FOOTBALL

USC Morning Buzz: Is A Policy Worth Losing A Good Recruit?

So USC lost a recruit because general manager Charmin Bowden has a “no visit to other schools” policy for anyone committed to the Trojans.

When Pete Carroll was USC’s coach, I had many conversations with him about how he encouraged recruits to visit other schools.

“I want them to see other schools,” Carroll said. “I’m not afraid of anything. I know what we are offering. I’m comfortable with it.”

That’s quite a contrast. Bowden can obviously do what he wants but sometimes it feels like he is trying to project he is a badass for no reason in particular. Like when he said a few days before USC played Notre Dame last season, “We’re as tough as anybody. We can play against anybody.”

Notre Dame then proceeded to rush for 306 yards.

Back to recruiting, it does seem a little silly to tell a recruit you are done with them once they want to visit another school. What happens if the recruit wants to come back? Is a “policy” worth losing a good player?

24 thoughts on “USC Morning Buzz: Is A Policy Worth Losing A Good Recruit?”

  1. With NIL it’s more like an attempt to enforce a verbal contract which I’m ok with. Caesar, who I will always love, operated in a different era. USC has to win this new era by adapting and focusing the resources of the Athletic Dept and donors by delivering the victories that create alumni enthusiasm for giving, which speaking personally is at a serious ebb.

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  2. The Rose Bowl -UCLA lawsuit is heating up. The Rose Bowl should kick UCLA out of the bowl along with all the pigeons for attempts to break their lease. The reality is they are losing money in football due to poor attendance, and can’t pay the lease any longer so they are looking again for someone to bail them out in the NFL.

    The Rose Bowl is a historical stadium the home of championship games. UCLA football is horrible, a true embarrasment they should be playing at a high school stadium or build their own facility with the type of attendance they have, and to think they can elevate their program by moving into an NFL Stadium is totally rediculous. SoFi Stadium will be even more empty with fans than the Rose Bowl because no one in LA turns out to see a long term losing program.

    Time to drop football at UCLA- ??? I think so they don’t belong in the Big 10 that’s for sure especially in football.

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  3. Pigeons fly for free, and look for anything free including food, housing, football and baseball facilities. UCLA fans expect free tickets to the Rose Bowl or they won’t come to games, and the same thing applies wherever they move including SOFI where they are hoping the Rams will offer them free rent, and money to build a winning team.

    “Just Win Baby” or drop football and fly away.

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  4. Wolf, players know USC’s policy, they should visit other schools and then USC last, if SC is the place, commit, if not, take the money from the other school.

    Wolf is thinking in the past, times change, SC has their policy, deal with it. And SC can get a WR anywhere, they’re a dime a dozen.

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  5. Question for the Board

    You get engaged and then tell your fiance, I want to date/meet and sleep with other girls, not sure how many fiance’s would say “have at it and enjoy.”

    I am fine with the GMs process.

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    1. KAM: Does a recruit become one flesh with USC when they verbally commit?

      DON: Until the recruit signs in December anything goes.

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      1. Some of these players are over 18 when they commit. A verbal or written contract should be enforceable. Certainly, contract extensions after their first year are enforceable. I believe Washington threatened to sue their quarterback who was talking to other schools after signing an extension.

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  6. We have heard this before UCLA has hired a good coach they “hope” to be better than USC— let’s see Chip Kelly, Jim Mora…. good coaches., but still always second in town to USC, and now with with two NFL teams no one is interested in UCLA, and now they are in big trouble with the Rose Bowl and looking for the Rams ownership to bail them out.

    Bottom line UCLA football history sucks, and the attendance at games reflects it.

    reflects how bad and how little interest is UCLA football. Boosters can buy a few recruits, but who wants to play in an empty stadium.

    NEXT UP- UCLA Baseball will get kicked out of Jackie Robinson stadium on VA Hospital Property. Will UCLA now turn to the Dodgers to bail them out so they don’t have to pay rent any longer on government land, and play in Chavez Ravine.

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  8. During Carrot’s tenure the football prospects bought in to a college’s pageantry and football history, so SC had an advantage. NIL wiped out that advantage

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  9. –So the fact that footballers aren’t really and truly gung-ho for their particular college has taken away some of the good feeling of college ball

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  10. You could call this the Juju Lewis rule. He was a top rated quarterback who verbally committed to USC as a junior. They settled on the NIL amount and USC allocated that amount in the budget. They stopped recruiting quarterbacks. And then just a few months before the signing deadline, Juju is taking visits to other schools and suggesting to the press that he may flip to Colorado. This put USC in the position of not having a back-up quarterback and the players they were interested in had already made commitments to other school. You cannot run a recruiting operation under these circumstances. The rule is necessary and other school are starting to implement it.

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  11. amusing this preoccupation with UCLA on this blog, signs of a massive inferiority complex!! we are the #1 Public University in the world (8yrs running), the hardest school to get into, we are taking the Big 10 by storm, looks like we are in track to take home 5-6 Nattys this year, and everything is trending UP.

    the Rosa Bowl is fighting to keep UCLA, and with massive improvements scheduled, looks like they have a good chance at it. there is a problem with our #1 baseball team who shattered a 115yr old Big 10 record and is the first team ever to go #1 from pre-season to end of reg season without ever being knocked off the top in Baseball America’s history…. the problem is those selfish disabled Vets want to use hallowed Jackie Robinson Field to house vets. what a disgrace to disrupt college baseball team’s hope and dreams to pacify some entitled “disabled vets”. hopefully justice will prevail, i have drawn up a perfectly viable plan to house them just outside the East Side Rail yards over by Phillipe’s and Union Station.

    #SaveJackie’sField

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  12. Scott, is this a new revelation that you actually had a working relationship with Uncle Pete. Is this before or after you ridiculed him by calling him childish names. Just maybe the reason that this highly regarded wide receiver wanted to explore other schools was about the NIL money. You used to be about loyalty over money, why the change of heart in this case. As fans, we want players who want to be at USC, and then compensate them fairly. And, if you had a relationship with Uncle Pete, how about developing a relationship with LR, the GM and the AD? Just remember that relationships are all about mutual respect. Fight on, Dan, Class of 1962

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