UM V USC - A Recruiting Comparison

It really baffles me how USC can be in similar state of despair as us and still pull in 2 5* Offensive weapons all while their new OC - all of 3+ weeks old is openly comptemlating leaving for the NFL. Juxtapose that with our situation on defense, where our defensive staff is retained, the architect of said defense is now the head coach, the scheme will not change, and we still lose out on all our top targets defensively. I cannot explain it. I’ve said it in the past, they are a program very similar to us: rich in tradition, national draw, private school in large urban setting, etc, but somehow they still do well recruiting. We, on the other hand seem to be a 2nd tier school in our own backyard - merely feeding on SEC rejects and/or scraps.
Location matters here. You said yourself we are batting SEC and Clemson for pretty much all of our top targets. If a kid wanted to stay around the Pacific coast, the options are pretty limited: UCLA, Oregon, Washington, ASU.
 
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The only time I see a kid choosing another school over USC it comes down to 5 things

1. Playing time such as the case with Cam McDonald who picked FSU over USC

2. The kid gets into Stanford

3. Bags from an SEC school

4. Academics

5. Flat out wants to leave the West Coast as in the case of Brevin Jordan

Other than that, an elite prospect that USC wants from the Fresno South and including Vegas usually almost always picks USC.
 
The only time I see a kid choosing another school over USC it comes down to 5 things

1. Playing time such as the case with Cam McDonald who picked FSU over USC

2. The kid gets into Stanford

3. Bags from an SEC school

4. Academics

5. Flat out wants to leave the West Coast as in the case of Brevin Jordan

Other than that, an elite prospect that USC wants from the Fresno South and including Vegas usually almost always picks USC.
I can accept that their landscape is a bit different from us - but now with Kingsbury leaving, watch them lose no one to a decommittment. Speaks more so to the lack of savagery from PAC-12 schools than their prowess
 
For everyone saying Clemson takes our kids. Check the roster! Mullens and now ladson. 2 kids over a 5 year window is not an issue IMO. Bama is pulling 2-3 a year. UF and FSU more.

Let’s focus on the kids that aren’t looking for bags and develop them.
 
It's really not that complicated. They don't have the SEC to deal with in their backyard poaching kids. They pretty much have one rival locally in UCLA that is usually a notch below them.
 
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Cmon now. USC is fine because of one thing: Their recruiting competition. We have Florida and Florida state. And then bama Georgia Clemson and sometimes auburn cherry picking the elite talent. The schools we have to deal with are much better and have bigger bags than anything usc is dealing with
 
It's really not that complicated. They don't have the SEC to deal with in their backyard poaching kids. They pretty much have one rival locally in UCLA that is usually a notch below them.

This. USC are the kings of socal. They don't have to compete with SEC bags like we do. FWIW, spoke to a coach on staff some years back who recruited for another school out west and he said the agent/bag game out in socal was child's play compared to what the SEC does.
 
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