FOOTBALL

Just How Good A Recruiter Is Graham Harrell?

Has Graham Harrell shown himself to be much of a recruiter yet?

It’s based on more than whoever USC signs at quarterback because he is the offensive coordinator and responsible for the entire offense. Besides, he recruits other positions too.

But I ask for two reasons: He doesn’t exactly have the personality that says, “great recruiter.” And he seems to spend a lot of time recruiting in Texas. USC signed two three-star offensive linemen from the Lone Star State. That’s great but it’s not going to restore the program to any of its former glory.

USC needs to do better in California recruiting and I don’t know if Harrell has proven he can recruit anywhere at this point.

  • USC’s five basketball losses have been by an average of more than 18 points.

“When we’re bad, we’re bad,” Andy Enfield said. “I don’t really have an answer for that. It’s unusual.”

There are many things Enfield does not have answers for.

16 thoughts on “Just How Good A Recruiter Is Graham Harrell?”

    1. Michael, “I really don’t have an answer for that” also means “I don’t know what to do to change it”, and “Let’s cross our fingers and hope it doesn’t happen again.”

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    2. USC baketball under Football Head Enfield is like the little girl,

      Who had a little curl,

      Right in the middle of her forehead.

      When she was good.

      She was very very good,

      And when she was bad she was horrid.

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  2. In Texas high school football is a religion, it is simple from the smallest to to the biggest cities they worship the sport. For that reason there is bound to be a pool of talent in Texas.In some cities the football families put out yard signs proclaiming their player’s allegiance to football. I don’t know if stars are harder to earn in Texas, but certainly we should set out sights on four and five star players from out of California.
    In California there are a few pockets of the football cult, but many cities are experiencing a drop in young men playing organized sports. Many cities are playing soccer instead. California is the land of the helicopter parent. People are bent on protecting their children from harm even if it means wrapping them in bubble wrap. Football is too violent and dangerous, these grocery bag hating straw banning people say.
    Harrell is just going where he knows he can find football players.

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    2. I ride the fence on the issue. My son plays two sports in high school, baseball and basketball. He used to play football (pop warner) and had 3 concussions in two years. That was enough for me to pull the plug on him playing the sport any longer. I understand if kids and parents want to follow their passion for football or choose to walk away. I played through high school, had concussions, and just played anyway. Back then we called it “having your bell rung”, everyone did it. I remember puking after being on kick return team, sitting out a snap or two then right back in. Teams and coaches are significantly more aware now and the game is being changed to reduce heads injuries. I know this and still pulled him from playing as a kid. If he came back now and asked to play, I would let him, but would be nervous.

      I think football will continue to change and numbers of participants will go down for multiple reasons, but it will certainly stay America’s favorite sport. There’s no other team or sport I’m more invested in than USC football.

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    3. None of that was true. The number of players coming out are still Texas Florida and California.

      The kids that play soccer weren’t going to be DI football players. Kids from lower SES play football, and more kids than usual in California and Texas from upper middle class families in the burbs play in particularly well coached and well funded programs.

      California kids are more likely than kids in a lot of places to play football due to spread out geography (the reason that NY State does well– better than I thought in the statistics, but not as well as it might for its population).

      More Polynesians play division I football per capita than anyone, then African American, then white, but both African American and white participation varies greatly geographically.

      Texas has the problem of 14 D-I programs in the state, while being the recruiting turf for much of the Big 12 (including power houses Oklahoma and Ok St), and a good section of the Big 10, and SEC. Compare the Power 5 Conference teams just in state: Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Baylor, TCU, all are perennial top 20 teams. Honorable mention for Southern Methodist, Houston.

      Compare that with California, which has 11 programs and most of a more lowly order, while the PAC 12 is the lone power conference represented in the geographic area. There are only four Power 5 Conference teams, USC, UCLA, Cal and Stanford. Only SC and maybe Stanford are perennial top 20 teams, and only SC is a legit power.

      The states that are surprisingly among the most talented? The Mid Atlantic: DC has the highest number of 4 and 5 star players per capita, ranking ahead of #2 Louisiana. Along with Virginia, NC, NJ, all produce a lot of talent that finds its way to D-1 programs outside of their area and all rank in the top 12 in production of D-1 talent per capita. Hawaii and Utah are the Western states with very high production production per capita, and both also have among the highest number of D-1 athletes that go outside of the state.

      That’s why SC relies on recruiting California. It’s a no brainer: you dominate California recruiting, you are a #1 team talent team.

      https://www.dallasnews.com/high-school-sports/2016/09/07/texas-florida-and-california-produced-the-most-fbs-college-football-players-this-year-who-s-no-1/

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      1. Upper middle class or well funded is unfortunately a necessity for all high level youth sports across the board. It’s become impossible with the travel teams, clinics, paid coaches, and year round sports programs to participate without spending lots of money, or having large sponsorship. All of it, in my opinion, driven by parent ego. Kids have to be on the best teams in the 3rd grade. “I know My 8 year old son or daughter Is going division 1”.

        I’m not a fan of the current youth sports culture.

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  4. UNUSUAL… rare ,out of the ordinary…
    Actually it seem losing to good teams is quite usual . They don’t belong in the top 25 and obviously the people who rank the good/better/best know something the SC coach doesn’t…maybe he should ask some of them.

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