USC Morning Buzz: The Joy Of Early Verbal Commitments

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Nearly every day, some recruit committed to a school says they are still looking at other schools. Pete Carroll used to encourage recruits to take official trips to other schools so they were sure they wanted to go to USC. But that was when recruits thought a bit before committing somewhere.

Today, some verbal commitments are made for little or no reason other than ego gratification. Lane Kiffin said verbal commitments were worthless. USC’s biggest recruit, linebacker Mique Juarez, seems shaky and extremely interested in UCLA. Wide receiver Michael Pittman committed to UCLA and then switched to USC two weeks ago.

Jordan Payton committed to USC, Cal, Washington and signed with UCLA. Recently, there have been commitment press conferences in the Inland Empire for players who had not even finished their sophomore year.

The point is simple: Why commit so soon? Relax. Enjoy high school. Take trips. Make an educated choice. Some coaches want an early signing period. Imagine how many players would want out of their letter of intent if they signed in November and then wanted to go somewhere else in February?

14 thoughts on “USC Morning Buzz: The Joy Of Early Verbal Commitments”

  1. You just discovered this, Scott? By the way, having 2 signing periods works just fine for basketball. I realize that football is different, but perhaps it isn’t a bad idea, depending upon when it happens. The challenge is when you would have the signing period. Teams are in practice in August, preparing for bowl games in December, so when would it be.

    • How about that time span between conference playoffs and the first bowl game. It is a week or two. A three day period over a weekend, then espn can televise it for ratings.

  2. Wolfie, Have a solution for you. If you don’t place any credence in commits, stop paying attention to them. Earthshattering, huh?

  4. Verbals are worth as much as a guy writing for “Inside USC” using most of his time trying to flame Bruin trolls.

  5. Why commit so soon? The answer is simple… it is a drag being bombarded from recruiters 24/7. Have you ever seen the stack of mail some recruits get? And with cell phones and social media, the recruits can’t escape. Committing early doesn’t get rid of all the recruiters, but it does weed out many if you are a solid commit. What starts out as an ego trip with all the attention, quickly get tiring. And for some of these players the recruiting starts very early in high school.

  6. Hey Wolfie. Some kids know where they want to go. They’ve always known where the wanted to go and they want to reserve their spot. And the vast majority of commitments stick, your comments notwithstanding.

    So relax. Enjoy your second-class blog status. Start doing some homework and quit relying on USC bloggers for all the accurate info here.

    • Pittman and Jordan Parker decommitted from Westwood. It’s too soft for them. Juarez is a violent player. University of South Central is where they want to play football. What is Mora saying to run these kids off? It’s been a horrible 3 weeks for ucla recruiting.

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