Tag: high school recruiting

In recruiting, Lincoln Riley says USC isn’t bringing a knife to a gunfight

Lincoln Riley thinks USC has made a lot of progress in its recruiting operation.

USC recruiting has not been what one would call “bad,” but it’s hasn’t been at the level of Ohio State or Oregon or other programs which have assembled better rosters for 2024. USC’s conservative approach to NCAA compliance with NIL has put it at a major disadvantage to programs that have pushed the interpretation of recruiting rules and regulations in regards to high school prospects when compared to Oregon, Ohio State — or extreme cases like Tennessee.

Riley recently discussed USC’s new tack in recruiting high school prospects.

“Our NIL and how it’s evolved, certainly we’re able to be more aggressive with high school guys than we’ve ever been with it. A lot of that’s because our NIL has gotten a whole lot better and House of Victory and all those have done a phenomenal job.”

Recently J.K. McKay and Jeff McKay, formerly of another USC collective (The Conquest Collective), joined forces with House of Victory to work on consolidating the NIL strategy.  A new vison and direction within the USC collective space, along with changes to the conservative Trojan interpretation and adherence to NCAA guidelines will open things up to make recruiting against Ohio State and Oregon.

“You know you don’t want to be going to a gunfight with a knife,” Riley said. “In the beginning we were going to a gunfight with a toy sword, so definitely we’ve made a lot of progress. Those folks have done a great job. I think our strategy — I know I’ve talked about this — on how many high school guys we’re targeting has changed drastically. We have really shifted as I’ve told you — not completely away from the portal.  I don’t think we’ll ever be completely away from it, but you can just look at the numbers, right? We’re headed to becoming the developmental program that we want to be long-term for the next 10 or 15 years.”

“There’s been more high school recruiting. There’s going to continue to be more; the high school recruiting takes longer. It’s not as fast and furious as portal recruiting, and so a lot of times you’ve got to have relationships that are developed for multiple years. Having some of the consistency we’ve had on on certain parts of our staff for a long time now makes a difference on that as well. It’s become a bigger part of what we’re doing each and every year here. That’s going to continue to happen, and obviously as long as our NIL continues to climb, then you know we’ll continue to be as aggressive there as we need to be.”

USC is currently climbing up the team recruiting rankings. The hope is that with the progress expected on the defensive side of the ball, the impressive list of blue chip players, especially on defense, will continue to grow. USC is currently No. 5 in the 247Sports 2026 recruiting rankings.

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Friday Night Notes: Jurrion Dickey heads south, the Buckeyes miss out, the Manning name, and more

Friday Night Notes looks at Jurrion Dickey’s move to SoCal, the Ohio State Buckeye’s running back search, plus more.

USA TODAY High School Sports‘ Friday Night Notes is a weekly high school football recruiting recap that looks at the latest news from around the country—from the Class of 2022 to ’23 and beyond.

Sometimes, Oregon Ducks fly south too…

Jurrion Dickey is headed to play his senior year of football at perennial SoCal and national powerhouse Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.).

The five-star’s move from Valley Christian (San Jose) to the Monarchs has created a new wave of buzz —that doesn’t hum “Arch Manning”—as the high school season nears. And it’s a massive grab for Mater Dei, as the Oregon Ducks commit instantly adds top-tier abilities to a receiving corps that lost the talented combo of C.J. Williams and Cooper Barkate to graduation.

It also places the 6-3 wideout in a market—and on a team—that can only increase his star power.

Speaking of moving on, here’s what else we’re emptying form the notebook this week….

Recruiting: Will December 2020 early signing period be called off?

A huge question

There can be no denying the coronavirus has changed the United States and the world. It has certainly changed the world of high school and college football, but exactly how it’s going to affect the interplay between the two, in the realm of recruiting, has yet to be determined. The path forward has not been decided by several states and there is still a strong voice advocating for some form of a season. This creates three distinct categories of recruits: Those who can sit out a year and thrive in college; those who need the value of playing or will benefit from playing four years in high school, and those who are on the border between the two sides.

The notable difference here is that one has rarely seen an athlete who can sit out a senior season and still be recruited at a high level. Now we have this crop of athletes who were premier talents before the pandemic started. They have the option of sitting out their senior years, but still graduating on time and being eligible to enroll early. The longer it takes the country to get it right, the longer college football faces this problem, but we know the first class affected by this will the 2020-21 kids. There simply doesn’t seem to be a consensus plan — a widely unified plan — which is likely for the upcoming season in any state. The early signing period for December of 2020 could be called off. It could be modified. No one truly knows.

Yet, it’s important to note that this problem isn’t likely to go away as soon as COVID-19 dies down. Right now people are making coronavirus plans that don’t include mass gatherings or many sports; these plans will be well underway when society reaches that point. They won’t just disappear, they’ll finish their plans to the nearest sustainable point and then reshape their plan for the next chapter of their lives.

Because there’s so much we don’t know about the coronavirus and this pandemic’s future, it becomes impossible to shape or plan the future of athletes, blue-chip or otherwise. The virus doesn’t care, and the longer it goes — the longer between these athletes and their return to the playing field — the greater the potential is to create some very interesting disaster scenarios. But it’s much better to focus on the positive and the hope that society will have found some success by winter or late spring. It’s definitely going to change recruiting, however.

‘As egregious of a (recruiting) violation… as I’ve seen’ led to Indiana HS basketball tournament ban

Southport boys basketball received a tournament ban after the coach allegedly paid for the tuition of a 6-foot-6 freshman to help the student meet student visa requirements.

Indiana High School Athletic Association commissioner Bobby Cox called it “as egregious of a violation of undue influence” as he has seen in his time with the IHSAA. The result: Southport’s boys basketball program is banned from the 2019-20 tournament, the most substantial penalty levied at the school by the IHSAA on Monday.

The violation: an IHSAA investigation last week found coach Eric Brand provided a tuition payment to Perry Township Schools in the amount of $5,548 on behalf of Nickens Paul Lemba, a transfer from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Perry Township accepted the payment on behalf of Lemba in order to remain compliant with U.S. immigration law and meet the requirements of an F-1 student visa.

Brand’s payment is a violation of 20-1 of the IHSAA by-law on undue influence, which reads, in part: “The recruitment or attempted recruitment of a prospective student, through the use of undue influence is prohibited. Undue influence is the act of encouraging or inducing a prospective student to attend a school for athletic purposes.”

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Cox met with administrators from Southport on Wednesday. The evidence of Brand’s violation was clear, he said.

“You have a high school coach write a check to pay the tuition for a student from out of the country, so he can stay in the country,” Cox said. “It doesn’t get much more obvious than that.”

On Friday, Perry Township assistant superintendent Robert Bohannon, in a letter to the IHSAA, outlined the corrective measures the school planned to take. Respective of the IHSAA by-law violation, the following penalties were assessed:

  • The Southport athletic department is placed on probation for 365 days.
  • The IHSAA accepts the suspension of Brand for two games, which was recommended by the school. Cox notes this suspension falls “woefully short” of the expectations of IHSAA member schools.
  • Southport student Nickens Paul Lemba is declared ineligible for the 2019-20 school year.
  • Southport is removed from the 2019-20 boys basketball tournament.

“As I said in my letter, the suspension the school provided for Eric Brand was woefully short and I will stand by that,” Cox said. “They could have taken stronger action and chose not to. That’s their choice. The IHSAA runs the tournament and the schools are able to participate when they are in good standing. This school is not in good standing now.”

Read the rest of the article at the IndyStar.