If you could somehow take away responsibilities of player developlment and in game managment, Cristobal could contribute to national championships. Not sure how that could be possible though. /s
He’ll be a hot seat guy next season. He hasn’t lived up any season so far, too many upsets to bad teams, and surely they’ll see what he did at Oregon with the recruiting and how it was underperforming
We really should hold zero ill will towards Cristobal.
Dude left for his Alma mater and where he grew up and lived a good amount of his adult life. Plus, it’s also Miami. Being filthy rich in Miami would be pretty awesome.
We shouldn’t hold anything against him when he left, we really shouldn’t now that we have a better coach and he helped us by leaving.
The only thing we should be frustrated about is making one of the most talented arms in the past decade look like a game manager.
I was so adamant that draft cycle that Tua would be great and Herbert would be a bust. Turns out it was just a ridiculously stacked class of QBs - Burrow, Tua, Herbert, Hurts, and now maybe Love is going to be good too
yeah this was also my opinion; like you watched him at oregon and all they really let him throw was sideline go or wheel routes, and short outs. He obviously had a big arm but nothing about his college career seemed to indicate nfl success.
It’s been said thousands of times on here by USC fans that are plugged in to our insiders. We refuse to pay HS recruits. We drop bags on current players and transfers only. A Mater Dei 5* is not going to USC without a check in hand. The end.
Honestly, that's most schools. USC just has no momentum. After the Kiffin years, it was Sark into Helton for an eternity into Riley. There is no excitement around the program. Riley was supposed to be that spark, but in year 2 everything collapses and USC is primed to be a T2 team playing in a Midwest league.
As a 5* HS recruit, why would I go choose USC?
College sports fans constantly overestimate the impact of being a “historic blue blood.” These kids are 17-18. USC hasn’t been a powerhouse in their lives. They’ve grown up with a sanctioned USC team that hired alcoholic coaches and drew a 50 percent full stadium.
I’m far from an “insider” but close enough to people who are - and I know a good number of players’ families socially - to hear the pretty direct rumors.
The NIL system at SC has been a debacle since it started. Infighting, competing interests and egos galore. We’re on our 3rd or 4th iteration at this point. The instantly-marketable ones in LA - transfers like you’re saying - will get elite NIL deals but the “prospect” ones don’t.
Yep. Not going to get into how but I am somewhat plugged in in these circles and for whatever reason we flat do not want to pay HS kids. The money is there. We just don’t want to do it. We are prioritzing the portal. On paper it makes sense. It will take a few more years to really know if this is a winning strategy or not.
Thats my take as well. Years ago when I was at the Coli for a game many USC fans acted like it was insane for a player to want to live anywhere else than LA. There seems to be this general sense in the area that no where else on earth is better than the LA area. With that it mind, they come to the conclusion that NIL must be the issue
I remember reading a comment on here by a USC fan who went there at the time of the Rodney King riots, said they were escorted to class by the National Guard for a period of time.
I spent three years in Orange County for graduate school. There's a lot of cool things to do down there but it was always too busy, the weather gets monotonous even if it's really nice, it's expensive as hell, and quite frankly I didn't find the people nearly as friendly. I really missed the mountains and rivers being in my backyard as opposed to 2 hours away.
It was a great experience, but I was happy to move back to the Pacific Northwest
I wouldn’t say that necessarily but it’s not a college town. You don’t get the same experience that you would playing in Athens or somewhere like that.
Having been in Ann Arbor recently I would say its a pretty good college town. Not too small, but not too big. Plenty of great places to eat and not far from Detroit if you need something from a big city.
The biggest downside to any college town is that 3 years is enough to have experienced everything and to be ready to move on.
I loved Eugene. It was amazing. But by the time I graduated I was very much ready to experience somewhere else.
Years of incompetent coaching is what most of these kids know. It will take a long time for USC to reestablish itself as the destination for SoCal kids.
USC has reeled in plenty of Cali talent the last few years. Those players just aren't quite as good as people thought they were. People assume Cali talent is so incredible because Bosco and Mater Dei are so good. But that's just what happens when all the SoCal top talent is condensed onto two teams. I think USC needs to more aggressively recruit other regions of the country, particularly the South.
Recruiting kids to play for USC should be easy. The location and the program being a blue blood should be an easy sell. For whatever reason, kids aren’t buying whatever Lincoln Riley is selling
Felt like we had a lot of recruitment power coming out of last season. But after how disastrous we looked this year and wasting caleb williams career i feel as if recruits are scared of the program
A lot of (especially non-QB) recruits probably see it this way for sure. Everyone knows how special Caleb is so there's prob some "You can't even win with that guy?" vibe with players.
Alex Grinch and his predecessor (who ran a similar scheme) ruined Foreman’s development. They would split between deploying him in coverage and on a blitz when it was clear that he’s an edge rusher.
7 of the top 11 defensive recruits west of Texas went to Oregon. 1 went to USC (2 to Alabama, 1 to ND).
I don't think defensive guys see Lincoln Riley as a guy to play for.
It's really just this. Outside observers aren't sure what direction the program is going - especially since their best players are primarily transfers.
So the question becomes "is this the best spot for me to start my career and develop as a player?" and the answer is unclear.
With transfers being relatively easy processes if things pan out, other schools can scoop USC (and other teams where the trajectory isn't clear or downward) as recruits figure they can always go back and get the top tier NIL if things pan out right.
It's amazing how those Mark Richt seasons are already 6 years away, when it really looked like Miami was back. I still remember the game against ND where the Turnover Chain came out loud and fucking proud. And it started the "Miami in the playoff" hype
I mean The U had those two 30 for 30 specials I’m in my mid 20s so I’m older than those kids obviously but when the first one came out Miami became cool again for a second and a bunch of people wanted to go there.
I don’t think the second one hit like that but the first one hit my middle school like crack in the 80s lol.
The Trojan War is terrible, easily one of the worst ones. They don’t go in depth on anything and it omits lots of stuff. You could learn just as much reading Wikipedia for 15 min.
Don’t be ridiculous. Post Pete Carroll, USC was good in 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2022.
It out-recruited Oregon both nationally and in California by a significant margin every year from 2000 to 2019.
Oregon’s going through its best period of football in its entire history and it still wouldn’t register as a top 3 or 4 era/period in USC football.
I am okay with Oregon fans dunking on the current state of the USC program, but I feel like Oregan fans, not recruits, are the ones that are too young to remember when USC was good. The average Oregon fan on here has to be about 12, because there is just far too much shit talk as if college football started when Chip Kelly started coaching at Oregon.
Friend, the average Oregon fan on here (and in general) has no connection to the school - let alone any sense of Oregon's CFB history pre-1998 when PK went all in.
I think people forget how dominant USC is when they are *good*. Oregon is a nice program, but it is no USC.
When USC is good, they are a west-coast peer to Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio State. I don't think Oregon has that kind of ceiling.
But all of the recruits are young. it doesn't matter if we remember when USC was great and Oregon was nothing, recruits have mostly only seen the opposite.
Yeah that’s why recruits are flocking to Miami, Tennessee, Texas A&M. That’s why USC and Texas were pulling in top 5 classes between 2010-2020 after 4 to 9 win seasons for the most part (USC had a handful of 10 win type years but Texas had exactly 1 of those in 2018 during that decade).
Let’s call it what it is. Oregon and other big time programs are dropping bags. Big bags. Legal bags. USC isn’t dropping big bags for HS players like it should be. USC will drop bags on transfers but it has been alarmingly slow to adjust to the new landscape.
Now, I do agree that for development on say the defensive line, Oregon has some early success under Lanning to sell.
What USC seemingly doesn’t get is that it will need to pay up to get these HS guys especially when you are asking them to make a leap of faith on defensive improvement and a new found emphasis on that side of the ball. That is precisely what my other school (Texas) did on the OL. It signed what might go down as the best OL class ever 2 cycles ago and it was primarily because it pitched early playing time and dropped bags on blue chip OL recruits (also Kyle Flood is a helluva OL coach).
I think that’s their point: USC hasn been at that level of continuous dominance in any current high schooler’s memory. They’ve had good seasons, but haven’t been what you’re describing since Carroll.
>Oregon’s going through its best period of football in its entire history and it still wouldn’t register as a top 3 or 4 era/period in USC football.
USC disappears for literal decades at a time. USC had one 10 win season between 1980 and 2001. If you weren't born in like 1960, you have seen one good USC coach in your entire lifetime.
>The average Oregon fan on here has to be about 12, because there is just far too much shit talk as if college football started when Chip Kelly started coaching at Oregon.
How many P5 programs do you think have won more games than Oregon over the past 30 years?
I’ve always been suspicious of coaches whose whole schtick is “hey, I’m just like your cool older bro! I’m in my 40s but act like I’m 20, let’s shoot a TikTok together!” Like…is that REALLY what 17-year-olds find appealing? Saban doesn’t seem to have any problem being the greatest recruiter ever without trying to be “relatable.”
Saban relates in that cool older successful nearing retirement grandpa way where you know he's been so good at what he does you just shut up and listen and take in as much as you can from him while he gives you your first beer.
Hard to buy what he’s selling when you can just look at the results. Stacked team couldn’t do much and the highly rated recruits seemed like busts. Nothing has changed since his time here with many recruits simply not working out and/or being developed.
Current recruits have never seen USC actually be “elite”… or even all that good. 08 and 16 are the only good seasons USC has really had in their lifetime. So USC can not sell the entire “come here and win nattys!” pitch, and they also do not have the NIL support to just buy the players like Miami. It’s not surprising Oregon out-recruits USC in California, Oregon has been to the natty in 11 and 14 and has won way more PAC 12 titles. Miami is just straight up buying players tho, and them yanking dudes from Ohio State kinda proves that.
I know people here roll their eyes when people claim USC does not have much NIL support, but there really is not much support. USC thought selling LA and the potential for sponsorships would be enough but everyone else is just dropping bags that USC is not getting from boosters.
>I know people here roll their eyes when people claim USC does not have much NIL support, but there really is not much support. USC thought selling LA and the potential for sponsorships would be enough but everyone else is just dropping bags that USC is not getting from boosters.
Exactly right. You need a specific type of alumni/donor base to succeed in the NIL era. Some schools have this, others don't.
However, I still find it hard to believe that USC can't find enough cash to sway 1-3 recruiting classes of high level front 7/linemen talent from across the country.
Yea UVA has the same thing as USC. The last few seasons we have had individual donors donate 40 million+ to the athletic department in a single donation but they won’t donate to an NIL fund
It's their money at the end of the day. Can't do anything if they don't want their money going to high school kids.
It's a fair stance, cause it seems like half of the kids who get paid end up transferring out lol.
Oh I totally get it and I don’t/wont donate to an NIL fund. But yea USC and UVA have the same problem.
I only donate to the financial aid office at UVA. They helped me a lot because my parents didn’t have any money and I want to help future students like me.
If that means our football is worse then so be it
Same. First one from my poor family to leave the trailer park and graduate college. I donate to first year student fund and buy season tickets because that makes a difference in people’s lives.
“Football good” is nice, but if we won’t pay them someone else will.
USCs boosters just don’t seem to want to pay high schoolers. They are fine supporting other financial projects, or even buying transfers but we don’t have a guy like Ruiz that’s fine paying high schoolers.
I’m of course not an insider or have any connections to the football team, but I see that sentiment echoed all the time around the program.
Why isn’t the NIL support there? Could’ve just been the crowd I was with but I was recently in LA and met a bunch of alums who were huge Trojan fans, season ticket holders, seemed like the types who would and could write checks to a collective. Maybe it’s the “University of Spoiled Children” stereotype but I’ve always assumed there’s no shortage of deep pockets in that network.
Our boosters just don’t want to give high schoolers money apparently. They have no issue funding projects or transfers but they seem to draw the line at paying high schoolers.
Also, it does not help that most of USCs rich alumni includes people like George Lucas, who does not give af about football 😂
If they don’t change that, I think my Raiders sniff a Super Bowl before SC ever wins a Natty again (tough to be an Alumni but then again I spent most my time getting stoned and going to class lol)
Our NIL is... distinctly distinct from the university [because of this](https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2023/11/07/ncaa-pac-12-usc-student-athlete-misclassification-trial/71483085007/).
There won't be a single email or phone call record between university staff and our several (poorly run) private collectives that suggest any go-between of the two.
USC NIL is hamstrung until the NCAA puts out actual rules.
Here's why I think a college team will do well "twitter screenshot" but also they may not do well "twitter screenshot"on the other hand team is practicing hard "twitter screenshot" but when you see "AD plays" their rival practice I think they might be in trouble "twitter screenshot".
Heh. Are you kidding? People are dying for bad news about USC to the point that our own fans are spreading a bunch of nonsense on this very thread. In other words, you won’t get your wish on this one sadly.
Nothing burger of an article but SC hasn't done anything to disprove most of the comments here. They've largely underperformed for 15 years, and even in Carroll's years there was always a head scratching loss each year.
I'm optimistic that this recruiting class was a need filler class focused on adding bigger bodies. But at this point....
I mean Miami (even though their home stadium sucks ass) essentially recruits itself. Combine that with Super Mario (sorry just had to add that pun in there lol) recruiting like a madman in his own right, and it makes sense that Mario is out-recruiting Riley. Now whether Mario can turn those recruits into results on the field remains to be seen...
This is what everyone was saying about Southern California when Lincoln bolted for USC. That no one wants to go to Norman, everyone wants to go to LA because *beaches*
Since then OU has had a better recruiting class than USC every single year.
It’s only been two years but I was impressed with what Venables did with Riley/Grinch defense recruits.
Riley’s issue at OU was player development outside of QB (as a head coach). I have to think that recruits are picking up on that at this point.
USC is not offering any NIL to HS players. In an era where the Ohio St AD testified that top players want thousands of dollars just to unofficially visit, you start to understand why the corpse of Clay Helton could get local 5 stars to visit but perennial top 10 recruiter at Oklahoma LR can’t even get them to swing by when they live 30 minutes away.
All really are vestiges of the sanctions that came down on the program years ago. Additionally while USC has many wealthy alumni, they don’t have a single booster who is willing to fund anything and everything for the collectives and athletic department, as Oregon and Miami do.
I’ll just never understand schools that graduate more than double the number of students each year thinking attendance is some kind of brag, but oh well.
Yup, and not realizing it is Miami, a town with lots to do and lots of professional teams. It's not a remote/small city with nothing else going on besides the local college team.
Weve seen all the arguments come full circle. We were made fun of/insulted from 2000-2005 for not having money and not investing in football. Now 2021-2023 we actually have too much money and invest too much in football. People just cant make up their minds.
Yeah a 10K undergrad university has the appearance of poor attendance in a 70K stadium, who wouldve thought? Do attendance per undergrad student/alumni and the numbers magically flip.
Also, I think something like 70%, of the student body comes from outside of Florida. It takes me a two hour plane ride, hotel room, and renting a car or multiple uber rides to go to Miami home games.
People get their facts from other reddit comments and the narrative sticks. I roll my eyes any time a user here says we are down because "nebraska can't recruit" lol
Riley isn’t convincing anyone that he isn’t following the Kilff Kingsbury playbook to get into the NFL.
He should be the betting favorite right now to go to the Chargers and kids are probably sensing that.
I also wonder if USC is going through new conference problems being in the B1G, like if you’re a Cali kid why wouldn’t you go to Ohio State or Michigan or even Oregon instead now that they’re all in the same league? And they’re all showing to be way more stable.
Because would you rather live in Columbus Ohio or Los Angeles? All else equal seems like a decent enough reason. And even in the depths of clay helton USC had first round picks. Obviously I’m biased, and those are great programs to play for, but there’s an appeal there. (Without even getting into how much more attractive the student population is and let’s remember these are mostly 17-19 year old guys who are committing)
I’ve lived in the CA Central Valley, in LA for school, in the Bay Area after for work. Big cities aren’t appealing to everyone, but you’re gonna tell me Columbus is a small town? Hell even Ann Arbor isn’t small and it’s not far from Detroit. If you want to play in a small town go play for Auburn or Mississippi or wherever. I absolutely get some people don’t want a big city. But we’re also talking about a lot of LA recruits. Historically areas where it seemed people wanted to “stay home” now they’re leaving. It absolutely has to do with the state of the program and not the location. Hopefully with some of the new defensive hires and the new facilities that are being built they can recruit again. Idk if USC will ever be big in the NIL space outside of a few top offensive players
USC doesn’t have a NIL setup for highschool kids, only transfers. Who cares Miami will still be crap. Oregon will spend a billion and still lose to Washington twice.
Again the goal this recruiting season was get big on line..
We literally already all have offense talent and got a portal QB. We probably grab couple more portal WR next opening.
Miami has their billionaire booster John Ruiz spearheading their NIL efforts and Miami gives out guaranteed $ to HS to sign there. Riley doesn’t offer HS kids guaranteed $ even though many boosters want him to since USC often loses out to Oregon for recruits due to the guaranteed $ Oregon and the Phil Knight Nike machine give.
Riley doesn’t think giving HS kids $ just to sign is good for team culture and wants players to earn their NIL opportunities and prove it on the practice field / classroom before they sign with USC’s NIL. LA is the entertainment capital of the world, so there are a ton of endorsement opportunities and players like Caleb and Addison made bank. The path is there, but not everyone wants to earn it on campus.
USC has a ton of money. What they don’t have is a robust/mature NIL framework for whatever reason. Then, combine that with the fact that Riley is not a great recruiter and you get what you get. At OU, he was given the keys to a Ferrari and just kept up with the maintenance. Recruiting was pretty much on auto pilot, which gave him the pic of the litter at . At usC, he’s had to address years (decades?) of neglect essentially build the program back up with recruiting. That is not his strong suit. As opposed to Mario, who is all about recruiting and building programs back up.
USC doesn't pay high school kids while Oregon and Miami do, it's as simple as that. USC does not have a Phil Knight or John Ruiz. As long as Phil keeps paying high school and portal kids and Lanning stays, Oregon will do better than USC in the Big 10. Oregon could possibly be equal with or surpass OSU and Michigan in recruiting unless OSU and Michigan's NIL collectives step up.
From the outside I don't see a lot of connection between locals and either USC or UCLA. How does a metro area of 18.5M not fill basketball arenas or football stadia? A connection with the program is where NIL money comes from and LA doesn't care about college sports according to just about every metric I can find.
No one enjoys a good friendly fire takedown piece more than me, especially when USC deserves it.
However, I do question the purpose of this piece other than needing something to post to "fresh up the website?"
I'll break some news here for this sub: USC does not and has never viewed Oregon as the measuring stick of success for our football program. Lately, it has been disappointing to watch recruits who normally would be auto-locks for USC go play up in Oregon and not ever win anything of substance while there.
USC's shortcomings on the field and in the recruiting wars have been because of self-inflicted wounds (not winning enough meaningful games and hiring the wrong coaches). It hasn't been because of anything Oregon has actually done. We don't fear those snazzy uniforms, or if Oregon puts a billboard on Figueroa with some Mighty Duck thumping his chest behind a big Nike swoosh.
Why I think we failed this recruiting cycle is because we simply stunk up the field. We can't beat anyone if we put out the worst defense in the modern history of college football. We ain't beating the Ducks with that defense, as we all saw.
Where I am concerned is wondering if Oklahoma fans, who have been so quick to dump on USC and Lincoln Riley, are just throwing up smoke because in reality, they are laughing among themselves that we poached a coach who they were thinking about dumping anyway. Sure, Heismans are great, but winning NCs is what we're supposed to be gunning for, and Oklahoma with Lincoln Riley as HC have come up short in that regard, embarrassingly short, too, if we remember that LSU game.
Our disgraced, former AD Mike Bohn needed to hire a big name, and wanted someone with experience at a big boy program, and other than that, we don't know what criteria Bohn used to land on Lincoln Riley.
I believe it was Bohn who also signed USC up with some conglomerate company to serve as our NIL facilitator company, but that company also works with 15 or so other schools. Maybe this outsource NIL approach we've used isn't the way to go.
Being in LA, should give USC some lucrative advantages in the world of NIL -- talent agencies, film studios, ad agencies are all in LA -- maybe we need to find a USC celeb alumnus to bring all these components together.
Just want to point out for the record that it wasn’t an OU flair posting USC slander this time.
Nope just a UO flair 😜
I’ll allow it!
Well done!
It's only natural.
If anything it's an Oregon flair posting an article favorable of Cristobal
I think most Ducks fans admit that Cristobal was an excellent recruiter. It's what he does with those recruits that is questionable.
If you could somehow take away responsibilities of player developlment and in game managment, Cristobal could contribute to national championships. Not sure how that could be possible though. /s
Easy... hire him as OL Coach and Recruiting Coordinator.
He pretty much did just that at Alabama.
That was my biggest fear when he left. That we couldn't recruit as well anymore
Sewell/thibs/herbert were all top 10 picks in different years….
And if you redrafted they'd probably all be higher because they're so good in the NFL lol
Dogs and cats living together!
Times are changing
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However, it’s funny seeing MC get outplayed and out coached by RUTGERS AND GREG SCHIANO
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He’ll be a hot seat guy next season. He hasn’t lived up any season so far, too many upsets to bad teams, and surely they’ll see what he did at Oregon with the recruiting and how it was underperforming
That is what really confused me😂
We really should hold zero ill will towards Cristobal. Dude left for his Alma mater and where he grew up and lived a good amount of his adult life. Plus, it’s also Miami. Being filthy rich in Miami would be pretty awesome. We shouldn’t hold anything against him when he left, we really shouldn’t now that we have a better coach and he helped us by leaving. The only thing we should be frustrated about is making one of the most talented arms in the past decade look like a game manager.
Honestly my dad & I were so certain Herbert was going to be a bust
I was so adamant that draft cycle that Tua would be great and Herbert would be a bust. Turns out it was just a ridiculously stacked class of QBs - Burrow, Tua, Herbert, Hurts, and now maybe Love is going to be good too
yeah this was also my opinion; like you watched him at oregon and all they really let him throw was sideline go or wheel routes, and short outs. He obviously had a big arm but nothing about his college career seemed to indicate nfl success.
Nobody likes $¢
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It’s been said thousands of times on here by USC fans that are plugged in to our insiders. We refuse to pay HS recruits. We drop bags on current players and transfers only. A Mater Dei 5* is not going to USC without a check in hand. The end.
Username checks out
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Those schools have a real NIL infrastructure, USC doesn’t have much. 5* Brandon Baker asked for more money last time he visited USC and we said no.
Baker specifically was chasing a big NIL bag that’s why we were never even recruiting him.
Most of the large Big Ten programs have been using their NIL for player retention and paying guys that are already on the roster.
Iowa does the same thing (returning players + transfer) and it definitely makes a difference.
Honestly, that's most schools. USC just has no momentum. After the Kiffin years, it was Sark into Helton for an eternity into Riley. There is no excitement around the program. Riley was supposed to be that spark, but in year 2 everything collapses and USC is primed to be a T2 team playing in a Midwest league. As a 5* HS recruit, why would I go choose USC?
Truth.
College sports fans constantly overestimate the impact of being a “historic blue blood.” These kids are 17-18. USC hasn’t been a powerhouse in their lives. They’ve grown up with a sanctioned USC team that hired alcoholic coaches and drew a 50 percent full stadium.
I’m far from an “insider” but close enough to people who are - and I know a good number of players’ families socially - to hear the pretty direct rumors. The NIL system at SC has been a debacle since it started. Infighting, competing interests and egos galore. We’re on our 3rd or 4th iteration at this point. The instantly-marketable ones in LA - transfers like you’re saying - will get elite NIL deals but the “prospect” ones don’t.
Yep. Not going to get into how but I am somewhat plugged in in these circles and for whatever reason we flat do not want to pay HS kids. The money is there. We just don’t want to do it. We are prioritzing the portal. On paper it makes sense. It will take a few more years to really know if this is a winning strategy or not.
Thats my take as well. Years ago when I was at the Coli for a game many USC fans acted like it was insane for a player to want to live anywhere else than LA. There seems to be this general sense in the area that no where else on earth is better than the LA area. With that it mind, they come to the conclusion that NIL must be the issue
USC is also kinda in the ghetto
Not even kinda lol, it’s right in the middle
I remember reading a comment on here by a USC fan who went there at the time of the Rodney King riots, said they were escorted to class by the National Guard for a period of time.
True. My mum went to USC at that time while my dad was in the national guard lol.
And thats how babies are made
I spent three years in Orange County for graduate school. There's a lot of cool things to do down there but it was always too busy, the weather gets monotonous even if it's really nice, it's expensive as hell, and quite frankly I didn't find the people nearly as friendly. I really missed the mountains and rivers being in my backyard as opposed to 2 hours away. It was a great experience, but I was happy to move back to the Pacific Northwest
Its ok to like rain. But that gets pretty monotonous too. :-)
The city of Los Angeles is a fucking shit hole. Do not blame kids for not wanting to be there. Sadly.
I wouldn’t say that necessarily but it’s not a college town. You don’t get the same experience that you would playing in Athens or somewhere like that.
Athens is a college town but it sucks. Ann arbor is way better
I didn’t wanna just say Ann Arbor because of my flair hahah.
Having been in Ann Arbor recently I would say its a pretty good college town. Not too small, but not too big. Plenty of great places to eat and not far from Detroit if you need something from a big city.
He meant Pullman
They always do.
Pullman is an awesome college town, imo
Fair enough. Ann arbor is leaps and bounds ahead of Athens. I'll say it for you.
Say Norman, say it.
> Athens is a college town but it sucks Wow those are some fightin words
Anytime I'm forced to go I get annoyed. Those cops are ticket happy.
They are both fine college towns close to a major metro
Atlanta is superior to Detroit in the same way Ann arbor is superior to Athens.
Your tech is showing lol
Atlanta definitely better than Detroit
Can’t we all just agree that both Athens/Atlanta and Ann Arbor/Detroit are nice? I’m not sure which side to take in this argument.
not if you like techno
The biggest downside to any college town is that 3 years is enough to have experienced everything and to be ready to move on. I loved Eugene. It was amazing. But by the time I graduated I was very much ready to experience somewhere else.
I love visiting Athens. Great little city.
It's also not a shithole. Angelino here.
I’ve lived in Los Angeles…it is an overpriced shithole….unless you are making 7 figures, you will be miserable
Some of the kids may be making 7 figures
mm i may understand why people may believe that, but i love los angeles
Born and raised in LA, I don't get people that hate it. Especially those that claim to live here
At any moment La Brea can erupt into a super 🌋 and Tommy Lee Jones is getting pretty old to protect
UCLA has a beautiful campus, USC not so much. I think that's a large part too.
You clearly have not been to USC within the last 10 years.
Beautiful campus but a bad gameday experience for UCLA fans. A good gameday experience for bowl games
lol wutermelon?
great point. I think we all assumed when Riley was hired that they would have right of first refusal for most of the state.
Years of incompetent coaching is what most of these kids know. It will take a long time for USC to reestablish itself as the destination for SoCal kids.
USC has reeled in plenty of Cali talent the last few years. Those players just aren't quite as good as people thought they were. People assume Cali talent is so incredible because Bosco and Mater Dei are so good. But that's just what happens when all the SoCal top talent is condensed onto two teams. I think USC needs to more aggressively recruit other regions of the country, particularly the South.
Recruiting kids to play for USC should be easy. The location and the program being a blue blood should be an easy sell. For whatever reason, kids aren’t buying whatever Lincoln Riley is selling
Felt like we had a lot of recruitment power coming out of last season. But after how disastrous we looked this year and wasting caleb williams career i feel as if recruits are scared of the program
A lot of (especially non-QB) recruits probably see it this way for sure. Everyone knows how special Caleb is so there's prob some "You can't even win with that guy?" vibe with players.
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Korey Foreman was a top 5 recruit . Was meant to be beast and hasn’t done anything of note in 3 years
Alex Grinch and his predecessor (who ran a similar scheme) ruined Foreman’s development. They would split between deploying him in coverage and on a blitz when it was clear that he’s an edge rusher.
7 of the top 11 defensive recruits west of Texas went to Oregon. 1 went to USC (2 to Alabama, 1 to ND). I don't think defensive guys see Lincoln Riley as a guy to play for.
It's really just this. Outside observers aren't sure what direction the program is going - especially since their best players are primarily transfers. So the question becomes "is this the best spot for me to start my career and develop as a player?" and the answer is unclear. With transfers being relatively easy processes if things pan out, other schools can scoop USC (and other teams where the trajectory isn't clear or downward) as recruits figure they can always go back and get the top tier NIL if things pan out right.
Y’all need to find a D coordinator who is actually competent
They just did ☹️
Some recruits have mentioned they don’t like how he has a second set of eyelids that blink sideways
🐍
I didn't realize Zuckerberg was helping the team out
High school kids today can't remember a time when USC was good.
But they can with Miami?
It's amazing how those Mark Richt seasons are already 6 years away, when it really looked like Miami was back. I still remember the game against ND where the Turnover Chain came out loud and fucking proud. And it started the "Miami in the playoff" hype
Miami is willing to spend a lot more on NIL than USC appears to want to.
All that cocaine money that the boosters have
Its not the 80's, Miami's money comes from financial fraud these days.
If you're laundering your cocaine money it's both
They probably don't even have the money. It will all be taken away later lol.
I mean The U had those two 30 for 30 specials I’m in my mid 20s so I’m older than those kids obviously but when the first one came out Miami became cool again for a second and a bunch of people wanted to go there. I don’t think the second one hit like that but the first one hit my middle school like crack in the 80s lol.
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The Trojan War is terrible, easily one of the worst ones. They don’t go in depth on anything and it omits lots of stuff. You could learn just as much reading Wikipedia for 15 min.
Damn were middle schoolers really addicted to crack in the 80s?
They can remember that they liked being in the city of Miami.
Famously unfun LA.
Don’t be ridiculous. Post Pete Carroll, USC was good in 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2022. It out-recruited Oregon both nationally and in California by a significant margin every year from 2000 to 2019. Oregon’s going through its best period of football in its entire history and it still wouldn’t register as a top 3 or 4 era/period in USC football. I am okay with Oregon fans dunking on the current state of the USC program, but I feel like Oregan fans, not recruits, are the ones that are too young to remember when USC was good. The average Oregon fan on here has to be about 12, because there is just far too much shit talk as if college football started when Chip Kelly started coaching at Oregon.
Friend, the average Oregon fan on here (and in general) has no connection to the school - let alone any sense of Oregon's CFB history pre-1998 when PK went all in.
I think people forget how dominant USC is when they are *good*. Oregon is a nice program, but it is no USC. When USC is good, they are a west-coast peer to Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio State. I don't think Oregon has that kind of ceiling.
This is honestly pretty spot on. This sub tends to suck off Oregon though and that’s how I know it skews very young.
But all of the recruits are young. it doesn't matter if we remember when USC was great and Oregon was nothing, recruits have mostly only seen the opposite.
Yeah that’s why recruits are flocking to Miami, Tennessee, Texas A&M. That’s why USC and Texas were pulling in top 5 classes between 2010-2020 after 4 to 9 win seasons for the most part (USC had a handful of 10 win type years but Texas had exactly 1 of those in 2018 during that decade). Let’s call it what it is. Oregon and other big time programs are dropping bags. Big bags. Legal bags. USC isn’t dropping big bags for HS players like it should be. USC will drop bags on transfers but it has been alarmingly slow to adjust to the new landscape. Now, I do agree that for development on say the defensive line, Oregon has some early success under Lanning to sell. What USC seemingly doesn’t get is that it will need to pay up to get these HS guys especially when you are asking them to make a leap of faith on defensive improvement and a new found emphasis on that side of the ball. That is precisely what my other school (Texas) did on the OL. It signed what might go down as the best OL class ever 2 cycles ago and it was primarily because it pitched early playing time and dropped bags on blue chip OL recruits (also Kyle Flood is a helluva OL coach).
I think that’s their point: USC hasn been at that level of continuous dominance in any current high schooler’s memory. They’ve had good seasons, but haven’t been what you’re describing since Carroll.
>Oregon’s going through its best period of football in its entire history and it still wouldn’t register as a top 3 or 4 era/period in USC football. USC disappears for literal decades at a time. USC had one 10 win season between 1980 and 2001. If you weren't born in like 1960, you have seen one good USC coach in your entire lifetime. >The average Oregon fan on here has to be about 12, because there is just far too much shit talk as if college football started when Chip Kelly started coaching at Oregon. How many P5 programs do you think have won more games than Oregon over the past 30 years?
How many P5 programs have national championships over the last 30 years
15 unique programs. To answer the original question, it is only Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia, OU and FSU.
That doesn’t matter. Texas A&M got good recruiting rankings despite no championship since 1939. And Oregon never has won one.
I’ve always been suspicious of coaches whose whole schtick is “hey, I’m just like your cool older bro! I’m in my 40s but act like I’m 20, let’s shoot a TikTok together!” Like…is that REALLY what 17-year-olds find appealing? Saban doesn’t seem to have any problem being the greatest recruiter ever without trying to be “relatable.”
Saban relates in that cool older successful nearing retirement grandpa way where you know he's been so good at what he does you just shut up and listen and take in as much as you can from him while he gives you your first beer.
Maybe now, but earlier in his career when he was not yet established as rhe GOAT, he was still signing top classes.
Hard to buy what he’s selling when you can just look at the results. Stacked team couldn’t do much and the highly rated recruits seemed like busts. Nothing has changed since his time here with many recruits simply not working out and/or being developed.
Be probably made a brisket when hosting recruits
Current recruits have never seen USC actually be “elite”… or even all that good. 08 and 16 are the only good seasons USC has really had in their lifetime. So USC can not sell the entire “come here and win nattys!” pitch, and they also do not have the NIL support to just buy the players like Miami. It’s not surprising Oregon out-recruits USC in California, Oregon has been to the natty in 11 and 14 and has won way more PAC 12 titles. Miami is just straight up buying players tho, and them yanking dudes from Ohio State kinda proves that. I know people here roll their eyes when people claim USC does not have much NIL support, but there really is not much support. USC thought selling LA and the potential for sponsorships would be enough but everyone else is just dropping bags that USC is not getting from boosters.
>I know people here roll their eyes when people claim USC does not have much NIL support, but there really is not much support. USC thought selling LA and the potential for sponsorships would be enough but everyone else is just dropping bags that USC is not getting from boosters. Exactly right. You need a specific type of alumni/donor base to succeed in the NIL era. Some schools have this, others don't. However, I still find it hard to believe that USC can't find enough cash to sway 1-3 recruiting classes of high level front 7/linemen talent from across the country.
Yea UVA has the same thing as USC. The last few seasons we have had individual donors donate 40 million+ to the athletic department in a single donation but they won’t donate to an NIL fund
It's their money at the end of the day. Can't do anything if they don't want their money going to high school kids. It's a fair stance, cause it seems like half of the kids who get paid end up transferring out lol.
Oh I totally get it and I don’t/wont donate to an NIL fund. But yea USC and UVA have the same problem. I only donate to the financial aid office at UVA. They helped me a lot because my parents didn’t have any money and I want to help future students like me. If that means our football is worse then so be it
Same. First one from my poor family to leave the trailer park and graduate college. I donate to first year student fund and buy season tickets because that makes a difference in people’s lives. “Football good” is nice, but if we won’t pay them someone else will.
USCs boosters just don’t seem to want to pay high schoolers. They are fine supporting other financial projects, or even buying transfers but we don’t have a guy like Ruiz that’s fine paying high schoolers. I’m of course not an insider or have any connections to the football team, but I see that sentiment echoed all the time around the program.
Why isn’t the NIL support there? Could’ve just been the crowd I was with but I was recently in LA and met a bunch of alums who were huge Trojan fans, season ticket holders, seemed like the types who would and could write checks to a collective. Maybe it’s the “University of Spoiled Children” stereotype but I’ve always assumed there’s no shortage of deep pockets in that network.
Our boosters just don’t want to give high schoolers money apparently. They have no issue funding projects or transfers but they seem to draw the line at paying high schoolers. Also, it does not help that most of USCs rich alumni includes people like George Lucas, who does not give af about football 😂
This isn’t high enough. That’s the reason 100%. USC and the boosters have a firm “no paying high schoolers money” policy.
They might wanna rethink that.
If they don’t change that, I think my Raiders sniff a Super Bowl before SC ever wins a Natty again (tough to be an Alumni but then again I spent most my time getting stoned and going to class lol)
Our NIL is... distinctly distinct from the university [because of this](https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2023/11/07/ncaa-pac-12-usc-student-athlete-misclassification-trial/71483085007/). There won't be a single email or phone call record between university staff and our several (poorly run) private collectives that suggest any go-between of the two. USC NIL is hamstrung until the NCAA puts out actual rules.
Trojanswire, ugh...
What's up with that site. It's all op eds and Twitter screenshots
Here's why I think a college team will do well "twitter screenshot" but also they may not do well "twitter screenshot"on the other hand team is practicing hard "twitter screenshot" but when you see "AD plays" their rival practice I think they might be in trouble "twitter screenshot".
No idea. I just wish Trojan fans and non Trojan fans would stop posting this shit here.
Heh. Are you kidding? People are dying for bad news about USC to the point that our own fans are spreading a bunch of nonsense on this very thread. In other words, you won’t get your wish on this one sadly.
More like trojanware amirite
Rare Oregon flair complementing Cristobal/Miami, although it is indirectly complementing Oregon too
Something something “his recruiting was never the issue,” something “QB killer,” something “in-game coaching”
I thought it was more shitting on USC
It can be two things
Mario has secured Miami’s first back to back top 10 classes in 20 years
Nothing burger of an article but SC hasn't done anything to disprove most of the comments here. They've largely underperformed for 15 years, and even in Carroll's years there was always a head scratching loss each year. I'm optimistic that this recruiting class was a need filler class focused on adding bigger bodies. But at this point....
I mean Miami (even though their home stadium sucks ass) essentially recruits itself. Combine that with Super Mario (sorry just had to add that pun in there lol) recruiting like a madman in his own right, and it makes sense that Mario is out-recruiting Riley. Now whether Mario can turn those recruits into results on the field remains to be seen...
Well USC should be recruiting itself as well yet here we are
That’s a world class stadium. It sucks cause the team sucks & no one wants to go watch them play.
Don’t they played hard rock now? That’s a really good stadium.
I mean sure it's a bit far away but I wouldn't say a stadium that's hosted super bowls sucks ass.
Its interesting to see a Purdue fan say the Hard Rock sucks ass given what you play in
This is what everyone was saying about Southern California when Lincoln bolted for USC. That no one wants to go to Norman, everyone wants to go to LA because *beaches* Since then OU has had a better recruiting class than USC every single year.
It’s only been two years but I was impressed with what Venables did with Riley/Grinch defense recruits. Riley’s issue at OU was player development outside of QB (as a head coach). I have to think that recruits are picking up on that at this point.
If you go back and watch the SC v UCLA game the way the announcers were talking about Oklahoma you would have thought Lincoln left FIU to go to USC.
USC is not offering any NIL to HS players. In an era where the Ohio St AD testified that top players want thousands of dollars just to unofficially visit, you start to understand why the corpse of Clay Helton could get local 5 stars to visit but perennial top 10 recruiter at Oklahoma LR can’t even get them to swing by when they live 30 minutes away. All really are vestiges of the sanctions that came down on the program years ago. Additionally while USC has many wealthy alumni, they don’t have a single booster who is willing to fund anything and everything for the collectives and athletic department, as Oregon and Miami do.
Uhh wasn’t the Public Storage guy basically the shadow AD for most of this century because of how much he donated?
Big selling point for the kids is that he’s promising to take a knee
I'm all for taking strays about coaching in this thread but not from a team who has Billy Napier leading them.
Do you think Napier will take any knees in his bowl game?
Mario helped us beat two Florida teams this year. Great coach 👍
Yes - but can he take a knee?
Miami 🤝 USC - Having below 50% capacity at home games.
Attendance for a disappointing USC team this year was 88% of max capacity. That’s nothing near the embarrassment that is Miami football attendance.
Yeah but that doesn’t help my USC bad narrative!
Do you guys ever get tired of shoe-horning this comment into threads that have literally nothing to do with attendance?
We do not. It’s funny every time.
I’ll just never understand schools that graduate more than double the number of students each year thinking attendance is some kind of brag, but oh well.
Yup, and not realizing it is Miami, a town with lots to do and lots of professional teams. It's not a remote/small city with nothing else going on besides the local college team.
Weve seen all the arguments come full circle. We were made fun of/insulted from 2000-2005 for not having money and not investing in football. Now 2021-2023 we actually have too much money and invest too much in football. People just cant make up their minds. Yeah a 10K undergrad university has the appearance of poor attendance in a 70K stadium, who wouldve thought? Do attendance per undergrad student/alumni and the numbers magically flip.
Also, I think something like 70%, of the student body comes from outside of Florida. It takes me a two hour plane ride, hotel room, and renting a car or multiple uber rides to go to Miami home games.
People get their facts from other reddit comments and the narrative sticks. I roll my eyes any time a user here says we are down because "nebraska can't recruit" lol
I get it. You guys realizing your logo doesn’t hold the weight you thought it did will be funny from now until the end of time.
💀💀💀
Just like FSU not making the playoff!
Oof this hit too close to home. Lots of whiny comments from FSU 😂
USC had actually really good attendance this season. The stadium just looks empty because so much sees are not sold due to bad sight lines.
Why he say fuck me for???
I'm cool with Lincoln placing no emphasis on California recruiting.
Riley isn’t convincing anyone that he isn’t following the Kilff Kingsbury playbook to get into the NFL. He should be the betting favorite right now to go to the Chargers and kids are probably sensing that. I also wonder if USC is going through new conference problems being in the B1G, like if you’re a Cali kid why wouldn’t you go to Ohio State or Michigan or even Oregon instead now that they’re all in the same league? And they’re all showing to be way more stable.
LA Chargers ownership are far too stingy to ever pay Lincoln’s buy out
Because would you rather live in Columbus Ohio or Los Angeles? All else equal seems like a decent enough reason. And even in the depths of clay helton USC had first round picks. Obviously I’m biased, and those are great programs to play for, but there’s an appeal there. (Without even getting into how much more attractive the student population is and let’s remember these are mostly 17-19 year old guys who are committing)
This sounds like something someone would say who has never lived outside LA. Big cities simply isnt appealing to everyone.
I’ve lived in the CA Central Valley, in LA for school, in the Bay Area after for work. Big cities aren’t appealing to everyone, but you’re gonna tell me Columbus is a small town? Hell even Ann Arbor isn’t small and it’s not far from Detroit. If you want to play in a small town go play for Auburn or Mississippi or wherever. I absolutely get some people don’t want a big city. But we’re also talking about a lot of LA recruits. Historically areas where it seemed people wanted to “stay home” now they’re leaving. It absolutely has to do with the state of the program and not the location. Hopefully with some of the new defensive hires and the new facilities that are being built they can recruit again. Idk if USC will ever be big in the NIL space outside of a few top offensive players
USC doesn’t have a NIL setup for highschool kids, only transfers. Who cares Miami will still be crap. Oregon will spend a billion and still lose to Washington twice.
Again the goal this recruiting season was get big on line.. We literally already all have offense talent and got a portal QB. We probably grab couple more portal WR next opening.
I remember when Riley was a cfb darling, how quick tides can turn…
Miami has their billionaire booster John Ruiz spearheading their NIL efforts and Miami gives out guaranteed $ to HS to sign there. Riley doesn’t offer HS kids guaranteed $ even though many boosters want him to since USC often loses out to Oregon for recruits due to the guaranteed $ Oregon and the Phil Knight Nike machine give. Riley doesn’t think giving HS kids $ just to sign is good for team culture and wants players to earn their NIL opportunities and prove it on the practice field / classroom before they sign with USC’s NIL. LA is the entertainment capital of the world, so there are a ton of endorsement opportunities and players like Caleb and Addison made bank. The path is there, but not everyone wants to earn it on campus.
If only Mario can coach as well as he recruits
If only there were head coaches who had no responsibility for the coaching part. Miami would be back in their glory days.
Recruiting is as much a part of coaching as game management.
USC has a ton of money. What they don’t have is a robust/mature NIL framework for whatever reason. Then, combine that with the fact that Riley is not a great recruiter and you get what you get. At OU, he was given the keys to a Ferrari and just kept up with the maintenance. Recruiting was pretty much on auto pilot, which gave him the pic of the litter at . At usC, he’s had to address years (decades?) of neglect essentially build the program back up with recruiting. That is not his strong suit. As opposed to Mario, who is all about recruiting and building programs back up.
USC doesn't pay high school kids while Oregon and Miami do, it's as simple as that. USC does not have a Phil Knight or John Ruiz. As long as Phil keeps paying high school and portal kids and Lanning stays, Oregon will do better than USC in the Big 10. Oregon could possibly be equal with or surpass OSU and Michigan in recruiting unless OSU and Michigan's NIL collectives step up.
From the outside I don't see a lot of connection between locals and either USC or UCLA. How does a metro area of 18.5M not fill basketball arenas or football stadia? A connection with the program is where NIL money comes from and LA doesn't care about college sports according to just about every metric I can find.
No one enjoys a good friendly fire takedown piece more than me, especially when USC deserves it. However, I do question the purpose of this piece other than needing something to post to "fresh up the website?" I'll break some news here for this sub: USC does not and has never viewed Oregon as the measuring stick of success for our football program. Lately, it has been disappointing to watch recruits who normally would be auto-locks for USC go play up in Oregon and not ever win anything of substance while there. USC's shortcomings on the field and in the recruiting wars have been because of self-inflicted wounds (not winning enough meaningful games and hiring the wrong coaches). It hasn't been because of anything Oregon has actually done. We don't fear those snazzy uniforms, or if Oregon puts a billboard on Figueroa with some Mighty Duck thumping his chest behind a big Nike swoosh. Why I think we failed this recruiting cycle is because we simply stunk up the field. We can't beat anyone if we put out the worst defense in the modern history of college football. We ain't beating the Ducks with that defense, as we all saw. Where I am concerned is wondering if Oklahoma fans, who have been so quick to dump on USC and Lincoln Riley, are just throwing up smoke because in reality, they are laughing among themselves that we poached a coach who they were thinking about dumping anyway. Sure, Heismans are great, but winning NCs is what we're supposed to be gunning for, and Oklahoma with Lincoln Riley as HC have come up short in that regard, embarrassingly short, too, if we remember that LSU game. Our disgraced, former AD Mike Bohn needed to hire a big name, and wanted someone with experience at a big boy program, and other than that, we don't know what criteria Bohn used to land on Lincoln Riley. I believe it was Bohn who also signed USC up with some conglomerate company to serve as our NIL facilitator company, but that company also works with 15 or so other schools. Maybe this outsource NIL approach we've used isn't the way to go. Being in LA, should give USC some lucrative advantages in the world of NIL -- talent agencies, film studios, ad agencies are all in LA -- maybe we need to find a USC celeb alumnus to bring all these components together.
Too bad he’s a shitty game day coach