LOS ANGELES — USC officially signed 19 players on Wednesday in a recruiting class that ranks 18th in the country in the 247Sports Composite. Here are some takeaways from the Trojans’ recruiting efforts.
1. USC’s day went relatively smoothly with one notable exception: Four-star receiver Ryan Pellum, who committed to the Trojans in late June, flipped to USC’s chief recruiting rival, Oregon.
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Losing out on a receiver isn’t the end of the world for USC, which still signed Xavier Jordan, the top-rated receiver in California (ahead of Pellum). But losing out on another local product to Oregon, which has won some critical recruiting battles against the Trojans the past three cycles, is not ideal.
2. With Pellum’s flip, USC signed just two of the top 25 prospects in California. Oregon signed seven and is the favorite to land an eighth, four-star defensive lineman Jericho Johnson.
Riley was asked about local recruiting during his early signing period media availability. He said after accepting the job at USC, he took a deep dive into why things weren’t clicking in previous years. One thing he noticed was a roster full of California players. He emphasized that the Trojans still want to sign in-state prospects but want “the right guys” from California.
“The other thing that’s shifted too is people have got to realize we’re not in the Pac-12 anymore. Those days are over,” Riley said. “Look where we’re playing. Look at the competition we’re playing. Look at where a majority of our conference lies. That alone, with there’s just a lot of changes with college football in general where no state of players is just staying home like they used to. Now that is not me saying Southern California is not a priority. Hell yeah, it’s a priority. Absolutely, it’s a priority. It will always be. It’s the one state our coaches have an area to recruit — every single coach on our staff does. … But we are going to make sure we’re signing the right guys out of California. We’re not going to take them just because they’re our home state.”
3. The other thing missing from this class? A quarterback. USC has just two scholarship quarterbacks on the roster at the moment: Miller Moss and Jake Jensen. Moss, who will start the Holiday Bowl, was a member of the 2021 class and will be in his fourth college season next year. Jensen has not thrown a pass at USC.
The position group lacks depth, youth and experience. Kansas State’s Will Howard visited last week and is a target, but Riley said there’s “certainly a chance” USC will add two quarterbacks through the portal.
“We’re looking at options there,” he said. “It’s obviously a very intriguing position for obvious reasons so (we’re) starting to sift through options because that choice for us is going to be an important choice. Certainly, the possibility right now exists that we could take as many as two quarterbacks in the portal — potentially one older one and one younger one.”
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4. Nine of the 19 signees play along the line of scrimmage.
Riley described them as, “Large human beings. Large, large human beings. People that are very, very tough to move and they’re good at moving other people.”
Center Jason Zandamela and edge rusher Kameryn Fountain are the two headliners. The Trojans need help on both sides of the line of scrimmage, especially as they move into the Big Ten.
The issue is that Zandamela and Fountain are the only line-of-scrimmage players who rank in the top 300 nationally. USC has to start landing more high-level players in the trenches.
Zandamela is the first top-200 national offensive lineman USC has signed since Justin Dedich, who is currently in his sixth year with the program and set to play his final game next week. That’s a long time.
On the offensive line, the coaching staff is basically saying: trust our evaluation and development. That’s asking for quite the leap of faith, and the margin for error is pretty thin. We’ll see how that goes.
5. Riley said they wanted to address both sides of the line but also the secondary. Four-star corner Marcelles Williams, the younger brother of current USC safety Max Williams, is the highest-rated defensive player in the class.
The loss of Domani Jackson highlights how thin USC’s depth is at corner right now. Williams brings some good size to the position at 5-foot-11, 185 pounds. On Wednesday, the Trojans also added Mississippi State transfer DeCarlos Nicholson, who posted 42 tackles and two pass breakups for the Bulldogs this season. Nicholson has really solid size for a corner as well at 6-3, 195 pounds.
6. USC has suffered some attrition at running back this offseason and lacks depth at the position. The Trojans signed three-star back Bryan Jackson but also added Mississippi State transfer Jo’Quavious Marks, who rushed for 573 yards and four scores in 2023. He’s an adept receiver out of the backfield as well; he caught 83 passes in 2021 playing under Mike Leach.
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USC has added six transfers this offseason.
7. Four-star tight end Walter Matthews officially signed his letter of intent after Riley spoke to the media. He joins four-star Joey Olsen in a two-tight end class.
Tight ends coach Zach Hanson has quietly added some quality players in the past two cycles. Next season, the Trojans will have Lake McRee, Kade Eldridge, Carson Tabaracci (a converted linebacker), Matthews and Olsen. And four-star Class of 2023 prospect Walker Lyons, who is serving his mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Norway, is scheduled to join the program in the fall.
That’s a talented group, which should give USC some more diversity on offense next fall.
8. If you’re viewing things through an optimistic lens, you’ll likely say USC brought in a solid class. If you’re on the more pessimistic side, you’ll point out that the 18th-ranked recruiting class won’t be putting USC in contention for a national championship anytime soon.
On Wednesday, Riley said, “We came here to win national championships.”
Recruiting has to improve if that’s the case. Yes, we know USC’s administration is on the more conservative side with NIL, and Riley has not wanted to invest time in recruits who are NIL-focused. But Riley is being paid like a national championship head coach, so the onus is on him to figure out how to improve the program’s recruiting.
Retaining Alex Grinch for the 2023 season was a detriment to USC’s recruiting efforts this cycle. That should improve with D’Anton Lynn. And we’ll see if the Trojans can make more inroads locally.
Here’s how I view the class: It is fine. But Riley inherited a roster that was at such a talent deficit that he needed to stack some elite classes to make up the difference. So while a fine class will upgrade USC’s talent level, it’s unlikely to close the gap with some of the nation’s elite programs — or Oregon, which has the No. 6 class in the country and was already a more talented team, top-to-bottom, than the Trojans.
Unless this staff suddenly becomes one of the best in the sport at evaluating and developing (and retaining) — which we haven’t seen yet — then recruiting will simply have to be better moving forward.
(Photo of Lincoln Riley: Dustin Bradford / Getty Images)
Antonio Morales covers USC football for The Athletic. Previously, he spent three years at the Clarion Ledger in Mississippi, where he covered Ole Miss for two seasons and Jackson State for another. He also spent two years covering preps for the Orange County Register and Torrance Daily Breeze. Follow Antonio on Twitter @AntonioCMorales
