FOOTBALL

USC Is Not Center Of NIL Universe?

There is a segment of USC fans, not to mention a perception created by the athletic dept., that no one is more cutting edge than USC when it comes to NIL, endorsements and social media.

But look what Nick Saban said today about his new QB, Bryce Young.

“Our QB has already approached ungodly numbers, and he hasn’t even played yet. If I told you what it is . . . it’s almost 7-figures,” Saban said.

So Young is getting nearly seven figures berfore he starts. Kedon Slovis is a 2-year starter and he hasn’t gotten these kind of deals.

“That number blew me away,” Lane Kiffin said this afternoon. “You didn’t prepare me for that. A million dollars and he hasn’t started a game yet? Great for him”

Maybe Young was smart to go to Alabama.

So who is Quarterback U.? Who is the cutting edge school on NIL?

Again, winning matters. Like I said this morning.

Hype doesn’t win. Hype doesn’t secure endorsements the same way success does.

USC is doing everything possible to avoid realizing this.

29 thoughts on “USC Is Not Center Of NIL Universe?”

  1. The Alabama quarterback position is the best collegiate job in America right now. So no one else is going to garner a million bucks. And if Bryce Young had gone to Hollywood SC he would have been lucky to get a $100,000 deal. So amateurism is dead at the college level, but it is still alive in the high schools as of this writing.

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      1. Charles White would take his O-line out for a steak dinner at the end of every one of his 1000 yard seasons…

        Looks like Bryce will be on the hook for more than a steak dinner?

        Liked by 1 person

    2. What makes HS FB different than CFB. Great HS players put fans in the stands and increase fan monetary FB program support.

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      1. That brings up an interesting question Owns. Does the rule allow players to gift other players for performance? I seem to remember a college player catching some crap for hosting a party for the linemen.
        This NIL opens up a whole new keg of pickles.
        Sorry Pudly isn’t available so Owns will have to fill in.

        Liked by 1 person

  2. Telling prospective Trojans you can earn more NIL bucks because USC is closer to Hollywood than other schools is like saying prospective Bruins can get laid more frequently by Playboy Playmates than USC & others cause they are closer to Hef’s Mansion (if it was still a thing)

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  3. Helton or Saban not too hard to figure out Scotty!. Let’s just hope Domani Jackson doesn’t decommit and do the same, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he did at the final hour like DAnthony Thomas back in 2010. When he went to Oregon.

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  4. Mike Bohn imagine hearing this feels like having a bucket of cold water thrown on you and overall strategy!?

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  5. I agree. Winning matters. I’m not convinced that we will ever win big under Clay Helton. CH used to talk about how his Father was an O-Line coach and he understood the importance of building an O-Line and a running game. I don’t know how many times I heard him say that he wanted to build the kind of running game where even if they knew what running play was coming, they wouldn’t be able to stop it and how important the O-Line was to that kind of a running game. But he couldn’t create that kind of a running game. The reason why he went to this Air Raid is because he gave up on the running game. Building a great running game is not impossible. A lot of teams have it. The fact that he couldn’t build such a running game tells me that he is not a great coach. A nice guy but not a great HC.

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    1. I know he plays one on tv but Helton is not such a nice guy.
      From Day One Helton’s short changed his skill players, particularly his QB’s, with terrible O-line coaches — guys deliberately hired as yes men rather than program drivers.
      #NoReasonWhyUSCHasToAnnuallyHaveWorstO-LineCoachInPac12

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      1. I don’t have a problem with Helton personally. I like him, contrary to what everyone else thinks. But, as I said before, building a great running game is not impossible. A lot of teams have it. Army, Navy and Air Force have great running games. Another team, right here in the Pac-12, that has an outstanding running game is Oregon State. In 2019, OSU averaged almost 157 yards a game running the ball. USC averaged 118. In 2020, OSU averaged almost 198 yards a game running the ball. USC averaged 97.3. This is basically against a lot of the same teams and with a lot less talent(just look at where OSU ranks every year in the recruiting rankins). Jonathan Smith is one of the most unheralded outstanding coaches in america. One of the best kept secrets around. He’s easily a better HC than CH. Last year he did one thing that CH was unable to do……beat Oregon!

        Liked by 2 people

  6. I’m agreeing with Scott on the recent recruiting efforts. All a bunch of fluff and BS. Notice that the two 5 star commits we have committed due to a bond and belief in their position coach, Donte and Vic.

    So coaching does matter, huh?

    Recruits might like Helton, but noone commits for him.

    NIL, LA and the USC degree/network are all great things to sell recruits, but only after they are convinced that they will get the best development in college athletics.

    This is either Bohn’s major management failure, or his strategy is simply to let Helton have enough rope to hang himself.

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      1. Are we using “eliminate” in the sense it was communicated to Captain Willard in “Apocalypse Now”?

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  7. The key ingredient for any recruit to nail down big NIL/ endorsement and social media deals is to go to a winning top 5 program. USC is not even close to those programs at the moment, and the starting point is to get a head coach, athletic director, and president who understand you must win today instead of living off the USC Winning Heritage of the Past. Please remember most of these kids are too young to remember the Carroll/Bush era especially 2005 so they don’t put USC in the class of Alabama, LSU, Clemson, Ohio State, and Oklahoma. Oklahoma, like USC has a rich history, but they also have done a great job of building a great present, and future which equates to a very solid program year after year.

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  8. Who is going to endorse any of the Trojan players as long as Clay Helton is the head coach?

    The BoT (so called braintrust) at USC think Helton is doing a good job, shows you how much they know. Clay Helton is a joke, the idiot has had to have three athletic directors hold his hand and make decisions for him because he’s too dumb to figure out that the assistants he puts on his staff are idiots just like him and needed to be replaced.

    This is how much of a clown Clay Helton is, USC had to bring in Graham Harrell to try and conjure up some type of offense because Helton had no clue what he was doing.

    Graham Harrell? AHA HA HA HA HA! A backward ass nobody running some bullshit dink and dunk gimmicky crap offense that no one in the NFL runs.

    The USC Board of Trustees look like damn fools, in the heart of the media capital of the world, with Trojan football a once highly respected program and none of their players are getting endorsement deals because they have a clown for a head coach.

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  9. The Trojans may win 9 or 10 games in any given year because they play in the weak ass PAC 12 and USC still attracts some blue chip recruits and they can overcome Helton’s shit coaching and win on talent alone, but there is one huge glaring fact that recruits will begin to realize, players at USC aren’t being developed.

    Fewer and fewer Trojans are making it into the NFL and the ones that do, have no shelf life.

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    1. At 10-3, with a loss in the Conf Champ game, do you fire the HC?
      Before or after the Bowl Game?

      At 9-3, this season is a disappointment and the HC should be relieved of his duties.

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      1. Back to Francis Ford Coppola —“Relieved” with extreme prejudice? Like Colonel Kurtz?
        #IsThereAMessageBehindTheMessageInThisSeriesOfPosts?

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  11. The problem is that quality coaches wont come to work for Clay. Orlando was an exception only because he had just been fired and he saw that USC was his opportunity to resurrect his reputation, so he could move on. TO brought in some quality position coaches.

    Can anyone imagine what would be happening right now if TO hadnt got fired at Texas and brought Donte and Vic and Navair? They would have turned to hiring local high school coaches as the only people to play under Clay.

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  13. Memo to: Me

    The NIL is a major can of worms since it doesn’t promote team unity.

    If it’s true that Bryce Young has lined up $1,000,000 NIL cash w/o ever taking an Alabama snap, some team veterans with Natty rings are bound to be pissed.

    There’s no I in Team. Young buying the O/L dinner at Orville’s All You Eat BBQ in Tuscaloosa seems like a cheap tip for keeping Young’s uniform free of grass stains.

    Eventually the big 5 Universities conf’s will have to pony up funds to minimize the problem of the have’s and the have nots.

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  14. Who will pay the million? If I am a fan, I back off from paying for a collegiete player. I think this is a down fall for college sports. Ex. So if Bryce Young gets paid a million, then who is to say that a starting olinmen will not do his best unless he is being paid. This is not good.

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  15. There needs to be a cap on endorsement money and or the number of endorsements a player can have.

    The NCAA will eventually want some of the endorsement money, you can count on that.

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  16. How does NIL money–which follows a particular athlete–impact TITLE IX?
    Will women’s sports and female athletes attract as much NIL money?

    Liked by 1 person

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