Remember that huge recruiting weekend last June that USC hosted and culminated with a breakfast at Cyrpto.com Arena?
USC even flew Marcus Allen in for the weekend to meet recruits.
What’s maybe most interesting about that seven months later is how few commitments it delivered.
Among the players who visited and committed were one four-star (LB Braylon Shelby) and four three-stars (TE Kade Eldridge, OG Micah Banuelos, OL Alani Noa, LB David Peevy) who frankly were going to come to USC with or without the big weekend. USC is still waiting for five-star TE Duce Robinson to announce his decision.
But look at the elite guys who visited and went elsewhere: Five-stars Matayo Uiagalelei (DE), OT Francis Mauigoa, LB Anthony Hill Jr.; four-stars Malik Bryant (LB); Markis Deal (OL), Jalen Hale (WR), C.J. Allen (LB), Christian Gray (CB), Lucas Simmons (OT), Micah Tease (ATH), Terrance Green (DL) and Warren Roberson (DB).
There were also three-stars like DE Trey Wilson, who signed with Baylor.
At the end of the day, it’s a good idea to have a big event like this recruiting weekend. But go back and read all the breathless coverage of it from the fanboy media and you would think it was the greatest event at USC in the 21st Century.
It actually didn’t deliver much bang for the buck. But no one will remember that seven months later.
- Did you see Robert Horry, the former Laker, was escorted out of the St. Francis gym Friday night after being ejected from the stands for arguing with officials. His son plays for Harvard-Westlake.
InsideUSC with Scott Wolf 
The recruiting game is far different now, with transfers you can fix weak spots instantly with seasoned players not green high schoolers. Getting local talent is still important but USC will have to fill OL & DL with out of state players from high school or the portal because California isn’t the same place demographically that it was in the 70’s and 80’s.
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If it weren’t for the transfer portal, Lincoln Riley would look like a fraud. He fails to recruit 5 star high school athletes that would control the game up front. He’s definitely a Mike Leach disciple, which probably isn’t a good thing as far as winning a national championship goes. If you can’t recruit the type of linemen needed to be great at a prestigious university, with great football tradition like USC, then you’re not the guy for the job.. IMO. Great recruiters want to be like Kirby Smart, and Nick Saban, not Leach.
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Of course Nick Saban and Urban Meyer coached at LSU and Alabama ….and Florida and Ohio State, respectively…..while Leach was at Texas Tech, Washington State and Mississippi State [not any of which is considered a recruiting magnet for high school students]….
Lincoln, on the other hand, is at the top of the list when it comes to bringing in transfer portal talent…and, if 2022 was any indication, he knows what he’s doing….
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Talent is nothing without proper coaching. The offensive coaching is great as history shows us. But, the quality of defensive schemes and improvement of talent is very negative. History has shown this at Oklahoma and now USC.
With good defensive coaching, you do not always need the field littered with five-four star talent. Look at these other schools that can’t hold a candle to USC with recruits and yet develop players. Their defensive numbers are much better with less players.
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When Robert Horry played for the Lakers, both of us happened to be in the service waiting room of a car dealership one day, waiting for our cars. We chatted a bit. Great guy; humble, soft-spoken, he talked about how his family quite a bit, how he missed them as they were still in Houston at that time. Sadly, he lost his daughter to a rare genetic disorder a few years later.
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Thanks for that, 67 —– personal stories such as that one make this blog special.
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Wolf continues to be a little more pathetic every day.
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The fanboys schtick has run its course.
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Scott likes to use the fanboy schtick as a strawman against his imagined hard-bidden, truth-seeking, grizzled veteran reporter self view.
He also likes to be embarrassingly selective in his selection of “evidence” such listing the misses in recruiting…what about the visitors who were gets–quite a few good ones. Not to mention that this is standard fare for all top schools–have hits and have misses. Nothing to see here.
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Scott is the shrewd Pascal from “The Big Night”…
#”I’mABusinessman –ISayWhatINeedToSay”
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The Big Night…fantastic film.
#BecauseSometimesMeatballsAndSpaghettiLikeToBeAlone
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Great line!
#TooBadNobodyAppreciatedSecondo’sSenseOfHumor
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P. S.
I like to think Gabriela rips off Pascal —and she & Secondo start a new Paradiso which features pineapple pizza….
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Win some, lose some. Other schools are putting on big recruiting events too.
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Out of the 12 players recruited, only 1 is a homeboy. SC needs homeboys wherever possible as mercenaries won’t tackle or care about cross town rivalries or bowl games.
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They acted like they cared against UCLA and Notre Dame….
#[btw,EverythingWouldHaveBeenFineAtTheCottonBowl….
# ….IfJordanAddisonPlayedInsteadOfMarioWilliams]….
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Well my eyes saw some very upset Trojan mercenaries after the Utah 1 game and some very excited mercenaries after the sucla win
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Well Scott Schrader, FanBoy Media #1, has a paywall so he needs to go heavy on the hype machine to generate clicks and $$$.
Wallace is free but he just clicks and paste articles illegally. Plus his entourage of yes man is quite pathetic and beholden to him and Wells.
Happy you are free Scott ! Plus I like your posse of MG and the gang a whole lot better.
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I like us a lot better too, YD!
#[btw,Isn’tSchraderTheBiggestJokeEver]?
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But the problem you have with that is that he is right 85% of the time. I like him because he doesn’t do rumors, everything is substantiated.
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To be fair, you’re 85% correct…
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Scooter,
What do you expect from a Harvard westlake dude? They think they are better than all of the rest and and are conceited turkies. Harvard wetlake sucks. Glad SF kicked him out.
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St. Francis did the right thing! And this from a Loyola guy!
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Are we talking about the day he blessed all the animals?
#..OrIsThatAnotherSaintFrancis?
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What year did you graduate from Loyola HS?
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fast fred,
I used to hate SF, but a priest at SF helped my son tremedously when he attended SF for a semester. His name is Fr. Toni Marte. Also, I want all Catholic schools.
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Welcome to NIL( Oops, I meant NCAA) football. You can have all the barbeques and recruiting parties you want. At the end of the day the only question these recruits are going to ask is “where’s the money honey”?
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People like Donte Williams are going to have to learn how to coach because the great relationships that they form with the recruits is not going to account for much if they don’t have some of that green stuff to back it up.
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Tuasivi Nomura on his way to Fresno St. That opens a slot.
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what’s the free-ride count…I thought we were 5 or 6 over 85
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