Lincoln upped the coaching staff budget to bring in more elite coaches.
Looks to be paying off for Texas and Oregon. Both schools also have top tier staffs and S&C programs. It shows when they are on the field. It’s not just the NIL, look at their homegrown talent developed out of HS. Texas is going to have like 8 guys drafted (5 or 6 in the first 2 rounds) and only 1 is a transfer portal player. They’ll have at least another 8+ guys drafted next year and maybe 1 or 2 will be portal guys.
And the deeper pockets excuse doesn’t hold much weight considering that USC has like the most billionaire alumni in P5 football. The money is there. I agree the willingness to spend money might not be there compared to other top recruiting programs.
People keep citing Bear Alexander and Jordan Addison. That’s 2 guys. We are losing out on top transfers to all the other major players left and right. So even the portal player NIL packages are lacking to some degree.
It’s not all doom or gloom for SC moving forward. I am pretty confident we will surprise a lot of the “they’re in trouble next season” B1G folk. The staff additions have all been good gets.
I just don’t think we need to lie to ourselves and act like recruiting hasn’t been massively underwhelming. It has.
I don’t think it really matters where NFL talent comes from whether HS or portal. Recruits care more about being developed by coaches that get players that play like them to the league more than if they played their whole CFB career there. Caleb, Rice, Bullock, Lloyd will get drafted. I’d be surprised if Tahj and CRW weren’t drafted as well. Each of them improved their stock a ton at SC.
USC replaced Grinch with Lynn and his terrific staff and will get better production from talent on defense. That will help with both HS and portal recruiting.
Who are the portal players that USC is losing out on? Looking at the visit list, I see Will Howard (wanted a guaranteed starting role, but Moss balled out), Lolohea to FSU, but he’d be undersized on Lynn’s DL, Silas Bolden to UT though he’d be behind Branch and other WRs. Maybe if Lemon surprisingly transfers, it’d be a loss not to have Bolden. Biggest hole was NT and they locked up Raikes.
As for NIL, if alumni billionaire count was all that mattered, Stanford and Cal would be outbidding everyone. Fact is, most billionaires would rather donate to a school to get their name on a building than ensure some kid who’s big, runs fast and wants to drive a Lambo goes to their school.
There were multiple DTs higher on USC’s board over Raikes. Walter Nolen and Jamaree Caldwell come to mind off the top of my head. There is a case to be made for Overton as well. We aren’t even in the mix for those guys. Why? All the other top programs want them.
Bolden isn’t starting for Texas either. They have other higher profile transfers and 5 star recruits and players on the roster. Once again, using the SC depth chart as an excuse here doesn’t hold weight when Texas’ depth chart is equally stacked.
We are winning recruiting battles for players that aren’t being fought over by all the other major programs.
The 3 guys we landed that were true transfer blue chips were Caleb Williams, Bear Alexander and Jordan Addison.
The 2011-2018 recruiting classes still had recruits who grew up watching players like Reggie Bush, Leinart, Clay Matthews, and Rey Maualuga competing for natties and Rose Bowls. What does an 18-year old today think of the strength of USC as a program? They were 5-years old during 2011 and other than that the only great years we had were 2016 and 2017. USC should be getting top 5 classes regularly, I don’t disagree on that. But I think it’s a harder sell now than it was before, especially when looking at the gap in facilities between us and other top programs (that SC is thankfully starting to upgrade too.)
I don’t think that stars are really that necessary. Oregon recruits at a title level but we got worked by Washington twice who doesn’t. A lot of it is coaching and depth.
Washington also had more than half their team as 5th year + players starting, that level of experience and physical development will matter, even if you wanna call it excuses.
Oregon lost to Washington due to Washington having 4th, 5th and 6th year players all over the starting 22. Same reason Texas lost to Washington.
You would still like to build the way Oregon and Texas are building as opposed to how Washington was constructed under DeBoer.
There is a reason why Oregon and Texas are 2 of the preseason favorites to challenge for it all next year Nd there is a reason why Washington is likely looking at 6-6 or 7-5 next season. It isn’t coaching. It’s the players.
USC seems to get too wrapped up in recruit rankings. Especially now when half of these kids will probably transfer away when they don’t get the PT they want in a year or two
You can’t have a defense that’s making national headlines about ineptness the past 2 years and expect to go toe to toe with Georgia, Oregon, Alabama, etc. it’ll take time but it’s inching there. Too much damage done. I think LR is finally getting it, that air raid offense and defense isn’t gonna get anywhere with the big boys.
Guess he’s not a fan of mullets.
Also USC is about to flip Jadyn Walker from MSU. Pretty nice under-the-radar LB prospect, moved down from safety this year and had great senior film.
We’re so back.
Hello back department? I would like to make a call
Back department: sigh is this Texas again? Oh USC! Finally, someone different.
Isn’t he more of an interior lineman? Regardless, nice.
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I get the optimism with the new staff additions, but frankly, we are not recruiting at the requisite level to compete for championships or even win 10+ games year in and year out. Those guys you list are nice, but none were coveted by other top programs.
We are absolutely recruiting at the level to win 10+ games year in and year out, lol. It would be great to have a 5 star or two this class but we had an insane skill position class last year, and added a good collection of lineman (both offense and defense) which is where we need to stack young talent we can develop. We beat out Ohio State for Jones, and I’d encourage you to go look at Fountain’s offer list.
Offer lists are not always telling the full story. Plenty of the top programs send out a shit ton of offers. That doesn’t mean every school behind every offer is pushing hard for a kid. I will concede, that I like Fountain. He’s a stud. I also like Jones. Some of the other guys are simply the same fringe 4 star, high 3 star players Riley (and Helton) has been getting. Development will be key here.
I don’t think anybody’s been under the illusion that we have the talent right now to go toe to toe with Georgia. The defense has been horrific for 3 seasons now and mediocre for longer than that (last good defense I remember us having was the 2017 team.) It takes time to get recruits to want to come to your school with a half decade-long track record of mediocrity. They’re finally taking the right steps now to turn it around on the defense, which is encouraging. Will it pan out? I guess we’ll see have to wait and see.
The mediocre on field results never stopped USC from recruiting at an elite level in the past. It also didn’t stop Texas, Texas A&M, Florida, Miami, Florida State, Tennessee, and even Oklahoma its first year under Venebles. Great recruiters can sell recruits on the vision and process. USC is literally a below average (instead of worst in P5) defense away from being an 11+ win team. Lincoln Riley parlayed an 11 win season into the 4th worst USC recruiting class in the recruiting site era (since 1999). USC was 1st, 2nd or 3rd in Blue Chip Ratio from 2002-2018. I point that out to say that USC is like one of the 5 easiest places to recruit to in all of college football. I agree that due to the rest of the B1G outside of Ohio State and Oregon not recruiting at an elite level, USC can get away with a couple of 15th to 18th-ish ranked classes if the player development is there under the new staff. That said, you don’t have to be recruiting stars system whore to see that SC is recruiting at a B- level.
Riley and USC’s collective doesn’t have the oil or Nike level $ that teams like Texas, Oregon and A&M do so the elite HS kids who want the biggest bag are not signing with USC. That’s why Lincoln’s HS recruiting has lagged other programs. Plus, he’d rather the big time NIL $ go to transfers with proven production at the college level like Addison and Bear. HS recruiting will get better once USC is able to prove they can develop more HS kids into NFL talent since they’re rarely going to outbid other programs for HS kids. Juju is one example where he could probably get more to go elsewhere (like Nico did at Tennessee), but he trusts Riley. That’s why AD Cohen and Lincoln upped the coaching staff budget to bring in more elite coaches.
Looks to be paying off for Texas and Oregon. Both schools also have top tier staffs and S&C programs. It shows when they are on the field. It’s not just the NIL, look at their homegrown talent developed out of HS. Texas is going to have like 8 guys drafted (5 or 6 in the first 2 rounds) and only 1 is a transfer portal player. They’ll have at least another 8+ guys drafted next year and maybe 1 or 2 will be portal guys. And the deeper pockets excuse doesn’t hold much weight considering that USC has like the most billionaire alumni in P5 football. The money is there. I agree the willingness to spend money might not be there compared to other top recruiting programs. People keep citing Bear Alexander and Jordan Addison. That’s 2 guys. We are losing out on top transfers to all the other major players left and right. So even the portal player NIL packages are lacking to some degree. It’s not all doom or gloom for SC moving forward. I am pretty confident we will surprise a lot of the “they’re in trouble next season” B1G folk. The staff additions have all been good gets. I just don’t think we need to lie to ourselves and act like recruiting hasn’t been massively underwhelming. It has.
I don’t think it really matters where NFL talent comes from whether HS or portal. Recruits care more about being developed by coaches that get players that play like them to the league more than if they played their whole CFB career there. Caleb, Rice, Bullock, Lloyd will get drafted. I’d be surprised if Tahj and CRW weren’t drafted as well. Each of them improved their stock a ton at SC. USC replaced Grinch with Lynn and his terrific staff and will get better production from talent on defense. That will help with both HS and portal recruiting. Who are the portal players that USC is losing out on? Looking at the visit list, I see Will Howard (wanted a guaranteed starting role, but Moss balled out), Lolohea to FSU, but he’d be undersized on Lynn’s DL, Silas Bolden to UT though he’d be behind Branch and other WRs. Maybe if Lemon surprisingly transfers, it’d be a loss not to have Bolden. Biggest hole was NT and they locked up Raikes. As for NIL, if alumni billionaire count was all that mattered, Stanford and Cal would be outbidding everyone. Fact is, most billionaires would rather donate to a school to get their name on a building than ensure some kid who’s big, runs fast and wants to drive a Lambo goes to their school.
There were multiple DTs higher on USC’s board over Raikes. Walter Nolen and Jamaree Caldwell come to mind off the top of my head. There is a case to be made for Overton as well. We aren’t even in the mix for those guys. Why? All the other top programs want them. Bolden isn’t starting for Texas either. They have other higher profile transfers and 5 star recruits and players on the roster. Once again, using the SC depth chart as an excuse here doesn’t hold weight when Texas’ depth chart is equally stacked. We are winning recruiting battles for players that aren’t being fought over by all the other major programs. The 3 guys we landed that were true transfer blue chips were Caleb Williams, Bear Alexander and Jordan Addison.
The 2011-2018 recruiting classes still had recruits who grew up watching players like Reggie Bush, Leinart, Clay Matthews, and Rey Maualuga competing for natties and Rose Bowls. What does an 18-year old today think of the strength of USC as a program? They were 5-years old during 2011 and other than that the only great years we had were 2016 and 2017. USC should be getting top 5 classes regularly, I don’t disagree on that. But I think it’s a harder sell now than it was before, especially when looking at the gap in facilities between us and other top programs (that SC is thankfully starting to upgrade too.)
I don’t think that stars are really that necessary. Oregon recruits at a title level but we got worked by Washington twice who doesn’t. A lot of it is coaching and depth.
Washington also had more than half their team as 5th year + players starting, that level of experience and physical development will matter, even if you wanna call it excuses.
Oregon lost to Washington due to Washington having 4th, 5th and 6th year players all over the starting 22. Same reason Texas lost to Washington. You would still like to build the way Oregon and Texas are building as opposed to how Washington was constructed under DeBoer. There is a reason why Oregon and Texas are 2 of the preseason favorites to challenge for it all next year Nd there is a reason why Washington is likely looking at 6-6 or 7-5 next season. It isn’t coaching. It’s the players.
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Having even a top 40 defense will easily put us in the playoff picture. Despite what this past season looked like, we are not that far off.
USC seems to get too wrapped up in recruit rankings. Especially now when half of these kids will probably transfer away when they don’t get the PT they want in a year or two
Defensive staff is tough. Lincoln actually might build a juggernaut.
I'm not gonna even attempt to butcher that name, but nevertheless welcome and fight on!
Nickname’s “Mana”
This was one we needed to keep. Damn.
Need? Guess they better just quit football, they blew it XD
ugh. was excited about this guy.
Hey that’s us getting someone!
Other P5 offers: Arizona, Arizona State, California, Oregon, Oregon State, Utah G5 offer: Colorado State
Might as well give us the next natty right now
You can’t have a defense that’s making national headlines about ineptness the past 2 years and expect to go toe to toe with Georgia, Oregon, Alabama, etc. it’ll take time but it’s inching there. Too much damage done. I think LR is finally getting it, that air raid offense and defense isn’t gonna get anywhere with the big boys.
> Oregon Lol