UPDATING USC SPRING BALL
By Rock Mayock 9:00 a.m. | It has been a busy Spring for Lane Kiffin and his coaching staff. Ironically their hectic schedules had little to do with on the practice field action. Kiffin has been quietly piecing together a truly phenomenal 2013 recruiting class.
As we learned during our review of USC’s Spring practice, the team will be fielding a roster loaded with talented underclassmen for their 2012 campaign. There will be deficiencies on the offensive side of the ball especially at an injury/transfer depleted running back corps as well as with a young O-Line. Kiffin must also start planning ahead for QB Matt Barkley’s departure to the NFL due to expiring eligibility as well as the almost certain departure of WR Robert Woods who will also be eligible for the draft upon completion of his Junior year. Therefore there are both immediate and pending imperatives to fill these needs. The good news is that Kiffin and the boys have filled these needs plus some by receiving strong verbal commits from marquee high school prospects.
During our review of UCLA’s search for a new head coach we explained why half the success of a college program is predicated upon the ability to hire capable assistants. One of the must crucial, yet overlooked, positions for any coaching staff are the recruiting coordinators. The recruiting coordinators are the pipeline that pumps in the talent and USC enjoys the benefit of having the two best recruiters, Lane Kiffin and Ed Orgeron, on their staff.
So what does this mean for USC? It means that NCAA scholarship reductions are essentially meaningless because USC is back. Kiffin has demonstrated that judiciously managing available scholarships and parting with high touted recruits is a necessity in the modern collegiate game. USC will dominate the Pac-12 South for the foreseeable future, they will contend for a BCS Championship in 2012 and wiill continue to be nationally viable through 2013. Bottom line, it’s good to be a Trojan.
Photo by Jon Soo Hoo
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May 23rd, 2012 - 09:59
I stand by my position that I love what Kiffin is doing at USC. He has been recruiting good players who are also solid citizens. No Dillon Baxters, no Rey Malaugas or other malcontents. Hopefully Kesler or Wittik will be able to keep things moving next year when Barkley is playing for Pete in Seattle.
May 23rd, 2012 - 10:26
@TroJohn I agree Kiffin got us back on track. Good recruiting, good assistants (not sure about Tee Martin) and a strong AD are finally getting results. Anything less than a Pac-12 Championship this year will be a disappointment.
Not so sure about this Max Brown kid. His neck is so long. It looks like his bowling ball head is sitting on top of a pipe cleaner.
May 23rd, 2012 - 18:10
Kiffin is every bit as crooked as Carroll was. They both use money from wealthy alumni to entice poor kids to come get an “education” and maybe play some football while they’re at it. It is such an unfair disadvantage for State run schools to compete with programs like USC and Stanford. While we are fighting draconian budget cuts they are reaping 8 to 9 digit donations to their endowment funds. The sad thing is that their students will never benefit from that money. It’s all for the prestige of the school and the special projects the alumni want their money attached to.
May 25th, 2012 - 12:02
seriously I’m more of a bruin fan than a trojan fan but man you need to grow a pair and not come off as a whining bitch.
athletic budget funding is done primarily through tv contracts and outside donors…ucla needs to step up in the fundraising department bigtime if they want to compete as they have just as many wealthy alumni as sc and stanford.
no excuses if you want to run with the big boys
May 25th, 2012 - 13:17
Agreed. UCLA will always be a basketball school first, football school a distant second. They found the donor money to renovate Paully Pavilion but they will never find the money to improve football facilities. Same logic applies to the Cal Memorial Stadium debacle. When are the football graduate students writing that up? Would like to see the break down of how the fundraising broke down.
May 29th, 2012 - 14:19
That is WEAK argument. UCLA should be bringing in some of the best recruits in conference. The campus is in the middle of Westwood and there are fine women crawling all over the place. USC is in the crappiest part of town. Even us Fontana folk won’t go to the Coliseum to watch night home games. Suck it up and hire a good coach that can recruit. Maybe things will be more fair. Loser.
May 24th, 2012 - 08:06
@BruinBob, Sounds like you’re another bitter broke ass public school drop out. Instead of complaining about how unfair things are you should have tried harder to get into a better school.
May 24th, 2012 - 11:12
Petty bickering between two sorry ass schools. Trojan fan: Try winning a championship without cheating. Bruin fan: Try not to keep embarassing yourself.