Jen Cohen has done a lot of good things as USC’s athletic director. She was ready to pony up and pay for quality defensive coaches on Lincoln Riley’s new and improved staff. She has raised funds for USC’s new and improved athletic facilities. Those are two substantial and important contributions to USC athletics and the school at large.
However, what does a USC athletic director have to do? What is always at the top of any priority list for a USC AD? Take care of the football program. The hiring of the defensive coaches was part of this, and that’s not being ignored, but the decommitments of Justus Terry and Isaiah Gibson point to weaknesses in USC’s NIL program and in the larger overall operations of the football program. The coaches don’t deserve the blame here. Eric Henderson put in the “dawgwork” to land these guys. That they’re gone three months later doesn’t reflect negatively on Henderson. Something else happened which soured these recruits on USC. It’s speculation and not ironclad fact, but it’s hard to think — as a rational, logical person — that NIL or compensation packages weren’t involved in these decommitments.
We have seen this scenario play out in various ways at USC: The Trojans either land a commitment or think they are about to land a commitment. The recruit visits another school, or a competing school drops a bigger bag. USC loses. While we can debate the specific timelines and details attached to individual recruitments USC lost, the larger overall reality is that USC’s NIL game is not up to standard. Ohio State, Oregon, and SEC schools are hammering the Trojans.
This is not a Lincoln Riley problem. This is a Jen Cohen problem. The coaches don’t run the fundraising programs. They sell the program and try to convince players to join. The NIL program is an…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/jen-cohen-moment-truth-arrived-153603755.html
Author : Trojans Wire
Publish date : 2024-06-20 15:36:03
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