LSU has the nation’s No. 1-ranked recruiting class for 2020 according to Rivals with two commitments from Southern California. They are ranked No. 2 by 247.
USC is ranked No. 33 and No. 31, respectively.
This is where you can get some curmudgeon to pipe in and talk about how recruiting rankings in February don’t matter or how they should be ignored generally.
I don’t necessarily disagree. But everything must be viewed within the prism of Clay Helton as USC coach.
For example, Pete Carroll decided early during his tenure at USC that he wanted to wait and take most of his commitments later in the year because he placed emphasis on how a recruit performed their senior year. He made exceptions obviously but he preferred to watch more film of recruits.
Norm Chow used to laugh because Carroll always worried before Signing Day he might not sign a full class but it always worked out. One reason was Carroll had the gravitas to turn a recruit’s head late in the year.
Ask yourself if Clay Helton can do the same? Who wants to play for him besides JT Daniels?
USC was handing out offers like candy in January it was so desperate for players and mostly failed to get an array of three-star prospects.
The word is out locally. And don’t think recruits are not hearing from current USC players about how toxic the atmosphere is created by Helton (with a big assist from Lynn Swann).
“I could always fall back on USC,” St. John Bosco wide receiver Kris Hutson told the Los Angeles Times last month.
The USC brand is so damaged Helton cannot even get two Calabasas wide receivers to list the Trojans despite the fact Chris Claiborne is their head coach and Curtis Conway their offensive coordinator.
So maybe these recruiting rankings are a red flag. Like I said before, a new dynamic coach might overcome this but Helton and Swann are digging quite a hole for a potential successor.
InsideUSC with Scott Wolf 
USC FOOTBALL IS DEAD AND WILL REMAIN DEAD UNTIL SWANN AND GOMER ARE EMPLOYED
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UNEMPLOYED
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While Helton continues his snails-pace hiring, I hear the one remaining S&C coach is leaving.
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“This is where you can get some curmudgeon to pipe in and talk about how recruiting rankings in February don’t matter or how they should be ignored generally.”
That’s you Scott. You are a killjoy when USC has a highly rated commitment list early in the recruitment process.
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You can’t turn chicken shot into chicken salad, you’ve got to have the horses, missed on 18 of the 20 top prospects in so cal. Big big miss. When helton took over
He still had the horses from previous recruiting years especially on the O line.
The defense plays great then the big play
Trumps that. Why are top coaches who are great recruiters not jumping at the job. When McKay left, Robinson left who did he bring in Bruce snyder, John Jackson, norv turner, Paul hacket, Hudson houke. Helton hired were weak
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We all said reality would be graphic of how bad it could be under Helton in 2018 after Darnold left…Darnold left…we haven’t seen bottom yet until this moron is gone
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Helton is on a fast track to demoting the entire Trojan football reputation and sink the program to a Division 2 football program. Maybe then we could win more than 5 games.
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I remember the Vegas bowl when Helton was acting coach and Carr was talking to his team mates and sayining we may not be 4 and 5 start recruits but let’s dog these dudes. We are now the Fresno bulldogs.
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Scottie is quite the activist!
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