Is Early Enrollment Recruiting Even An Issue?

Since Steve Sarkisian got hired, he and Pat Haden both mentioned the importance of mid-year recruiting. But USC long ago planned to to have offensive linemen Jordan Austin, Jordan Poland and Toa Lobendahn enroll in January.

So what’s the big deal with one remaining scholarship? Sarkisian wants to sign defensive tackle Claude Pelon of Mesa Community College in Arizona. But it seems the whole early recruiting issue was overblown. Lane Kiffin/Ed Orgeron took care of 75 percent of it.

22 thoughts on “Is Early Enrollment Recruiting Even An Issue?

  1. “So what’s the big deal with one remaining scholarship? ”
    REALLY WOLF? is that a REAL question? If you were standing next to me I would poke you in the Eye!
    USC doesn’t have enough depth as it is, and you want them to give up on one that can enroll early..
    USC needed a coach, kids wanted to know what direction USC would be going. Pat made the right decision to get a coach hired, and one that kids are familiar with.

    • Last year WolfPutz bashed the coaching staff for not using all the scholarships…Now he is saying what’s the big deal if we don’t. If he was standing next to me I wouldn’t poke him in the eye. I’d give him a VeinWig.

      • Try reading the article again. He’s saying filling the early scholarships is not a big deal thanks to Ed Orgeron.

        • Except that kids commit to staffs and the old coaching staff is being replaced. So the new staff needs to re-recruit them and make sure they are on course. I know it’s tough for you to grasp,

  2. Actually, USC has a commit from three star, dual threat QB Harris. I wonder, if he actually comes, whether he will be used as a WR or if Sark can use him in his offense.

  3. The big deal would be if Sark screwed around, like you do, and one or more went somewhere else. Then YOU’D really have something to write about.

  4. They can all enroll early. Any recruit. They have to use four this year or they will lose the schollies. Early enrollees would benefit from being in the system early. Maybe that is why it is a big deal – to familiarize themselves with the offense and defense.

  5. Scottie, what if we had lost either Austin, Poland or Lobendahn because they didn’t like the new coach? What if we can’t add No. 4? Guess what. USC would be coming up big-time short yet again. Comprende? We’re already short on players enough as it is. Sabe?

  6. Scott if they had “…long ago planned” why are you just now blogging that Austin, Poland and Lobendahn are the early enrollees or did you just find out?

  7. I disagree with most of these comments. Haden suggested that he felt an urgent need to get the coach in place on December 2 because of the four mid-year scholarships.

    I’m inclined to think that Haden’s statement was an after-the-fact rationalization for Haden’s hiring choice, the timing and manner in which Orgeron was told and handled, etc.

    I do think that the search process was extremely superficial and badly conceived, and speaks poorly of Haden as AD. The national reaction to the hire suggests that I am not alone in that belief. I now think of Haden as an overpaid, on-the-job trainee, whose priorities aren’t convincing.

    Nonetheless, I tend to doubt that Haden is so inept that he would allow 1-to-4 scholarships to hurry a decision that will have implications for many years. It would appear that many commenters here are willing to think that Haden is that inept. Or perhaps they don’t perceive as ineptness what, to me, would clearly be allowing the tail to wag the dog.

    No, I think Haden didn’t expect his choice to be so heavily criticized, and didn’t expect Orgeron to storm off. When it happened, he started scrambling for a public relations save. This rationalization about the scholarships was just part of that scramble, as was flying 2,000 miles to appear on ESPN Game Day for two minutes.

    Then, anger is directed at Scott Wolfe for raising the issue. While I agree with Scott that there is plenty to complain about, it is no longer news. Sark is here. You can make your predictions, I can make mine, and Scott can make his. We’ll see who had it right within a few years.

    • I think..no I KNOW …you’re a bel-airian mole – keep digging for Jimmah Mora…Jimmah our Jimmah Mark Wahlberg’s doppleganger’s….Jimmah.

      • I’ve been a Haden defender until now.

        This search had the wrong priorities, at a time when that could not be afforded.

        As Foster wrote in the L.A. Times yesterday, the Pac-12 TV money has changed the game. It’s more like the NFL. Every school has the budget to hire a good staff, upgrade facilities, etc.

        USC’s previous advantage was just as much one of finance as of tradition. The financial advantage is now greatly reduced. There is no room for an average hire–at AD or coach. The competition is too well financed. But that’s what USC has: a trainee, average AD, and a coach who has shown zero signs of excellence. Both nice guys…just not exceptional performers.

        I’m not alone among USC followers in this thinking (and no, I didn’t attend UCLA or USC). None of us knows the future, and I may be proved wrong. But the signs that show themselves can hardly be called favorable. Denial is not a river in Egypt.

  8. Don’t often agree with Joe Blow ‘but’ he is spot on on this one – if you don’t hit the hustings and hard the others will say no one has any interest in you as a recruit.

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