We keep saying it whenever something less than great happens to USC football: We’re not going to ignore the pain or the disappointment. We’re not going to pretend that a negative development really doesn’t matter.
Dylan Raiola choosing Georgia over USC is a loss for Lincoln Riley. The Trojans’ head coach courted the No. 1 recruit in the 2024 class and didn’t land him. That’s a loss, and no one needs to pretend it isn’t.
However, there are degrees of defeat. There are levels of severity attached to recruiting disappointments. This is not the worst of the worst. We can also be realistic in saying that.
Josh Conerly was a worse and more disappointing recruiting outcome than this. Why? USC needed offensive line help last year more than USC needs quarterback help. What also reduces the significance of Raiola’s choice — even though it’s still a defeat for USC — is that he won’t play at either Ohio State or Nebraska, two future conference opponents for the Trojans in the Big Ten.
This could have been worse.
At any rate, let’s see what other college football analysts and writers, in addition to other high school prospects, are saying about this big news story: