Monday’s Morass: What If USC Recruiting Ends Up No. 1
USC’s 2025 recruiting class sits in the 3rd spot nationally as the official visitor season moves its way through June with the the Trojans high on the lists for some of the best prospects in the country. Now that the visitors seasn is open, Lincoln Riley’s staff is one step closer to achieving a No. 1 class.
What If the Trojans have the No. 2 Class in the country?
At this pace, Lincoln Riley’s staff already has a top-5 recruiting class. The Trojans are sitting in the No. 3 spot at the moment just barely behind No. 2 LSU. Coincidentally, the two programs kick off their seasons against each other in Las Vegas. Work with me here for a moment, what if the higher-ranked program got to decide who wears their home jerseys?
Ever since Coach Riley threw out his Fight On hat trick message on X Saturday night, USC recruiting fans have been waiting to see which 2-finger salute goes with whom.–Everyone is still waiting.
— Lincoln Riley (@LincolnRiley) June 9, 2024
Hayden Lowe was the first commitment revealed, so when the next two commits are made public, there’s a very good chance USC can leapfrog LSU and jump into the No. 2 position.
USC hosted two players over the weekend Dorian Brew & Justin Hill who many consider to be heavy Ohio St Buckeye leans. And the previous weekend, Trey McNutt was on USC’s campus.–What if One or more of them are a silent commit?
Don’t be surprised if the Trojans staff did enough to put the Buckeyes are on alert. Curently Ohio St has a commanding lead over the 2nd and 3rd place teams. However, if Coach Riley’s staff can convince any of the three to be a Trojan, then maybe the coveted No. 1 spot isn’t that out of reach.
What if there are no high school-to-USC pipelines left?
It’s kind of starting to feel like that.
The perception out there that Lincoln Riley and his coaching staff have a bias.–They’re biased against the local high schools that have typically been USC feeder schools.
Long Beach Poly was once considered a given. And then Junipero Serra in Gardena picked up the slack when the Jack Rabbits program was going through a down cycle. Both programs have helped make USC great throughout the years.
However, Mater Dei was always a constant.–USC rosters could always look forward to a handful of Monarchs playing in in Cardinal & Gold. But things have been trending in different directions. Whether it has to do with the Trojans football program not winning they way people anticipate, the coaching hires, or NIL deals, something has changed between USC and her feeder schools.
So far no one from Mater Dei’s class of 2025 is trending to USC, and the few players that have signed with the Trojans over the last handful of years have transferred away.
We all remember the names JuJu Smith-Schuster and Jack Jones from Long Beach Poly.–But can you name another since 2016?
The same question for Serra.–When did USC’s local high school pipelines dry up?
What if NIL is just a passing fad?
The Nebraska Cornhuskers new Athletic Director is looking ahead and trying to make sure his student-athletes are financially secure. It’s his opinion that NIL isn’t going to be around for very long.
“Let me tell you something about NIL: It is not going to last forever. Here’s what I think is going to happen, and I’m pretty sure I’m right,” Dannen said, in a video captured by the TikTok account 247.huskers (Edit: These remarks occurred in April but surfaced this week; the House case settled in May). “There will be an antitrust settlement this year in the courts. Part of the antitrust settlement, 1890 (Nebraska’s collective) is going to get banned. The collectives are going to go away. What’s going to be replaced is athletic departments, revenue sharing with our athletes. In the budget of our athletic department right now, we have a $20 million placeholder in two years to share money with our athletes. It’s in the budget right now. There’s three schools in the country, I think, that have that in their budget right now: Georgia, Texas and us.”
If Dannen’s prediction is correct, then USC needs to make sure their budget has the funds allocated and ready to spend in 2025.
USC and their collectives were caught trying to figure out how to play the NIL game while others were just saying, “Rules–what rules?!” This time the Trojans need to be one step ahead.
The post Monday’s Morass: What If USC Recruiting Ends Up No. 1 appeared first on On3.
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