Three-point stance: USC edition

TrojanSports.com interviewed Rivals.com national recruiting director Mike Farrell about USC’s highly-ranked recruiting class for Cardinal and Gold edition of Farrell’s popular three-point stance.

This installment focuses on a surprise finish on signing day, the power of USC and a bright future for the Trojans.

It was safe to assume that if USC filled all its spots, the Trojans would have another quality recruiting class heading into next season. They headed into Signing Day having already signed some of the top talent in the country. But with just 13 commits overall, USC sat outside the top 30 of Rivals.com’s team rankings on Wednesday morning, leaving many with questions about how good of a class this would be.

After a six-loss season and a controversial coaching change, the national perception might have been that USC couldn’t close that well. Well, it happened. USC finished with the top-ranked class in the Pac-12 and one of the best classes in the country, to the surprise of many, including Farrell.

“I didn’t expect them to crack the top 10 heading into signing day,” Farrell told TrojanSports.com. “So it’s obviously a very good class. There are certain strengths to it, the wide receiver class is off the hook. But I like what they’ve done at defensive back as well and along the defensive line. They hit some key needs. I think the biggest question will be the quarterback situation, can (Matt) Fink be the guy, can he develop or will they need to double down next year. He obviously looked pretty shaky at Under Armour and had a long way to go.”

For six years now, USC has been reloading its roster while unable to recapture the success it had under Pete Carroll. And yet, most teams that experience a prolonged down stretch (relatively speaking) simply don’t recruit as well as the Trojans do.

Farrell believes that speaks to the power of USC, a brand that, without a doubt, makes an impact nationally.

“I think even in a year that’s considered down, for them, when it comes to California kids, that they’re still such a national brand that they finished with a top-10 class,” Farrell said. “Obviously they have the headliners in (Tyler) Vaughns and (Jack) Jones, and (Michael) Pittman and (Wole) Betiku. But you know there are a few guys that you would normally think would head to USC that didn’t, so they went elsewhere. They went to Florida, they went to Georgia. I think that’s what Pete Carroll had success with the most, was spot recruiting the East Coast and nationally when he built those national championship teams.”

USC always gets top classes, even in seasons when NCAA sanctions loomed over the program. But things are different now. This class and the 2015 class were actually the first two classes that USC brought without having scholarships restricted since 2011.

So how will having full classes over the past two seasons impact USC’s play on the field?

Farrell says he expects the Trojans to be in contention on the national scene soon.

“These are going to be important classes,” Farrell said. “They’re catching up on their roster, so a lot of these guys can’t be misses, but I think I there’s enough talent here and we’ve already seen a little bit of it obviously with guys like Ronald Jones II and Iman Marshall and players like that that made an impact already. I think there’s enough talent in last year’s class and this year’s class to expect USC next year to be a favorite in the Pac-12. UCLA has (Josh) Rosen but they never seem to put things together, Oregon is down, Stanford is probably the team that most people look to as far as the best team next year with (Christian) McCaffrey and all the guys they got coming back. But I think there’s enough talent here where USC’s expectations will be to get back to winning the Pac-12 and starting to compete for a national title. You look at Stanford definitely as the first pick to win (the Pac-12) and then I would say you have to go with USC, even with the question mark at quarterback because they have so much talent.”