Tag: USC football recruiting

USC flips athlete from Utah, could use him as a tight end

USC football recruiting added to its 2025 class, and it did so by flipping yet another recruit from another school, this time Utah being the victim.

USC football recruiting scored another flip victory on Sunday. The Trojans flipped athlete Nela Tupou from Utah, adding to their 2025 class. Chris Trevino of 247Sports has more:

“The Trojans pulled off another flip in the 2025 class, landing long-time Utah commit and three-star Folsom (Calif.) athlete Nela Tupou Sunday afternoon. Tupou is the fourth commitment off a big official visit weekend for the Nebraska game and the third flip over the last week.

“The 6-foot-4, 220-pound Tupou is the 22nd commitment in the class, which is ranked No. 11 in the nation. He joins a recent run of commitments that include five-star California quarterback Husan Longstreet, three-star Oklahoma defensive lineman Cash Jacobsen and four-star Georgia offensive tackle Alex Payne.”

Trevino explained the positional vision for Tupou:

“Tupou is listed as an athlete prospect and was slated to be an edge defender for the Utes. But the Trojans made the move for Tupou in eyeing him as a tight end prospect after a strong senior season on offense with 29 receptions for 550 yards and 11 touchdowns, all career-high numbers. The Trojans were not super active in recruiting a tight end this cycle after signing two last year and adding Walker Lyons (2023 signee) off his Mormon mission. USC signed Lyons out of Folsom High School as well and are the favorites for five-star 2026 quarterback Ryder Lyons, his younger brother.”

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Four-star offensive lineman flips from North Carolina to USC

Josh Henson picks up a huge flip of a 4-star offensive lineman. This is what Henson must do to save his job at USC. Is it enough? Lincoln Riley must have an answer.

USC football recruiting just scored a notable win on Friday. Four-star offensive lineman Alex Payne flipped from North Carolina to the Trojans. The 6-5, 285-pound prospect gives USC a significant addition to its offensive front. The story is important in itself and on its own terms, but it also contains value relative to the one big coaching drama at USC right now, the question of whether Lincoln Riley should — and will — fire offensive line coach Josh Henson.

We said this about Henson’s job status:

Josh Henson has not built this offensive line at the standard one should expect at USC. He has fallen short. Unless Riley knows that Henson is going to get it right in terms of roster construction this coming offseason, he has to find someone else to do the job at a higher level.

The Alex Payne flip is a big win for Josh Henson. Lincoln Riley needs to ask himself if this is enough to meaningfully change the calculus at USC football. No one would say this is enough for Henson to be retained, but if other elite prospects are about to come in — on the trail and in the portal — that could definitely alter the equation for Lincoln Riley on the Josh Henson question.

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Top USC football commit flips to Miami as Trojans face big concerns

The Hayden Lowe decommitment raises the possibility that USC is losing trust from recruits, which would be an absolute disaster if it happens.

On Wednesday, USC football lost one of its top commits in the 2025 class when four-star edge rusher Hayden Lowe flipped his pledge to Miami.

A standout at Oaks Christian High School, Lowe had been committed to USC since June. However, momentum towards a potential flip had been building over the past couple of weeks.

According to the On3 Industry rankings—a tool that combines the ratings of the four major recruiting rankings services—Lowe is the No. 154 overall player in the class of 2024. He is also the No. 20 edge rusher, and the No. 13 player in the state of California.

Following Lowe’s decommitment, USC’s 2025 recruiting class now sits at No. 13 nationally in the On3 team rankings. Three Big Ten foes are currently ahead of the Trojans: Ohio State at No. 1, Oregon at No. 7, and Michigan at No. 11.

With the 2024 team continuing to struggle on the field, it will be crucial for head coach Lincoln Riley to keep USC’s upcoming recruiting class together if he wants to maintain the good will of the fan base. USC being 4-5 right now has everyone inside the program on edge, worried that more decommits will emerge and erode the standing of this recruiting class.

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Michigan, despite having a terrible season, outperforms USC again

Michigan just scored 7 points in a bad loss to Illinois, making USC’s loss to UM even worse. Now, UM just landed a 5-star offensive lineman. Why can’t USC do that?

When we try to make sense of USC football and this lost 2024 season, one of the revealing snapshots is that a not-very-good Michigan football team was still able to beat the Trojans. Michigan scored just seven points in a humiliating loss to Illinois this past weekend. Michigan isn’t good. Yet, the Wolverines beat the Trojans in a result which now looks different than it did at the time (Sept. 21). That loss looks worse and worse for Lincoln Riley.

Now we can add another Michigan victory over USC to the 2024 tally of results. Michigan, for all of its on-field woes this year, was just able to land a five-star offensive lineman for next year.

Wolverines Wire has more on the story:

The Kansas native head coach (Sherrone Moore) went all-in to secure a commitment from 2025 Overland Park (Kan.) Blue Valley Northwest five-star offensive tackle Andrew Babalola, who was long seen as a Stanford lean. However, other schools — Auburn and Oklahoma — got heavily involved late, making things interesting.

However, Moore officially has his first five-star in the fold as Babalola officially made his verbal commitment to the maize and blue.

Michigan looks terrible on the field right now, but Sherrone Moore was able to land a really big fish for his offensive line. USC continues to fail to get five-star offensive linemen under Josh Henson.

If Michigan, amid its many struggles, can get a five-star offensive lineman, surely USC can do the same. The Trojans have to raise the bar in their recruiting, and that applies to the offensive line more than any other group by far.

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USC, Josh Henson land Utah decommit Aaron Dunn in crucial flip pickup

Josh Henson badly needed a big-time offensive line recruiting pickup. Aaron Dunn fits the bill at USC.

There are two things USC football offensive line coach Josh Henson needs to do to save his job. One is that he has to coach the 2024 USC offensive line a lot better. Second, Henson has to recruit better. USC simply needs high-end offensive linemen and an overall talent upgrade. Henson came through on Friday, landing Utah decommit Aaron Dunn in a big flip and overall pickup for USC.

Dunn is a highly-coveted offensive lineman with size, length and reach at 6-8 and 290 pounds. The body, the agility, the natural tools — this is the package of physical attributes and overall skills Henson can work with to mold USC’s offensive line into a more formidable fighting force. This is the kind of big-fish recruiting score Henson needs to continue to accumulate.

However, whether Henson deserves the chance to coach Dunn and the 2025 Trojan offensive line should also depend in part on how he coaches the second half of this season. This is clearly the toughest decision facing Lincoln Riley in terms of the composition of his 2025 coaching staff at USC football.

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Will USC – Maryland game reshape recruiting in any meaningful way?

With USC in urgent need of significant recruiting victories across the United States, the trip to Maryland contains added layers of intrigue.

The USC football recruiting outlook — while not bad — is still not good enough. The simple reason: Oregon is better right now. Until it becomes clear that USC is matching Dan Lanning in recruiting, the successes the Trojans might accumulate are not going to add up the way they want. USC must do better, and that’s part of the backdrop to the USC-Maryland game this Saturday.

Yes, Caleb Williams was not successfully recruited by USC. He basically came to Los Angeles from Oklahoma as part of Lincoln Riley’s move, a package deal. Yet, it still remains that Caleb Williams is from the DMV. You can be sure recruits in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., are all very much aware of USC football and will be interested in the Trojans’ game versus the Terrapins this Saturday.

USC football fans will say — and they’re right — that locking down Southern California, particularly Mater Dei, has to be priority number one for Lincoln Riley. That’s true. Yet, recruiting well across the United States will not cease to be necessary. It will still remain very important even if the Trojans begin to recruit their backyard better. This USC-Maryland game is, first and foremost, a chance for the Trojans to change the trajectory of their season. In the background, however, the recruiting angle of this contest can’t be entirely ignored.

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Lincoln Riley and USC football recruiting go under increased scrutiny amid struggles

USC football recruiting on the offensive line, particularly in California, has simply not hit the target in recent years, showing why Lincoln Riley is struggling.

Losing games and falling short of expectations at USC will generate a reaction from columnists and college football insiders. Lincoln Riley knows this. No one should be surprised that critical scrutiny of USC football is increasing as the Trojans prepare for a must-win game against Penn State this weekend. Matt Hayes of USA TODAY Sports noted how poorly Lincoln Riley has recruited, specifically in the state of California, in recent years. USC football recruiting has simply not met the standard the program needs to set in order to put itself in position to win championships:

We’re three recruiting classes into the Riley era, and only two of the starting offensive linemen are organically recruited and developed. On the defensive line, all four starters are transfers from the portal.

You’re not surviving in the Big Ten with that buildout plan.

Riley’s three recruiting classes at USC finished 70th (2022), 8th (2023) and 17th (2024) in the 247sports composite rankings, but more damning is the staff’s inability to recruit the talent-rich state of California.

In the last three recruiting classes ranked by 247sports, USC signed three of the top 20 players from California in 2022, four in 2023 and two in 2024 – or nine of the top 60 players (15 percent) from the state over that span. Six are still on the team, and none of the original nine were offensive or defensive linemen.

The results are what they are. USC’s offensive line is holding the program back, and as we have noted, Josh Henson is simply not recruiting at the standard needed to elevate USC.

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As USC’s offensive line struggles, Josh Henson’s recruiting isn’t measuring up

There’s a highly-rated offensive lineman who has spoken of his love for USC. The Trojans aren’t recruiting him vigorously. What is Josh Henson doing?

We can all see that USC football needs better offensive linemen. It’s more than that, too. USC needs experienced offensive linemen. Many of these current offensive linemen are struggling not because they lack the talent or size to play the position, but because they are young and frankly need some time to develop and learn. That’s part of the problem, though: Why hasn’t USC, under Josh Henson, been able to fill specific spots with transfer portal veterans who can play well? Emmanuel Pregnon has been solid this season, but it took him two years to finally settle in at USC. The ideal portal pickup is ready to shine from the start. Bobby Haskins was an example of an ideal offensive line portal addition which becomes a crucial piece on a largely successful team.

Josh Henson was not able to land that really big fish — that polished, veteran offensive lineman — in the transfer portal in the 2024 offseason. That being the case, he needed to recruit at a higher level to offset that deficiency. He hasn’t. Given the need to bring in higher-caliber offensive linemen, you would think Henson would be extra attentive to the need to do his homework and make sure he is reaching out in a timely way to players who might consider USC.

In at least one case, Henson is falling short:

https://twitter.com/ShotgunSpr/status/1843702923781665172

USC football fans have to be losing their minds right now. There’s an offensive lineman who has dreamed of becoming a Trojan but is not being courted heavily by Josh Henson. Sounds like a real missed opportunity. This is simply not what USC can afford at a point in time when the offensive line is costing this team wins on the field. Josh Henson is not doing himself any favors.

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USC football lands five-star WR Jerome Myles as recruiting picks up steam

There is zero question that USC’s strong start to the 2024 season is leading to improved recruiting results. Let’s see if these positive trends continue.

The USC Trojans are developing real recruiting momentum. Lincoln Riley was able to bring home five-star receiver Jerome Myles on Wednesday. We covered this recruitment over the past several weeks, noting that the arrow was pointing in the right direction for USC as Myles’ commitment date approached:

Draper (Utah) Corner Canyon prospect Jerome Myles has pushed up his announcement date to September 18 and is all set to choose among finalists Texas A&M, USC and Utah. USC has begun to develop some recruiting momentum on the defensive side of the ball, but the Trojans still need elite receiver prospects to make their future passing game click. Getting reinforcements on both sides of the ball is part of building the complete roster which can lift USC back to the national championship standard the program expects of itself.

The USC Trojans are now trending as the favorites to land Jerome Myles in the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine (RPM).

As a junior in six games, Myles has displayed big-play ability, averaging over 25 yards per catch. Myles has 19 receptions, 500 yards and six touchdowns.

There’s no question that USC’s hot start is translating into an improved set of results on the trail. The Trojans will gain even more momentum if they can beat Michigan this coming Saturday.

https://twitter.com/jerome_myles6/status/1836516092858241288

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USC football offers four-star 2025 edge rusher as defensive reputation grows

USC knows its defense is beginning to change perceptions across the country. The Trojans are trying to build recruiting momentum as a result.

Four-star Mayde Creek (Texas) edge rusher Tobi Haastrup announced that he had received a scholarship offer from the USC Trojans. USC is trying to take advantage of the strong start to the season from the Trojans’ defense. USC’s reputation is changing, and the Trojans are trying to translate that new identity into recruiting wins on defense.

Haastrup has a international background, growing up in London for nearly the first decade of his life. He then moved to America, first to California, then Texas.

He has been a track and field star, but this is his first year playing American football in his life. He already has close to 15 offers including USC, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Ole Miss, LSU, Tennessee, Texas A&M and many others.

Listed at 6-4, 235 pounds, Haastrup runs a 10.71 in the 100-meter dash and threw the shot put over 52 feet.

Haastrup is now building relationships with college coaches across the country, trying to learn as quickly as he can.

“I don’t think i’ve ever sat to watch a full collegiate football game ever. It’s all so new but I have definitely enjoyed watching collegiate highlights of edge rushers and outside linebackers. I have made that as my personal homework to do so,” said Haastrup.

Haastrup is rated the No. 276 overall prospect and No. 21 edge rusher in the country, according to the 247Sports composite rankings.

https://twitter.com/UpnextTH/status/1834894865924071735

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