Morning Buzz: Another Example Of USC Being Best Recruiter Of USC

The gem offensive lineman of USC’s recruiting class is Austin Jackson of Phoenix. His grandfather is offensive guard Melvin Jackson, No. 65 in the center of this 1975 USC team photo. Melvin Jackson was also a 12th-round draft pick of the Green Bay Packers and spent five seasons with the club (1976-80).

So this was a pretty easy sell for USC’s coaches.Maybe as easy as driving 20 blocks to Hawkins High School to land Joseph Lewis and Greg Johnson. This is why USC is always the best recruiter for USC. Not a coach.

The full 1975 team photo is after the jump.

73 thoughts on “Morning Buzz: Another Example Of USC Being Best Recruiter Of USC

  1. This is something that I haven’t heard before…USC recruits itself. What a novel concept.

    SW, tell me this…does Texas recruit itself? Then why didn’t they get any of the top 10 players in the state of Texas? Yet, USC got 7 of the top 14 players in California.

    SW, tell me this…is UCLA close to the same schools that USC recruits from? They why don’t they recruit as well?

    Inside Beating A Dead Horse with Scott Wolf

      • No, USC enjoys a unique advantage, being the only school with legacy players or talented HS students in their city… just ask Darnay Holmes.

    • WE ARE USC……

      The coaches did a tremendous job.We attacked our area of needs and closed.

      WW will increase his onslaught of BS to keep up attention.

      There are 3 + players looming out there to transfer,with USC being in conversation..Cal LT,Alabama DL
      TT DL.

      2018 loaded with excellent LB, Two already committed.3 more heavy leans.One of the strongest LB class in 10 yrs.

      WE ARE USC

      Ps. We also OWN the ROSE BOWL

      • 4 out of five top linebackers in the country are from out west!! Can’t we just skip the season and go back to NSD again? Not really.

        • Yesterday was grounds hog day right?

          First time since P.C. , we have huge jump on 2018 recruiting.

          Going through the post signing day hunger.

    • Hard to argue with you.

      The staff did so extremely well that I pondered where Scott would even find the negative spin he needed to provoke USC fans.

      I
      was expecting him to harp on the Californians who got away: N.
      Harris and the two star defenders who chose UCLA, and maybe to add
      T. Tagovailoa from Hawaii.

      That may still be coming, if this blog entry was only part I:

      I. USC recruits itself.

      II. If this staff were really any good, they would have reeled in all of the above four names.

      My thoughts on what this class really means for an NC, etc.:

      (a) Many a slip twixt cup and lip;

      (a)
      Thanks to the GREAT work by this staff, in combination USC’s FB
      tradition, high academic rank, and many prosperous alumni who offer opportunities to
      USC grads, the cup itself has been admirably filled.

      Perhaps the last word comes further down in the comments, from steveg: If no one
      answered Scott’s provocations AT ALL, he might try a new tack.

      • I add in passing that Scott’s “evidence” is a team photo from the end of John McKay’s tenure at USC.

        What a coincidence that the recently constructed FB building is named the McKay Center. Such generosity of spirit, given that McKay was merely a fungible cog in the USC perpetual-recruiting machine. πŸ™‚

  2. Explain in detail what happened to “USC recruiting itself” during the Paul Hackett era. We all want to know!

        • And Darrell Rideaux, Jacob Rodgers, Lenny Vandermade, Bernard Riley, Kareem Kelly, Marcel Allmond and Troy Polamalu?

          • Wow! This was a test! I asked SW to explain in detail and that’s what I received. Thanks GT22!

            Have you been keeping up w/all of Trumps EO’s! There are 2 that the snowflakes will be in an uproar!

  3. So according to Wolf USC should just fire whole coaching staff and make Darnold a player coach.

    • According to Wolf, this is how your get hits on your site. We should not even respond when he puts up this stupid crap.

    • I was gonna say that Clay Helton has the best job in college football. He doesn’t have to recruit ’cause SC recruits itself and he doesn’t have to coach ’cause Darnold is the only reason for the wins. Cush gig! #gravytrain

  4. This is just getting ludicrous. Yes USC has great tradition and allure — just like any other of the blue blood schools. It absolutely gets you in the door and Helton admitted as much. But to say a coach doesn’t matter in it all is just wanting to put down the coach. Do you think that Saban does nothing in recruiting for Alabama? Why did Alabama struggle under DuBose or Franchione or Shula and then all of a sudden turn it around under Saban?

    Any kid that gets an offer from Alabama or Ohio State or Notre Dame or USC, etc. is going to consider the offer because it is an honor to get an offer from such a prestigious school — but the coach must close the deal and get the kid to finally commit.

  5. Than please explain Levi Jones. His father played for East Carolina and the Miami Dolphins . His brother Caleb was a 5 star Texas recruit and transferred to Arizona and is now playing in the NFL. Texas managed to keep his brother in state but CLAY HELTON reached into the Lone Star state and grabbed a UA All American. You come off as a petty little troll constantly refusing to acknowledge any positive from the coaching staff. By now even your bootlicking fanboys can’t deny it.

  6. Ted Tollner, Larry Smith, Paul Hackett and John Robinson in his second stint did not do a very good job of recruiting. They would land top 20 classes but not top 5. Yes, any coach can land a top 20 class at USC without really trying, but it takes a head coach who is a good recruiter and hard working to land a top 5 class at USC.

    • Agree: winning and a strong recruiting effort are “must have” complements.

      The dynamic may be shifting a little in that the best athletes will spend three years in CFB, and favor going where they can PLAY for those three years. That is something that all programs have to consider in their substitution patterns. It was suggested at one point that Clancy P. tended to play only the starters. That luxury may have to be reconsidered by CH.

      You can point to Alabama as the counterexample to this contention, but Southern kids may not be as sophisticated as Southern California kids, or at least as sophisticated as a So. Cal. kids think they are. I wonder if Josh Rosen, in his private moments, doesn’t contemplate that he might well have had a great opportunity to start at USC in 2016, had he not been so intent to enroll where he would absolutely start in 2015.

  7. Make no mistake, if Scott Wolf’s man crush James Franklin had indeed landed the USC gig, and pulled off the same recruiting feats that Clay Helton did this year, there is little doubt that I have no doubt the quote “This is why USC is always the best recruiter for USC. Not a coach.” would instead read something like “In spite of USC and all its shortcomings, the coaches were a huge difference maker bringing in stellar talent.”

  8. All good points fellow bloggers. I may be in the minority but I like SW I think he actually has a good eye for talent. He told us Sam Darnold was special and was better than Cody Kessler in 2015 turns out he was right. But, he is wrong on this and he seems to be downplaying all the hard work our staff and players who host these recruits put in. Too much hard work goes into this to simply say USC recruits USC.

    • Everyone knew Darnold was special, at least everyone who ever saw a practice.

      The USC coaches were all telling people like Colin Cowherd the same thing and Darnold was regarded as a scout team legend. He was always blowing away people who attended practice and had a rep for hardly ever throwing picks and making things happen.

      It was well known that the team regarded Darnold as a future special player. They all respected and liked Browne – but he was never regarded by the players as a special talent like Darnold was.

    • I like Scott, too. And, it’s true, he has frequently been among the first to identify players [and coaches] who don’t have what it takes. But he seems to be following the Marlon Brando career curve —- his best stuff behind him, he seems content to now caricature himself. Maybe it’s time to put some heart back into it.

  9. This was John McKay’s last USC team. He really knew how to set himself off, front and center, with his staff stacked up on the sides.

    The team only finished 8-4 and imploded after McKay announced he was headed to Tampa Bay, losing four straight games. The assts were all worried about their jobs and the younger players felt betrayed.

    Ricky Bell was the star. #42, right behind McKay, gained 1,875 yds and finished 3rd in the Heisman. He had played fullback on the ’74 team that won the NC and shared duties with #15, Dave Farmer (front row). Farmer was a great guy and dated my good friend’s younger sister.

    That team didn’t throw much, Vince Evans (#8 front row) only threw for 695 yds, 3 TDs, and 9 picks, mostly to Randy Simmrin (#18, front row, great hands). Evans was later the MVP of the ’77 Rose Bowl.

    Team captains were Kevin Bruce (#50, right behind Farmer, from La Canada St. Francis), a National Merit scholar who graduated 5th in his class) and Danny Reece (#46, second row, behind McKay, from Wilmington Banning)

    • Wow JB, you really are old! Hertel (#6) should also have some passing stats from that year. I was in same Jr. High and HS grad class with him. He got our HS it’s first CIF title. He also had a great Bluebonnet Bowl performace for SC.

      • Hertel kind of got eclipsed by Vince Evans and Paul McDonald’s teams. Ya, I’m about three years older than you.

        I was at SC for the amazing ’72 team which was the most fun, tough, totally dominant Trojan team I ever watched. That team just tooled people before demolishing OHIO ST in the Rose Bowl. I knew a lot of guys on that squad and it was a great time to be at USC. Our cheerleaders were awesome!

        • That was a wonderful time, almost magical in the LA area. I remember the SLA shoot out, we could see the smoke rising from our place.
          Those were some of the best games in those years too. Great times

          • So true. My girlfriend and I drove by the shoot-out spot like total look-e-loos. mesmerized by the Bonnie and Clyde-type atmosphere. College kids at the most fun place in the world to go to school. Patty Hearst was a trip.

        • True Pete. But he was the unsung hero that landed Marlon Tuipulotu. He worked on him all year. He and Tuipulotu’s family made a deal that he could continue to recruit Marlon secretly as long as USC did not publicly make it known as a big deal. They are very private people. And that story has to urk UW. I actually feel kind of bad for Washington. Ok, i don’t feel bad anymore. But Tuipulotu’s mother didn’t want his recruitment to start up again but they are very fond of Johnny Nansen so they allowed him to stay on Marlon. It all worked out in the last hour. Jay Tufele and his relationship helped great deal but Coach Nansen delivered for us.

          • Los Angeles Hawkins WR Jalen Hall who everyone says is better than Joseph Lewis and also a huge lean to USC is the #2 overall player/5-Star in the Top 10 recruits in ESPN JR 300.
            No disrespect to Lewis because he’s awesome but Hall is on his own planet. He’s a freakish athlete.
            It’s in the bag. We got HIM LOCKED.

          • Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.Nothing is LOCKED until the LOI is signed and delivered. Marlon T’s story above clearly illustrates this, especially if you are a UW fan or coach.

  10. Not sure what SW is trying to accomplish by downplaying the results of Helton’s recruiting on NSD. The fact is today’s athletes are not as sure-fire “gimmies” as their fathers-grandfathers. In 1975, how many outside programs came into the State talking to an athlete as early as 8th grade? I would suspect “never”. Helton could have flopped on a number of the signees, losing them to other programs. He got everyone he was supposed to.

    Let’s not worry about who recruits what today SW. Let’s talk about how the coaching staff will develop these young talented men to execute to the best of their ability and continue building USC football back into a powerhouse it should be.

  11. Hey Wolfbag, weren’t you your ilk up at Berkeley the other night throwing another temper tantrum because Milo Younopolous was going to speak?

  12. DT Breiden Fehoko of Texas Tech and DT Josh Frazier of Alabama are in talks to transfer to USC. In my opinion we’re taking them, but i think it will take some maneuvering to find them a spot. To add on, USC is SERIOUSLY focused on the DL. It’s about time✌

    • Remember last year how Stevie T was being dumped on because he was a desperation transfer from Utah where he supposedly couldn’t even start?

      • Utah said they didn’t need him. We’ll take more DT’S if they Utah or Bama or Tech want to hand them out.

    • How so re the transfers, unless they haven’t graduated from college?

      And if that’s the case, they can’t play until 2018 either, or am I wrong about that?

      If I’m correct, that would not be great for morale among the new signees…they better be on the level of Leonard Williams, or it sounds like a risky deal.

      • Aside: I remember Leonard W. being interviewed after his first 2 or 3 college practices. The reporter commented that he must be overwhelmed to face college OLs in practice–learning new plays and ways, etc.

        Without bragging at all, Leonard answered that “no”, it hadn’t been overwhelming, or even as tough he thought it might be.

        I thought to myself, “This guy must be extremely capable, or extremely outside reality.” The answer to that showed itself in short order.

      • Doesn’t matter now. They reached out to USC, but hearing USC is not looking for any transfers right now. Graduate transfers are another story.

        • You are in the know. If you filled in for Scott for week, he would go the way of Bledsoe. πŸ™‚

          • Thanks, but my brother has all the paysites and passes along everything to me. Plus the stuff i check on my own. And it doesn’t hurt that a friend from high school works on the staff with Ivan Lewis.

  13. USC is the premier college football program west of the Rockies, and the allure runs deep with High School players. But nothing is automatic, because California is a breeding ground for top players, and other major programs shop here regularly

  14. There are no free rides in recruiting. You’ve gotta recruit your fanny off for every single guy or you never know when a little crack will form and send off a target to another team who is outrecruiting you. Recruiting is 90% boots on the ground – and that’s after all the evaluation work has been done.

    This Helton effort for the 2017 class was a work of art. He had to really switch tack after his team regained the national spotlight and he did it seamlessly, reeling in all the big uglies on both sides of the ball as well as nailing premium skill. Kudos to the entire USC staff.

  15. Than please explain Levi Jones. His father played for East Carolina and the Miami Dolphins . His brother Caleb was a 5 star Texas recruit and transferred to Arizona and is now playing in the NFL. Texas managed to keep his brother in state but CLAY HELTON reached into the Lone Star state and grabbed a UA All American.

  16. This just in! Scott Wolf doesn’t credit the coaches!

    Seriously Scott you are pathetic.

  17. We understand that you want to stir the pot and generally, I’m OK with it. But please, given this year’s circumstances, give it a rest. If not, in the words of Bugs Bunny “What a maroon!”

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