USC Recruiting: Why Kent Turene's Verbal Is so Huge For The Trojans

For the past ten days, I have been on UCLA's campus, fulfilling a contractual obligation to be a faculty advisor for some very talented high school scholars preparing to enter medical school.

And like some kind of bizarro world revenge for having a committed Trojan spending time in enemy territory, I silently and painfully watched a slow exodus of players streaming from USC.

First there was Seantrel Henderson, a fabulous talent whose physical prowess may not overcome a woeful lack of integrity (and a very strange father to boot).

Then Malik Jackson was next. A nice player whose career at USC appeared destined to hold down the bench, as he was mired in a numbers game that included players far more talented than he.

Finally, there went DJ Shoemate, a special player who was being counted on to supply rest for fullback Stanley Havilli, and whose star was just beginning to shine for the Trojans.

Though Henderson stands a chance to be great simply on physical talent alone, and to be sure, USC desperately needs offensive linemen, it is hard to miss someone who had never stepped foot on the playing field for the Trojans.

As for Jackson, he simply wasn't good enough to make a difference for the Trojans.  Seeing the writing on the wall, he left for what I am sure he believes are greener pastures.

Good luck, Malik.

However, the defection of Shoemate will be more difficult to overcome.

Shoemate had shown flashes of brilliance and he will be missed. The Trojans now have to accelerate incoming freshman Soma Vainuku's timetable in the backup fullback role.

I have also read, with some amusement, the predictions of some of my fellow pundits demise of the Trojans.

Not so fast, haters.

Amid the doom and gloom, a shining light for Trojan fans has come from the opposite side of the country, in the form of four-star (as rated by Scout.com) linebacker Kent Turene from Boyd H. Anderson high school in Florida.

Supremely talented and filling a position of need for the Trojans, Turene's verbal to USC means much more than finding a special player at a position that desperately needs to be re-stocked.

No, the pledge of Turene, who had more than than two dozen offers from major programs from across the country, gives the Trojans a national high profile recruit and once again signals that USC doesn't plan to let their recent woes keep them down.

As for Turene, he had nothing but great things to say about the Trojans.

According to a recent article by Scout.com, Turene said, “I have been talking to the coaches for a very long time now. I have just been doing all of my research and found out that USC was the right school for me. I got a great feeling from the coaches.”

The feeling is mutual, Kent.

Turene, 6'3" and 225 pounds, had 120 tackles, 10 sacks, and a couple of fumbles recovered to his credit as junior last season in high school.

Oh, and Turene plans on graduating early and enrolling in January which means that his scholarship will not count against the reduced amount available to USC. This, of course, being due to the NCAA laying the hammer down on the program for perceived violations connected to the Reggie Bush scandal.

All in all, this is a very fortuitous verbal pledge for the Trojans who desperately needed some good news.

So, Trojan haters, lets put away the shovels you planned on using to heap dirt on USC's grave

USC is far from dead.

Kent Turene says so.