Where Will USC’s Recruiting Class Be Ranked?

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Rivals.com recruiting analyst Mike Farrell said even if USC lands the Big 3 (Adoree Jackson, John Smith, Damien Mama), its recruiting class will probably finish ranked in the mid-20s.

58 thoughts on “Where Will USC’s Recruiting Class Be Ranked?”

  1. Rankings mean nothing when we are dealing with scholarship reductions as the score is based on the number of recruits.

    If the Big 3 come in as planned, we will have addressed our needs to the best we can. It was very important we bring in a good OL and Kiffin/Orgeron/Sarkisian has done that.

  2. What does Rivals know? Anno nimus thinks we can have some “Scholarship PRODUCTIONS”!

    Hahahahahahahaha

      • “You know what my auto spell meant. Moron. And apparently you don’t know how to subtract either. Lmao”

        Oh, the stupidity. Are you 13?

        • You are the last one to talk about stupidity, rah rah. Tell us how the ruins will be worse than last year yet make the playoff.

          • Aw.. Your poor feelings are hurt, pedobear. You actually believe that the Ruins will win a NC. ‘Nuff said about your stupidity.

            Now, where do you sit again?

          • No,TrojanFan in drag, I said that you know nothing about college football. Anyone with two brain cells could tell that the ruins big year is next year, not this year. You were the one who said they would make the 4 team playoff next year, not me. But then in the same post you said they would be worse than this year, showing your lack of brains. I just said their big chance is next year with a two year starter at quarterback and improved team and intact coaching staff returning.Then with sanctions over we will come roaring back. Only a brainless rah rah like you would say otherwise.

      • It’s under:

        Pete Carroll Compares Super Bowl To Big USC Victories

        You deleted them BUT couldn’t delete my response. Hahahahahahahahah

        Scholarship Productions!!!!!

      • You’re calling him an idiot? Please allow me to say that MANY of your comments reflect low intelligence. I wish you would hit the road, jack! I am convinced that your absence would raise the mean level of dialogue.

  3. Rankings at this stage absolutely don’t matter. SC has already done fine. Sign the final big three (and the Trojans will nail at least Mama for sure) and SC has done stupendous. Next year, when the playing field is level and we can sign 25, those rankings matter, but not as much as the coaching. Just ask Pete Carroll. the guy Wolfie thought would never make it big in the NFL. Change your dirty sweatshirt Wolfie. It’s a new day!

    • The rankings are good conversation topics and you always want to be in the conversation, but little more than that. No much difference between the #1 class and the #10 class. And there are a few different rankings with different criteria.

      The depth is important because some 5 stars don’t pan out and some 3 stars improve drastically. Without depth, you don’t have the ability to see that.

      Just look at the NFL and how many great players came from small schools and were overlooked. Jerry Rice and Walter Payton come to mind. And the Seahawks were full of overlooked players. They require coaching. SC fans will find out soon enough if Sark can coach them up.

      • Overlooked players? Oh I see – we SC fans have complete trust in Pete Carroll and that same Pete Carroll is the one who found those ‘overlooked players’ unlike the genius that preceded Pete – Jim Mora.

      • sbnation has a good article on the recruiting rankings for the Denver Offense and Seattle Defense. The summary for unranked W. Welker is entertaining.

        “Welker was a high school superstar. He recorded nearly 5,800 career
        rushing and receiving yards, 80 career touchdowns, seven punt return
        touchdowns, 22 interceptions on defense, and 35 field goals for good
        measure, enough to win him every relevant Oklahoma Player of the Year
        award. Welker was overlooked in recruiting as too small and too slow.
        Oklahoma told him he shouldn’t even try to walk on.”

        • IMHO, the more insightful point is that Denver and Seattle are both a few million “under the cap.” Denver has $16 million tied up in Manning. Seattle has something like $3 million tied up in Wilson. Seattle has a lot more money to spend elsewhere than QB. Wilson is not Manning, but Wilson plus $13 million in other players is more than a match for Manning.

          If you want to hear an entertaining anecdote about Oklahoma recruiting, OU decided not to recruit Barry Sanders, because he was a 180-pound wing back. Later that year, before the OU-OSU game, OU Coach Barry Switzer told his staff that they better hope that Thurman Thomas did not get injured, because OU did NOT want to play against this freshman who backed up Thomas.

      • I beg to differ. Over a couple of years, a steady top-5 recruiting school will beat a steady #25 about two-thirds of the time. The subject was studied by Matt Hinton.

        This year marks USC’s worst “average prospect rating” in a dozen years, and by a material margin. Within a year of two of PC’s hire, PC did not have to beat Pac-12 teams that had equal talent to his team. He had markedly better talent. Sark will have beat Pac-12 schools with talent that is about equal to that of his team.

        If Sark can do that through good coaching, he’s a really good coach. Not only that, but he will soon thereafter have better talent than his conference rivals.

        But that’s the task for the next several years. It is what it is.

        • I don’t mean to say they don’t matter at all, I just think they are a bit overblown on how they rank them. SC has had some highly rated classes that were short on the OL under Kiffin. The classes need to be balanced to fill certain needs and it can easily get out of balance when you only have 15 to offer. The devil is in the details.

          • I don’t disagree about getting all the positions adequately stocked. Frankly, it’s impossible with only 15 recruits. Kiffin used to say that USC couldn’t afford any errors, but that was irrational. Generally, 33% or more of recruits don’t pan out. If USC could have cut it to 25%, it would have been superb.

            I think Kiffin did more than a good job at recruiting. Were there explicit errors? Of course. Humans make errors.

            It was in virtually every other facet of the job that Kiffin fell noticeably short. Not recruiting.

          • Kiff’s recruiting was dropping off a great deal as people didn’t like playing for him and he was seen as a fraud. Eventually, the kids won’t come if they don’t think you can coach.

            The biggest area, IMO, where it can be difficult to project is on the line. Some kids are just bigger in high school and they dominate, but it doesn’t translate to college as everyone is big. Plus, smaller kids work hard in the weight room and develop. These kids are still developing physically. The best coaches have a way of evaluating this separate from the star ratings. If you have a large portion of OL commits, it can drag down your ranking. It simply isn’t accurate.

  6. SC ain’t getting the Big 3. They’re getting Mama. I’m sure the staff is already working on getting him to not go on his mormon mission. JuJu to Oregon, Adoree to UCLA.

  7. Experts at Rivals are no better than the experts right here. If they guess 50% they get to be called experts. What a joke.
    All three will sign USC, and that is according to our chief expert, Scott Wolf himself. Take it to the bank.

  8. Nothing really matters at this point other then the fact USC can sign as many Players that can control the line of scrimage as possible . That has been their down fall the last few years , you can’t dominate the running game unless you have people movers , like Stanford has .

    • I don’t agree entirely. You have to face the facts of your weaknesses, and try to compensate by modifying your scheme. Flexibility was not LK’s strong point.

      Still, it’s always better to dominate line play. I just don’t think that’s in the near-term cards for USC. The line talent at UCLA, ND, Stanford, Oregon, and perhaps others is no less than the line talent at USC. That won’t change quickly. Freshmen rarely star on the OL.

  9. Yeah I’m guessing the AFC is becoming a AAA league compared to what the NFC showed this year and that’s probably exactly where Welker belongs – he was completely had last Sunday night – he encountered a defense he had no idea existed – he surely wasn’t ready for: SFO, NOLA, CAR or even PHIL.

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