USC Trojan fans … time to take a deep breath and recognize the fact that USC’s coaches pulled off a remarkable top four recruiting class for 2011, and more importantly filled the positions of need.
This accomplishment in spite of NCAA sanctions was recognized on Feb. 3 by Scout.com/FoxSports.com who recognized USC coach Ed Orgeron as National Recruiter of the Year. Head coach Lane Kiffin, Kennedy Pola, Joe Barry, John Baxter, Monte Kiffin and the other USC coaches worked tirelessly to make sure the USC recruits had all the information needed to make a good decision.
Sure there were some disappointments, but the gains far outweighed the losses and this class was exactly what the Trojans needed.
USC received signed NLI from the following uncommitted athletes on NSD: 3-star CB Ryan Henderson, 4-star LB Lamar Dawson, 4-star OL Aundrey Walker, 4-star DT Christian Heyward, 3-star Athlete Javorius “Buck” Allen, 4-star Athlete Marqise Lee, 4-star WR/TE Junior Pomee. These followed a Jan. 30 commitment from 4-star OL Cyrus Hobbi, and recent commitments from 4-star RB Amir Carlisle and 4-star LB Anthony Sarao after de-committing from Stanford.
Kiffin said, "We've been able to add 30 players to our roster. A roster that, prior to this class, had 50 scholarship players, has now gone to 80, with the possibility of more soon to come [there are three more slots, hopefully including DE Steve Dillon] . . . and to go out and add a bunch of local players and especially from Southern California, then to go to places like Florida, Kentucky, New Jersey, Cleveland and Arizona to add some out-of-state players as well."
"We followed the guidelines of what we could do. We could sign a maximum of 25 today, not counting the mid-years that went into last year's class.”
USC has now increased from 71 scholarship athletes in 2010 to 80 in 2011. This will help tremendously with depth issues, and maybe the Trojans will even be able to tackle in practice this season.
There is a lot of work to do over the next seven months to determine the depth chart for 2011. Here is the projected depth chart subject to spring and fall practice. Let’s hear what you think should be different.
P.S. A special thanks to B/R member Daniel Ayersman for suggesting this article. Rivals.com ranks the Pac-12 recruiting by position and USC is at the top of the categories where needed.
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