Brandon Pili, a defensive tackle from Portland, committed to USC tonight. He had USC and Oregon State as his final two choices. He is a three-star recruit according to Rivals. USC needs defensive tackles so it’s obviously a good addition to the recruiting class.
Meanwhile, cornerback Wylan Free, who originally committed to USC last year, switched to Fresno State today. So that means USC wanted someone who is going to Fresno State. Until it decided to nudge him elsewhere. Doesn’t this cry out for skepticism over the evaluations being done among the coaching staff?
The Polynesian Pipeline continues. Keep’em coming.
Good reporting, Scott Wolf.
Here here Arturo…hope you’re having a good evening…
Same to you. Had a great day with my two boys (5 and 6) riding bikes and scooters then tossing the ball around. That is about as good as it gets. Have a super evening, sir.
Blessings
No…blogger, it does not smack of something I’m overly worried about. Think about when, exactly that commitment happened, and then think or the protean nature of the process…and consider the Trojans seeming return to form…
“…of the protean…”
There’s quite a nice class unfolding.The coaches,after a season together have evaluated the needs and are filling them nicely.We can expect at least 2 more DT’s.Possibly another via Blue shirt.
Hoping we will all be happily surprised Pete…as it stands we currently are in play for a stud at every potential place of pressing need…
The onus will then be in the staff to develop the talent, and perhaps massage the playbooks to actualize the potential the roster
I believe as this last season progressed,the staff showed thats what they do.From defense ,special teams on to Tee Martin developing into fine OC.
Why aren’t you writing for SI or L.A Times?
Hey Pete…
Referring to me or Mr Arturo?
Neither.
Just got finished looking at past recruiting classes and there are a lot of 3 star recruits in this class. The flip side of that is that just as many 5 star guys flopped and didn’t pan out as 3 star guys in past recruiting classes. I think that if players develop and stay for their entire 4 or 5 years of eligibility, players-regardless of stars- will and could become meaningful contributors.
Depth, adds up to championships.When this class is in,the * average will fall top five.
Hope you are right.
In the case of this class, i suspect it could be looked on as a turning point (post sanctions) for the program…
Carroll style headliners(skill guys) with big bodies on point…and big, solid fellas like Pili to develop…mother mercy I’m happy
Does the guy pass academic muster?
I wish insidesocal dot com would recruit a three star blogger for USC.
It would be a big improvement.
Damn skippy Art…
How many stars do you rate FLOW ?
But I do wonder…is the blogger simply being provocative, knowing we all enjoy the subsequent banter following his click bait?
It’s simple enough to find real info on the state of Troy…perhaps the blogger understands his simple role as an instigator…and as such we should appreciate him….
That’s exactly what he’s doing Martin. It’s pretty obvious. It’s all about the advertising. I’m only guessing, but there’s maybe a formula that says if a blog gets so many hits it equates to sales. It’s a great idea and a source of income without doing much work. He maybe has a staff that helps with this. He may even have bloggers that get paid to create controversy. It’s done all the time on blogs. It’s all about the money.
It’s called playing the game and adapting to changing opportunities. Every school in the country pulls back on some offers. This is why there is resistance to a very early signing day. Too much changes. Early offers which are accepted soon are always subject to backtracking by either the decommitment route or the sorry, you wouldn’t really play much here route.
In fact, it’s a disservice to the recruit to pretend he should stick if further evaluation reveals he’s better suited at a different school. It’s called playing time and future discontented player.
Things are working out very nicely for USC. Some 4/5 star-types are waiting to cave in for the Trojans at the end. Gonna be a great class and much better than things were headed just two months ago.
Birdcage doesn’t have the faintest clue about how the recruiting game is played, especially by schools that go from 1-3 to 10-3. It’s very simple really.
We’re back baby!
Jack…uuhhh…dam you just dominated that entire f-ing concept!!!!
Done…and well done, Jack
Well, you are the one doing the crying, as usual. I guess you must be the only perfect person on the planet at what you do, making you…God! Perfect writer, perfect analyst, perfect friend, perfect relationship, perfect eater, perfect driver, you’re fricking purrfect! Out of every single recruiting class by every single school in the history of college football there have been highly rated kids who did as expected, were average, or, busts. And, there have been kids not highly rated who sucked, were average, or, much better than average. But, you, must have some sort of linear method of evaluating recruits, or, you would never make a statement like that because you would know that makes you look like you don’t know jack about the sport you cover…Oh, wait a minute, that’s redundant. I forgot, everybody on this site already knows you don’t know jack and are BITTER about being a non-athlete having to cover talented athletes without having any understanding of what competitive sports entails. Speaking of nuts, or, lack of, that’s you in a nutshell…
Has anyone heard anything about Levi Jones? Just saw twitter post of a picture of visitors, and they sure look good. Don’t know about the rest of you, but I love the ebb and flow of recruiting almost as much as the games themselves!!! BTW A. Vera Tucker looks like he’s gonna be a load on the OL.
I read he is ready to commit right now. Who knows for sure.
Pili kind of came out of nowhere. The big ones Tufele and Marlon T are the catch.
You’re right about that, two bigs in the middle of the DL is Christmas in January. With the reticence expressed earlier about these coaches, seems their really pulling their weight.
He was a 3 star, the staff figured he may develop into a 4 star and took a chance on him. Last July he committed. Played the season and didn’t become the 4 star. Decommitted in December. How would this reflect poorly on the staff. Rolled the dice and it didn’t work out.
1/27 so far 2 four stars and one 5 star visits.
Maybe it’s a switch in priority for the kid. We never get the why when a high school kids makes an adult decision. He’s from Carson maybe his ambition doesn’t lead him to the Trojans. Maybe he’d rather be a big fish in a small pond.
Without complete information why do we automatically assume the coaches changed the kids mind?
I mean Fresno is far enough away to be away but still close enough to be home on weekends.
He decommitted it doesn’t say his offer was removed.
BREAKING NEWS.. Hmm, high profile Ruin commit wants back in at USC, the staff said NO THANK YOU.. and also a longtime Stanford commit is expected to take an OV.. Offensive line kid that has been in contact for 6 weeks with Coach C and BKU.
What fun. Wish it was Washington. Those guys were so down they were drinking bleach and coke. Hilarious. 10 days to seal the deal.
I read 247 …funny stuff .. They are crazy like us about our team..
MORNING Has broken.
Word Tuipulotu after dinner last night strolled over to the financial aid office where scholarships are signed..
Tufele loved the visit.
Said to other visitors
“Here comes TnT”
Its not done till Feb 1, but its extremely likely both Tui and Tufele will be Trojans!!!
Would be epic. 2 of the top 5 DT’s
Tui is expected to announce later today!
The ROSE BOWL was a defining moment in our return to excellence.
Flipping Tui and signing Tufele would be a defining moment in recruiting.
I agree.. Win 10 and the ROSE BOWL and #3 slot nationally.. = KIDS WANT IN!
The blogger is being provocative and too cute. When you do that too often, you develop a credibility issue. The media does that too often and it will come back to bite you. Look at how the Trump administration is manipulating the media…..He can do that because they have a credibility issue….
How about getting someone who was also recruited by a lot better program than Oregon St. Helton is not in the same category as Kiffin or Sark when recruiting real talent. Case in point was last year’s wide out receiving corp with only Pitman getting on the field.
Didn’t a few redshirt? Smart with Juju ahead of you.
I’ll wait until the dust settles. With 25 (23 with last blue shirts), USC can afford to get projects. Kids with big upside. Two of the recent recruits were basketball players. One is 6’6″ kid that can develop into a monster rusher. The other is an athlete that is really fast and athletic.
You must be a fan of Wolfie, he doesn’t know jack about anything either. WR corps was loaded. Red-shirting talented guys was the move. Red-shirting down linemen is also still the move. When you have talent and depth at a position, you red-shirt the freshmen…geesh! One Wolfie is enough…