Answer Sunday! | Inside USC with Scott Wolf

A reader asks for an anlysis of the 2007 recruiting class.

Q: marvgoux said:
Now that the Recruits of 2007 are officially history how would you evaluate that top ranked class?

A: The 2007 recruiting class was a pretty interesting group with plenty of outcomes.

Let’s start with the overachievers: Rhett Ellison, Christian Tupou, Brandon Carswell, Michael Reardon. I included Carswell and Reardon because they each had good senior years despite few expectations after they arrived.

Then there were the highly ranked players who did what was expected: Ronald Johnson, Malcolm Smith.

Then there were the underachievers: Martin Coleman, Jordan Campbell, Joe McKnight, Aaron Corp, Marshall Jones.

The fourth group is the more pragmatic one. Players who experienced mixed results. Maybe a good season but not consistently for whatever reason and I include poor coaching decisions among them. Among that group is Chris Galippo, Everson Griffen, DaJohn Harris, Kris O’Dowd.
I considered placing McKnight here. But his recruiting hype (perhaps unfairly) caused me to place him in the underachiever category.

There were two other players who did not play enough to evaluate because of injury or transfer: Trey Henderson and Broderick Green.

gotroy22

Interesting- so only six out of seventeen met expectations and eleven failed to meet expectations. That sounds bad. NJTrojan, shout out to you as our resident SC football guru, how does that compare to the average class of the Pete Carroll era?
Trojan Conquest

Joe McKnight was unfairly compared to Reggie Bush, and he had his moments like the Ohio State game and the Rose Bowl. However lack of durability was a major problem.
Griffen was a head case and way under achiever.
Galippo’s back was the reason for him not reaching his expectations. I give him a lot of credit. I don’t know how you can play football with a bad bad.
O’Dowd was a strange deal. He came in as a freshman and looked like a future All American and first round pick. Then just never lived up to that.
I DIg Go Go Girls

McKnight was PC’s little pet. The guy could fumble at will and he usually did, and he didn’t suffer any where near the scorn from PC that the other backs did. McKnight was a bust, period.
LAWYER JOHN

McKnight, however, is playing on Sundays.
Revenge of Charlie Bucket

i find it amusing that while the fellow trOXans trash McFumble (what else is new) he was actually the most successful of the infamous Terrible Ten scholarship Tailbacks from the ’07 team.

and by successful, i mean 330 career rushing yds. the other 9 Terribles racked up 39 yds in NFL between them!!! so don’t be so hard on McFumble, boys!!

oh how does that saying go??? ah yes: “trOXan for LIFE”??

HAWR HAWR!!
Jethro G. Sabbath

Bucket,

How does that break down on yards per carry for each of the ten? You must give us detailed information if you are going make such a statement.
Edward

Is Charlie Bucket still alive, and who is he seeking vengeance for? His poor, pathetic son? Born around the late sixties, he used to post shit on here?
NJ Trojan

The incoming class of 07 was a total bust. And those kids were recruited by Kiffen–he left just two weeks before signing day. But think about what those guys went through. Nearly all of them sat on the bench behind the starters on that terrific 08 team. Then in 09, Sanchez left early as did the OC & DC and Carroll was apparently more interested in looking for an NFL job than getting his young team to play better that year. The sanctions hit in 10 and USC lost several players and virtually its entire coaching staff. Finally, in their last year, the fifth year seniors from the incoming class of 07 helped get the Trojans get back on track. But it was the younger guys that filled most of the two-deep.