An Optimistic Early USC View

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The national title game is tonight so why not have the first top 25 for 2017? The Sporting News has USC ranked No. 2 behind Alabama. No questions about players leaving or potential holes in the secondary or offensive line apparently. Full poll here

43 thoughts on “An Optimistic Early USC View”

  1. This is totally hypothetical and yet Wolf will find something wrong with it. Unexpected?? Save it and we can see how accurate the “experts” are after 5 games into 2017.

  2. #2 ?????????? HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

    Did they even look at USC’s returning DL ? DB’s? OL ? What a joke.

    Darnold’s good, but not even he can play defense

          • He actually believes The University of Southern California magically landed all these 4Star/5Star players and were and we won every game by luck. He says he’s a SF Giants fan but he doesn’t watch baseball. He says Baseball and basketball are boring and people don’t watch it anymore. I think he’s fond of the SF Male community more than anything. He’s not an SC fan. I don’t know if he went there, but if he did in fact go to school at USC i guarantee you the 40,000-50,000 other students that were on campus aren’t keeping in touch with him now. And I’m willing to assume he yells at kids that are walking to school to stay off his grass for no reason. He eats at Denny’s every week not because he’s hungry but to give the staff a hard time. His personality screams all of this. He’s not a fan. Not even the fans that try to find excuses for winning to avoid future disappointments are as bad as him. He’s old enough to recall some history, but he’s nit a USC fan. Doesn’t belong here.

  3. One minor correction to Sporting News’ evaluation of pitfalls facing Washington —it’s not “they lose several players to the NFL BUT Jake Browning returns” —its “they lose several players to the NFL AND Jake Browning returns.”

  4. Unless USC totally blows it, this high ranking should get then into the playoffs, because they should dominate the weak, PAC 12. No teams in conference should present any challenges, other then Stanford, and Washington.

    • Same could be said for every conference. The Big Ten turned out to be a post-season joke. The SEC and Big 12 each have one good team, ALA and OU. The ACC has CLEM and FSU.

      Trojans earned their place back at the table. Recruit. Recruit. Recruit, especially the Big Uglies on both sides of the trenches.

  6. tOSU has had 5 players declare early for the NFL draft, last season they had 10 declare early. This is all part of the process. The biggest single loss as of right now is StevieT, he wasn’t even a part of the team last year. Settle down chicken little.

  7. Hey, it’s great to be part of the big ole’ hype machine again. Rankings like this obviously mean nothing, unless you are ALA.

    In the meantime, it’s great to know USC is back in the “respect game.” Now it’s up to our coaches to prove we belong there…but at least we’ve got a spot at the table again. The better the expectations, the better it is for USC’s future.

  8. You have to Love Adorre’s Spirit !!!!
    Today first day of Spring Semester
    HE’S enrolled,and attended class.
    Next Monday is deadline for declaring,Whatever he chooses,one thing for sure he follows his passion for Life.
    . Love this young Man.

    • Adoree is one amazing Trojan. Loved watching him play. I still think he’s gone, but no matter. He’s given to USC, in both football and T&F, all we could ever ask for.

      • Here’s a question to have some fun with..It’s all asked for fun…Adorre, from some sources has been told his NFL value lies mostly as a return specialist…If so..
        So Adorre comes back and focuses on offense,as receiver. Plays mostly there.Does he then enter NFL as high pick on Offense 2018??
        Fun question.

  10. SC has to do something about aquirring more good recruiters. I’ll agree, you don’t need as many good recruiters at SC because the school will recruit itself. I like the fact that CH has put an emphasis on developement. You not only have to get great players but you must develope them. But how much developement can you do when the coaches can only spend 20 hours a week with the players and zero hours during certain parts of the year and that is only for 3 years because the really good players will only stay 3 years? It’s hard to see anyone beating Alabama because their players are so much better than anyone else’s. I saw one mock draft and out of the top 31 picks, 6 of them came from Alabama. There are 128 school in the top division, not to mention the lower divisions(where first round draft picks also come from) and of the first 31 picks 20% of them are predicted to come from one school. Clemson may beat Bama tonight but if that happens, that just proves that Nick Saban is not as good of a coach as we think he is.

    • You mean like a DC who wants to recruit ? Like a DL coach who isn’t learning on the job ? Like a respected OL coach ?

      No one good wants to work for Helton

      • I disagree. I think that he has great assistants. I’d hate to lose Clancy but it will eventually happen since he is known to prefer the pros. When it does happen, I hope they get someone who can recruit. The DL line coach, I would have preferred that they had kept Chris Wilson but they got rid of him and then couldn’t get whoever they wanted so they settled for KU. But I think that, in the long run, that will work out. I think KU will eventually be a great DL coach. This guy is an overachiever. Their OL coach is an excellent OL coach. It’s not that they don’t want to work for Helton. It’s the program that has been in chaos for the last 4 years. If you are a great position coach, why would you want to come to SC and then be out of work after just one year because the HC got fired. Not to mention that SC doesn’t pay what other programs pay. SC wanted the DC from Wisconsin(Aranda). But SC was only willing to pay $800,000. LSU offered him 1.3 million. That’s 70% higher pay. So he went to LSU. SC is a great place to coach. As soon as someone brings some stability to the SC program, the coaches will come. Hopefully, CH will bring that stability.

          • I like the assistants that he has. I just hope that they will either learn how to recruit better or get someone in their, when some of these guys decide to move on, who are good recruiters. Recruiting is definitely a part of college football coaching in this day and age. In tonights national championship game, 38 out of the 44 starters are either 4 or 5 star.

      • When C. Helton got hired, the black cloud left by Kiffin, Sark, and especially Haden made coaches cautious about wanting to come here. The fact that they closed the season on a good run, with good talent, means they will be turning the page on recruiting and filling coaching positions, with better coaches if needed.
        Swann is not looking for attention, as Haden did. I think he knows USC is and should continue as a traditional power in College football.

    • I’d say Jim Mora and his staff have done a pretty good job of recruiting. How has this worked out for them? If I had to choose between recruiting success and developmental success, I’ll take the latter. Of course, if you can do both, even better.

      • Developing the players is very important. You need both recruiting and development. But you are somewhat limited in development when you can only spend 20 hours a week with them. Also, you only have a certain few coaches for 105 or so players. One of the advantages that Stanford has is that they somehow manage to keep most of their players for at least 4 years. That gives them more time to develope the players. Most of the rest of the big schools aren’t able to do that. Pete Carroll was able to do it. Not too many players left early when he was here.

      • well, Mora’s gone 9-5, 10-3, 10-3, 8-5 and 4-8. I’d say it’s gone pretty ok, save for this year and last.

    • All coming downt to wire Yale. DT’S are first priority on the list. This weekend is a big weekend for SC. Safety Commit Bubba Bolden, TE Josh Falo, DE Javon Kinlaw, DT Aubrey Solomon and even 2018 OG Jalen McKenzie 6-5 310 son of Reggie Mckenzie and younger brother of Tennessee DT Kahlil Mckenzie will also be visiting. It’s good to have Bolden in on the visit so he can be right there convincing them to play with him. And Mckenzie is really happy with getting an offer from USC, said it wss his dream school. Should be an interesting weekend for recruiting.

    • Please no. I want Bama, Ohio State. We have to knock the kings of hill off along with their NC winning Head Coaches. Add Jim Harbaugh to that just so we can take down another big name and get some sweet revenge from the old Pac 10 days of “whats your deal?”

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