I don’t want to judge too early but it’s not unfair to say USC has been fairly quiet regarding the transfer portal.
Lane Kiffin has already gotten seven commitments from transfers. Mississippi ranks No. 2 according to 247, behind only LSU, who also has seven commitments. Minnesota, a Big Ten rival (apparently) has 10 commitments and ranks No. 6.
USC has one commitment: cornerback DJ Harvey of San Jose State. The Trojans rank 34th. Now USC will obviously rise once it starts adding players.
The question will be the quality of the commitments because some of the top transfer prospects are making up their minds quickly.
- Former USC official Donna Heinel, who served six months in the Varsity Blues case, gave her first interview to the L.A. Times. It’s a long story and behind a paywall.
The gist is that Heinel believes she was a scapegoat and only begged for forgiveness from the judge because that is what her lawyers advised.
“She had written remarks on 3-by-5 cards explaining how unfairly she had been treated by USC, her former colleagues and the federal prosecutors,” she told the Times.
There’s not really any contrition on her part in the story.
There was a statement in the story from a lawyer for Pat Haden, denying wrongdoing. The Times says “There’s no evidence that Haden knew of (Rick) Singer’s illicit conduct.”
“Mr. Haden is absolutely certain that he never endorsed Mr. Singer or said anything to Ms. Heinel that would cause her to give Mr. Singer credibility,” (Brandon) Fox said. He also stated, “Pat Haden was never prosecuted, nor could he have been, because he did not do anything wrong.”
InsideUSC with Scott Wolf 
Some day we’ll have a great coach like Lane Kiffin.
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Uh……………………….. The Kiffer isn’t a : great ” coach by any means, but he is a great salesman.
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Meant that to be a little tongue in cheek. But he’s certainly better than what we have now.
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Ms Heinel as I recall got a stash of cash out of Singer’s dealingss
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Haden’s lawyer can ‘deny deny,’ but wasn’t that one of Pat’s duties to sniff out such shenigans on his watch?
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Maybe the Trojans are not attracting top talent in the portall pool is because its football is mediocre and SC is not a big NIL tipper
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Typical Southern Cal denialism. Deflect delay depose. From Cheatey to OJ to Mr Reggie….they all make like Sgt. Schultz when the Man comes calling.
#IKnowNothing…Nothing!
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Charlie,
You must be senile or have forgotten. They greatest cheater of all time, The great Johnny CHEETIN Wooden denied everything when uglies basketball payroll was higher than the lakers. This is a man who taught how to tie shoes and put sock on the correct way, yet he can’t remember seeing players wearing new clothes, driving new cars, apts, and having cash in their pocket. Don’t forget the abortions paid for as well by Gilbert.
Chuck, you and ugly have no room when talking about cheating. That is uglies speciality.
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why you so mad, bruh?
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Wolfman, I’m curious if you now regret running Kiff outta town, given his maturing success? He signed his own termination papers when he so publicly crossed the Wolfman! You ran him out so fast, he didn’t even have time to take his prize Koi. No matter, the Cadre turned them into fish sticks and fed them to the Preferred Plus gals!
#CheaperThanHSalt
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Nobody can fake being the real Bucket
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people are correct when they say Haden shoild have sniffed this out. It was his job and he was the boss. However, being in the department at the time, I can tell you this. Donna was a bully and she constantly threatened her higher ups with accusations of exposure or falsehoods of title IX violations. Haden and her superiors were afraid of her. That’s why they moved her out of heritage hall and to Galen. Gave her her own office over there and staff so she didn’t have to deal with her. That created a blind spot for over sight and she now had a space to pull her crap and get subordinates to do her dirty work. Varsity blues wasn’t her only scam she ran out of Galen either. Recruiting seminars for hs coaches that are usually done by most universities for free as community relations, she was charging for and pocketing the money. Along with other scams. She left many of us in the wake to deal with her messes that we had no knowledge of in the first place. I personally spent at least a total of 7 hrs being grilled by the FBI just because one of the fake cover stories she made up for a kid was in the specific sport/event that I coached as a volunteer. Never heard of the kid and when I saw the action picture on his bio I couldn’t stop laughing, it was so bad. But of course the FBI thought I had something to do with it. I guess because I had also got a kid into school who was not a valued recruit and the child of a celeb that I was guilty. When the investigator brought it up I asked them “yea I did. Did you ever look to see what the kid did at USC?” She said no and why would you (me) do that. I said “ I can evaluate talent and develop it” she aske me what he ended up doing. I said “he ended up being a 2x all american and ncaa scorer. She was off the phone with me in under 30 seconds and never called me back, that was our 4th conversation. Hinel is a bully and a predator. Very conniving.
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Maybe she expect USC to defend her but her comments in the story clearly show she knew what she was doing. And Scott is right; she didn’t deny anything:
“I would embellish,” Heinel acknowledged. “You don’t want to say, ‘Oh, I sat on the bench and, you know, and when our team was up 30 points, then, then the coach put me in.’”She said she knew the students were underqualified as athletes and might not ever play, but she didn’t have an ethical problem with it.
“Buildings don’t get built by FAFSA kids, you know,” she said, referring to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. “A private school needs donations to exist.”
Heinel didn’t have an ethical problem but the feds sure did.
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I have no problem with the children or grandchildren of a big donor getting an admissions preference as long as they meet the basic admissions criteria. Particularly now that USC has eliminated the SAT requirement so that they can admit more Blacks and Hispanics and get around the reverse discrimination laws. What I do have a problem with is Heinel getting a kickback. Glad she had to do some time.
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Plow,
I would see her at games and I did not care for her when. I did see her. She had the condenscending look like she was above all the trouble. Another bad apple.
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