USC loses on in-state recruits   

This was supposed to be a big year for the USC Trojans football team. Playing in their first season in the Big Ten Conference, the Trojans were expected to make a big splash. 

Instead of a splash, the Trojans fell way short of expectations, falling to 10th in the conference after posting a 4-5 mark and an overall record of 6-6. 

The Trojans were an average team and played like it. That mediocrity might have carried over into the early signing date class for the Trojans. USC managed to gobble up 21 players from the early signing period. 

However, of those 21 players Lincoln Riley and his coaches were able to sign, only five hail from California. That might suggest that Riley and the Trojans can’t even get the best of the best in their backyard. 

And of those in-state players, not one of them comes from St. John Bosco and Mater Dei, two of the top teams in the country. Mater Dei is the nation’s top-ranked team, according to MaxPreps. 

The Trojans did not sign a single California player who played for a Top 20 program on the list put out by MaxPreps. That includes players from St. John Bosco (No. 7), Orange Lutheran (No. 13), Corona Centennial (No. 15), and Mission Viejo (No. 17).  

The slippage of getting top in-state players may suggest a bigger problem for Riley and his football program. On the flip side, Riley and the Trojans managed to land two five-star recruits and 12 four-star athletes in the program.

Five of the incoming freshmen rank in the Rivals250 (Alex Payne, Corey Simms, Husan Longstreet, Jahkeem Stewart, and Matai Tagoa’i. 

The five California players USC signed during the early period include defensive back Trestin Castro (Upland High School), quarterback Husan Longstreet (Corona Centennial High School),  tight end Nela Tupou (Folsom High School), offensive lineman Elijah Vaikona (Santa Margarita Catholic High School), and Matai Tagoa’i.    

Lead photo caption: USC running back Quinten Joyner (0) was the lead rusher for the Trojans against No. 5 Notre Dame. Joyner carried the ball 10 times for 83 yards in the Trojans’ 49-35 defeat to the Fighting Irish at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California on Nov. 30, 2024. Photo credit: Sammy Saludo/News4usonline