Recruiting Rankings Don’t Always Matter

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Think about USC and UCLA’s usual recruiting rankings. As pointed out by my colleague Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News, here’s UCLA from  2008-15:  2, 2, 2, 7, 3, 1, 1, 2.

“Yep, over eight years, UCLA was either first or second six times and outside the top three once,” Wilner writes.

And UCLA won zero Pac-12 titles. USC’s recruiting has been even better. Wilner mentions sanctions but it’s also true USC’s talent was far better than other teams in this period.

Even yesterday on ESPNU, Joey Galloway questioned when results are going to match the years of good recruiting? They haven’t really since Pete Carroll left. Is it going to next year? It seems like a lot of people expect USC to lose at least of their first four games next season (Alabama, Utah State, Stanford, Utah). So maybe it’s wait till the year after next year.

83 thoughts on “Recruiting Rankings Don’t Always Matter”

  1. Scott.. Why do you consistently write garbage article and bashing SC, You seem inteligent, but not a spot on type of journalist..

    USC has always recruited very well, And absolutely the NCAA and sanctions killed the process.. “Lack of Depth regardless of talent..

    You just play up to your idiot troll Ucla friends.. You embarrass the world of journalist and the Daily News.

    Get off your thumbs and act like a real journalist, write facts please, Not BS..Thats all you do is write BS..This is USC blog not a Ucla comedy club.. Get with the program.. Be a professional!

    • Rah-Rahs are funny.

      Go to “Conquest” Chronicles if you want a bunch of Pollyanna nonsense…this is a rough and tumble blog for men who want to bite gouge and kick, not fancy boys who get nervous when someone dissagrees with them!!

      #FancyBoy

      • I don’t get nervous…I have a backbone.. You on the other hand are a chump.. That I know.. Why are you here anyway?..

      • Speaking of bite, gouge and kick, what’s Alfred going to do tonight to get some defense? Not impressed with the 30 pt win over the last place team.

      • You guys go to Conquest Chronicles too?? Clearly some kind of therapy is needed over in Westwood. Considering the severity of this mass psychosis, I think we better start with electro shock and move to group lobotomies failing a positive response. Holy shiest!

    • 86, how about you quit coming to this blog if you can stand the truth. If you need a constant source of Rah Rah, Bozo U pixie dust, free Fireballs journalism start your own blog.

      For you 86, starting a Bozo U pixie dust blog would tax your one available brain cell.

      • While you sit in your trailor smelling the trash outside, I sit in my Bevely Hills office making $1,500 an hour.. Take a hike clown!

          • Hey my friend…Blown away, by the way the staff performed
            and finished..We talked about Helton having to hit a Homer,
            it was like six straight extra base hits followed by a moon shot
            deep center.So much coaching now to do,but for today I’m thrilled.
            Now,how long has it been since we had a great NSD,followed
            with our 17-5 basketball team playing ucla? A victory tonight would cap a great week.

          • I couldn’t have said it any better Pete. I think landing a big safety like Jamel Cook makes up for the loss of Asiasi. And a surprise from RB Malapeai was awesome. Two Army AA’s out of nowhere was a great addition to the class. And it would be a cherry on top to beat the Bruins tonight!

      • ”how about you quit coming to this blog if you can stand the truth.” What??? Speak, or write correctly.

      • This retort coming from someone who posted 50+ times yesterday alone! What is the one word that sums Unowns up? Possessed, obsessed, just plain weird? Can you imagine how he functions in everyday life with the meds he must take and a quart of CVS vodka? Pretty obvious by his behavior on this blog.

        • You better delete this post… cause after tonight “even Sonny won’t be able to call off Just Owns”

    • I hope you didn’t post this to Twitter. You are going to get lit up 3 years from now with a blog post.

    • I read this as Scott is not bashing anyone… he is telling the truth about the lack of coaching going on at USC. You have top quality recruits coming in here year after year after year and you can’t get beyond 8 & 5? Anyone have a clue?

      • IMO:

        (1) PRD is right that the short rosters were a significant factor in “limiting the upside”. Some effects were direct, some indirect, and the amalgam was significant.
        (2) Of course you are correct that only a dimwit would fail to discern poor/mediocre teaching, coaching, scheming,planning, adjustment, etc. from the coaching staff(s).
        (3) What’s annoying about Scott is not that he sees the mediocrity of the coaching, or discusses it. It’s his failure to ever deepen his analysis of the details of what’s not being done correctly. He settles for what his sources leak out (and he HAS some good sources), and never puts in time and energy to grow and learn as a football or program analyst. In that sense, I feel bad for him, because I do think he’s smart, and he’s missing out on fully developing his abilities. And isn’t that his larger complaint about the coaches–they don’t develop the players to their potential, or the team to its potential? Perhaps if he sought to understand and overcome his own inability to reach HIS potential, he would gain more empathy for and insight into the coaches.

        • Just read there are 8 5 star and 18 4 stars from high school ratings on the Super Bowl roster. Denvers roster ranking in high school avg was 2.44. Chris Petersen claims that hes not sure what the rankings dtermine when a kid is 18 yrs old. Players should be reruited on need and fit for a program

    • Wonder which journalism school the Macho Lobo went to??!!
      Besides, he is the finest writer anywhere!

      You want him on the blog, you need him on the blog!
      #ColonelJessipStyle

  3. You omitted a crucial word there…. And Utah State? that’s a loss in that writer’s mind? Pfft.

  5. PC’s first class was ranked 12th. He had a top rated class with like 9 RB’s, how worthless was that ranking ?

    Recruiting class rankings are silly.

  7. USC has had some okay years by most program’s standards. And that was without a real coach or full roster. Time will tell if we finally have a real coach, but we have a great roster.
    It is time to put it together.

  8. UsC has always recruited well. Its been the coaching that has killed us. Even under sanctions it was shown that our opponents even with fullrosters actually played about the same amount of players in actual games as USC. All the stars indicate is how much a player is being recruited by elite programs. Some pan out and many dont. Somebody did an analysis of actual 5 stars from High school in the Super Bowl . It wasnt an overwhelming number.

  9. Every August I buy the just released preseason college football magazines. In 2004 Phil Steele’s issue it listed 9 five stars recruited to the Pac 10 (became Pac 12 in 2011) that year. Of the nine, one went to Stanford and the other 8 to USC. Back then Pete Carroll dominated recruiting. Today, with all the tv money coming into the conference there is so much more parity in college football. It is much harder now to go undefeated in a season, and to dominate in recruiting. Some of us needs to adjust our epectations, as living in the past will just lead to consternation.

  10. Schools that recruit well cherish high recruiting rankings. Schools that don’t call BS on rankings. It’s always been that way. Great recruits plus great coaching equals ALA and OHIO ST. Great recruits plus bad coaching equals USC and TENN. Most are in the middle somewhere, either overachieving or underachieving for various reasons.

    Just ask Sonny Dykes or Mike Leach what they would give for USC’s and ucla’s athletes. They’d trade their entire rosters in a second.

    • David Shaw exemplifies this the most in the Pac-12. Rarely do you see Stanford in the top 10 on any of the four most prominent recruiting sites, yet they always get the players they need to plug into their highly successful systems of playing defense and offense. Yet another parallel came be made here between SC football and UCLA basketball. SC typically has more players in the NFL at any given time than any other P12 school, or the nation for that matter. The same can be said for UCLA basketball and the NBA. However, it’s been 10 years since UCLA BB played in a national championship, and 11 years since SC football played in a championship.

      • Shaw is a great coach in that he continued what Harbaugh began. Conversely ‘if’ there had been no sanctions ‘and’ a better HC had replaced Pete Carroll – Troy would be as dominant as ever. That didn’t happen on both counts and possibly this recruiting class and revamped coaching staff may finally result in a return to the glory years of 7+ years ago.

        • “may” is the key word. I must admit CH and his staff our performed the expectations I had. Hope they do the same on the field.

        • Good point Alvarado. People forget that one time during the sanctions SC only played 46 scholarship players. Huge difference in talent and numbers.

        • I think that is an accurate statement. The recruits will always come to play football at USC. I admit that I was quite surprised how well the Trojans closed yesterday. It was a dramatic jump up the rankings. Listened to a couple of commentaries on ES8N last night, and the word is that the biggest winners on NSD were USC, UCLA, Alabama, Texas and Michigan. I would agree.

          • And we’re scheduled to play all but Michigan the next 2 years. Sure beats Florida’s 2016 non-conference schedule which features the likes of the North Texas Mean Green, the UMass Minutemen, and the always imposing Presbyterian Blue Hose.

  11. ”It seems like a lot of people expect USC to lose at least of their first four games…” Is this Scott or Galloway talking?

  12. Recruiting services can rank a kid based on how they performed in high school but cannot project who they will turn out in college. Good coaching is able to maximize the talent and in some cases not. A 5 star recruit has to prove they can make it at the next level otherwise they’ll be riding the bench.

    USC did better than most of us expected yesterday in recruiting. It will be up to Helton and the coaches to turn the talent into a force to be reckoned with.

    My guess is that we’ll all be surprised with the job he does next season. Nobody thought much of PC after he finished his first season 6-6. Look at how the next 7 seasons went.

    FIGHT ON!

    • Clay may do great.

      But there is zero logic to your last paragraph.

      PC had position-coached in the NFL for years, and made a strong enough impression to be hired as an NFL head coach. Do you think any NFL asst. coach lasts long without knowing a lot and learning a lot more as his goes?

      Clay had…you fill it in.

  13. Recruiting services can rank a kid based on how they performed in high school but cannot project who they will turn out in college. Good coaching is able to maximize the talent and in some cases not. A 5 star recruit has to prove they can make it at the next level otherwise they’ll be riding the bench.

    USC did better than most of us expected yesterday in recruiting. It will be up to Helton and the coaches to turn the talent into a force to be reckoned with.

    My guess is that we’ll all be surprised with the job he does next season. Nobody thought much of PC after he finished his first season 6-6. Look at how the next 7 seasons went.

    FIGHT ON!

  14. Recruiting services can rank a kid based on how they performed in high school but cannot project who they will turn out in college. Good coaching is able to maximize the talent and in some cases not. A 5 star recruit has to prove they can make it at the next level otherwise they’ll be riding the bench.

    USC did better than most of us expected yesterday in recruiting. It will be up to Helton and the coaches to turn the talent into a force to be reckoned with.

    My guess is that we’ll all be surprised with the job he does next season. Nobody thought much of PC after he finished his first season 6-6. Look at how the next 7 seasons went.

    FIGHT ON!

  15. Congrats to Helton and the assistant coaches. Looks like a lot of hard work went into a very successful NSD. Let’s hope that Helton is mature enough to get the new recruits to compete and excel(as opposed to the last two meatballs).

  16. Reading about Pac 12 recruits,did any SC guys notice the name of new q/b at Oregon…Prukop…some of us mega oldies recognize that name? SC q/b Al Prukop…I think mid to late 50’s???

  18. So, as I’ve said from the beginning and all along ever since; Clay was the “one and only” right choice to be our the head coach, he brilliantly put together a great staff and the sky is not falling, USC has the #1 class in the PAC 12. Clay and his staff will coach ’em up and they’ll play like Trojans. I predict we’ll win a close game over Alabama and we’ll be 4 – 0 to start the season. LOL at the trolls and their TINO cousins (Trojans in name only).

  19. who’s gonna be this years Dixon or Shaw? I can spot at least 3-4 possible candidates……..but what do you expect from sooooo many special admits….

    • What does H…i…l…l spell?
      Hint: It goes hand in glove with DUI.
      2nd hint: Believes his last name to be Juan.

      Would be interested in who you believe to be the “at least 3-4 special admits”. Talk is cheap when it is extracted from the depths of where the colon is located.

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