FOOTBALL

Rodrick Pleasant To Oregon

The biggest prize of the day spurns USC for Oregon as cornerback Rodrick Pleasant committed this morning to the Ducks.

This is a big loss for Donte Williams.

He lost a big-time local recruit to his former employer. Do you blame Pleasant? Who has Williams developed? What did Domani Jackson do last season?

There are other factors involved: Pleasant wants to run track and Oregon has a top program. There’s also NIL money.

But at the end of the day, Oregon secondary Demetrice Martin has more credibility as a coach than Williams and stole him from USC.

Example: Martin developed Mekhi Blackmon at Colorado. Blackmon arrived at USC as a sixth-year finished product. That’s not something Williams can take credit for.

There was a time when it was a no-brainer for a Serra recruit to go to USC. No more.

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40 thoughts on “Rodrick Pleasant To Oregon”

    2. This likely was a result of recruiting a fort more than how the athlete is forecasting he will be developed. Pleasant stated in an interview yesterday that he felt he was more of a recruiting priority at Oregon. Also, with USC bringing in the transfer Toland to start at one CB spot, and Domani being a sophomore and at 6-1 190 lbs, a physically bigger and stronger athlete, Pleasant likely interpreted he would not start as a freshman and chose Oregon instead.

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      1. Why are we loosing the recruiting battle to Oregon? Why are we loosing the battle to them on the defensive side of the ball? Further more why are we loosing kids from our own backyard? I’m not gonna say that there are not legitimate reasons why Oregon has done better, NIL, Nike, our defense last season. Riley is just getting started, last year’s recruits, playing time, transfers, Thibideau emergence NFL. However why are we able to get top notch offensive recruits in our own backyard? Who had the number 1 scoring offense in college football last year with a chance of making the playoff minus what factor? Defense why don’t our backyard guys want to be a part of solving that problem? I get the NIL part and Nike, but who was the highest paid player last year in the NIL? It wasn’t anyone from Oregon! It was Caleb Williams. Also how many Hall of fame defensive players from the NFL does Oregon have vs SC? We lost 3 top notch defensive recruits to Oregon in our own backyard Matayo, Austin, and Pleasant. Not to mention Oregon almost got Nycolas Harbor too another 5 star edge recruit. I believe in Riley and what he has done so far. It’s only his first. I think we got some very good defensive recruits this year, but things still need to get a lot better with respect to local recruits on the defense. Georgia has now won 2 National Championships in row, and it’s due to there defense. Same as us moving to the Big 10 and having any relevance without defense. Culture needs to a take no prisoners approach on that side of the ball.

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      2. You can’t overlook the elephant in the room NIL. The big question is, if NIL money was not available would the mentioned players pick USC.

        It used to be about the love of the game, but some of that has shifted to the love of the money. This might be the biggest payday these kids ever see…the future is now in their minds

        ‘

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      1. My friend Owns: “More than 300! MORE than 300! So deceptive! It was just BARELY over 300!”
        #”HardlyWorthMentioning”

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      2. BS Crabs, I just don’t want AH rah-rah’s like yourself claiming something about UCLA w/o some sort of ref. as to were the information came from.

        “Trust but verify” ~ Ronnie Reagan…It’s the only thing Reagan ever said or wrote that made sense.

        Remember 8 ball, I didn’t say you were FOS liar. I just asked for the source information for your UCLA lawsuit settlement allegation.

        At least UCLA can be counted on to self-report accurate information.

        #Cue: “Beat it”

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      3. OWNS….are you really that dense between the ears? The article was from US News, not the National Inquirer. It’s not my job to investigate the source. There are 10 other legitimate sites posting the same thing……

        O’ well it must be some conspiracy theory, right?

        Cue: “The Truth Hurts”

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  3. When Wolf heard Pleasant to Oregon he immediately raced his moped down to the Donut hole to celebrate….Would we expect anything less from Scott, no!

    Like wolf said, you can find a polished product through the portal….so was it really a big loss.

    I think it was more about wolf finding an angle to further degrade Donte.

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    1. Yes, Gabby, things turned out just right for our Scott on this one. So much more to write about this way!
      #btw,DonutHoleFoodIsTops–CheckThemOut!

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      1. P. S
        Gabby,
        I respect your love of underdogs —but Joe and Donte?
        [I’m just looking out for ya here, pardner]…..
        #…EvenYourRhetoricalSkillsCouldBeStretchedToLimitIn2023

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Does he really need to further degrade Donte ? He’s a shitty coach and now he can’t seem to recruit, why is he still on staff ? Maybe after this fuck up he won’t be.

      And…. PC came in and DOMINATED So Cal recruiting, NO ONE got away, Riley doesn’t seem to be able to do that. Yeah, PC didn’t have to deal with NIL but SC is still losing kids that they should not lose.

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      1. Even Sark had better classes and he kept the best southern cali kids at home. Riley seems to go about things as if he has a card up his sleeve but that card won’t be defensive players.

        Liked by 1 person

    3. I wasn’t happy with what Scott wrote the last few days regarding Pleasant and Robinson (although they were true), and I wished Scott would have held his peace, but Scott is 100% correct about Donte Williams and Alex Grinch. Inarguably. There’s a plausible case for accepting Riley keeping Grinch at least another year (although I disagree with that decision), but there’s no way possible Donte Williams should’ve been retained, and there’s no rational argument for that. The last rational argument of “We shouldn’t fire him because of recruiting and we don’t want to lose guys like Pleasant” just flew out the window and sailed.

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  4. Time for Donte to go. His only value was recruiting and if his charisma can’t compete with Oregon’s NIL balance, then what value does he have anymore?

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    2. Totally agree.If Dante’s stock and trade was recruiting (no way he’s a secondary coach in the upper echelon) what value does he bring? He’s a liability now.Time for Riley to get serious about his assistants.You produce or hit the street.

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  5. This has nothing to do with Denetrice Martin or with Donte Williams. It has to do with Uncle Phil and $$$$$$$. Pete Carroll built a wall around the SoCal area when it comes to recruiting. That’s a little hard to do nowadays with NIL. We have to find a way to keep these outstanding players at home.

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    1. You can blame it on Alex or Donte or whatever names are deserving, but these kids are following the money. For Example, the debacle at Florida with Rashada leaving over the NIL deal.

      Until USC will embrace Collectives that have the resource to compete with the NIL deals players are being offered by collectives from other schools, we will continue to lose high-value recruits…..

      The NCAA must adopt rules and regulations to bring back some parity. Or it will continue to be a market of free agency where the player signs with the highest bidder….prime examples are Texas A & M, Miami, and Oregon

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      1. In the past good recruiters were a valuable commodity even if they weren’t great coaches. That’s probably why Donte Williams is still at SC. These guys were great at forming close relationships with these young players. In the future that’s not going to be true unless they put some regulations on NIL. I don’t care how great your relationship with a young player is…..in most cases, when we are done talking, he will almost always follow the money.

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  6. Why are you stupid people listening to Wolf about Donte Williams? It’s clear that Oregon has a coach who is a defensive specialist. USC has Alex Grinch. I don’t care if Deion Sanders is the CB coach, no self respecting player wants to play in a raggedy ass defense. That’s why you fire Alex Grinch because he lacks credibility. The transfer portal will have to be USC’s saving grace on cornerbacks and that ain’t looking too hot either. No championship for USC next year. Pleasant was a must. I’ll be shocked if he gets time over the transfers and Florence or others ahead of him. I can see them begging him to play offense.

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    1. Good point. Can’t blame Donte for Grinch….and, besides, the corners were phenomenal back when Donte was Head Coach….
      #”ItSucks!”
      #Yes,Donte…ItDoesSuck

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    2. Very big problem that they cant get rodrick. USC is simply NOT recruiting at an elite level on defense. I’m sure the USC defense will get better this year, but the long term of the defense is in trouble, since they cant recruit out of high school well.

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      1. Perhaps a solid performance from Grich’s Defense in the upcoming season may change a future recruit’s perception…fingers are crossed!

        Since Riley seems reluctant to replace his DC

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    3. I can see him in the portal, soon. What I have read his family decided the money up front from Oregon was more than they could get at USC. What he did was play USC against Oregon and Oregon loaded up the truck for him.

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      1. Was the dollar account posted anywhere?….. Interested in what this guy is worth to Oregon.

        With the new HS recruits and portal transfers, we finished ranked #8, tops in the PAC12. A very respectable numbers considering USC’s less aggressive approach to NIL deals

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  7. Bookie Radley Hiles ain’t gonna help our secondary either.That guy was so small, he could almost tuck his number 44 into his pants.Every time I watched the guy, he was getting burned or got called for pass interference. now he’s THE TOAST of the west coast.

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  8. A blog is usually devoted to a subject of interest to a target audience — such as USC football(not Biden-related grievances) fashion, or information technology. Blogs can be thought of as providing ongoing commentary on a theme, USC football(not Biden-related grievances). They’re intended to engage with a community interested in a topic, USC football(not Biden-related grievance), and the personality or products of the blogger or sponsoring business. Bloggers often pick unique domain names that reflect the topic at hand, like “Inside USC” (not Inside Biden’s head)

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  9. It’s not the school, or legacy or even NIL. Face it, your a cornerback coming out of high school. Who’s going to get you to an elite status at either Oregon or USC?

    It’s obvious to all of us who any player should choose except the most important person: Riley.

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