The 2023 theme for USC recruiting was that the Trojans needed to keep more California prospects home. The 2024 theme for USC recruiting is that the NIL setup isn’t locking down premium prospects from the South. The themes might change, but the common thread is that USC still isn’t recruiting at the level it needs to.
Remember when Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa went to Notre Dame? We wrote this last year:
“We’re not going to sugarcoat this one, because there is no sugar-coating a recruiting loss to Notre Dame. It is also notable that USC has struggled to keep a lot of St. John Bosco prospects home in Los Angeles. The big hope connected to the Viliamu-Asa recruitment, beyond making future USC defenses a lot better, is that it would have increased the odds that the Trojans and Lincoln Riley could fortify their Bosco pipeline into the USC program in the future. Now, that dream — that very important goal — takes a big hit.”
You will see USC football fans on social media today saying the Trojans’ losses of Isaiah Gibson and Justus Terry show that the program should recruit more in California, and less in other regions. Yet, the South is where so much high-end talent is. USC can’t stop swinging for the fences. This is what Eric Henderson is for. He made a strong positive impression on recruits, but it seems the NIL aspect of this situation is becoming the main complication. USC has to find a way through this thicket … and it needs to keep battling in regions beyond the West.
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Story originally appeared on Trojans Wire
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/details-change-usc-football-recruiting-222120576.html
Author : Trojans Wire
Publish date : 2024-06-19 22:21:20
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