Laying the Foundation: USC Football Recruiting in 2009 (Kyle Prater)

On Sept. 2, the future for USC's wide receivers became more clear when Kyle Prater, the 6'5", 210 lb. wide receiver from Proviso West high school in Hillside, Ill. gave his verbal commitment to the Trojans to come out west.

In doing so, Prater joins Robert Woods, the 6'1" speedster from Serra high school in San Diego, who gave his pledge to the Trojans last month.

This gives USC and Matt Barkley two of ESPN's top 50 players in the country and certainly the best prep duo of wide receivers in nation.

From both Prater's and Woods' standpoint, the chance to play with Barkley, USC's uber talented 2009 recruit and new starting quarterback, was too good to pass up.

Couple that with the prestige of playing for Pete Carroll and the mega talented Trojans along with a USC education and it is easy to see the attraction for these two outstanding prep receivers to sign with Trojans.

For the Trojans, this more than satisfies their needs for receivers for the foreseeable future.

In Prater, Pete Carroll gets his big, physical receiver, cut in the mold of Dwayne Jarrett and Mike Williams, to complement Woods, who is a speed burner with great hands.

The two wide receivers complement an outstanding class of tight ends in Xavier Grimble (the No. 1 prep tight end) and Randall Telfer (the No. 4 prep tight end), who had given their prior verbal commitments to the Trojans.

In the final analysis, the verbal commitment of Prater now allows the Trojans to focus on other areas of recruiting.

Assuming that these players honor their commitments (not always a given), the Trojans now have signed seven of the top 150 prep players (according to ESPN) and another top five class certainly seems in the making given the large numbers (including the top five prep players) still considering the Trojans.

Indeed, the future seems quite bright for the Trojans in the next few years.