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Killing it today, Allen. Crazy good info on NIL and how we approach it. Lots of good insight. I am not sure what to think. I just know right now there are no rules. Agents talking to collectives is crazy. Do you think LR has house of victory contacting recruits or their agents apart from him? Seems like that’s a hard No to me. Interesting though. Great job.
Thank you Chris.
I was happy (and somewhat relieved as well) to find The Athletic piece on HS stars dishing on NIL deals … as well as more detailed info on USC’s current approach to not simply hand cash to preps and instead focusing on much better NIL deals for those who are motivated and want to earn through accomplishment as Trojans.
We really missed on a guy named Gatlin Bair. I guess SC doesn’t like white receivers. They think all of them have white mans disease(can’t jump) and are too slow. This guy runs the 100 meter down around 10.3 and he’s got a good vertical leap and he’s about 6’2″ and near 200 pounds. He went to high school in Idaho. He’s still uncommitted but do we want another receiver?
4-star Gatlin Bair (#11 WR in the country) was just named one of the top performers in All-American Bowl Day 3 of practice WR GATLIN BAIR (6-2, 195, will take a two-year LDS mission, uncommitted after decommitting from BOISE ST; MICH leads, also visited ORE and TCU) The Idaho native earned Alpha Dog honors Wednesday alongside Jordan Shipp and followed up on day three of practice with another excellent showing. Bair has burned defensive backs on deep throws all week, but the best play of the day from the high four-star was a first-level throw where he made an immediate jump cut to… Read more »
The more I read about NIL money being handed out like candy, the more I wonder about the current structure of scholarships. We may soon see contract players on scholarship. Scholarship players already must maintain academic standards to keep their scholarships. But the school has no leverage when it comes to transfers. Players may be asked for 2 or 3 season commitments on a contract . It doesn’t mean they can’t transfer, they just have to pay back the scholarship money they took to be on the team. Mutual partings might occur, but players shopping around might also be curtailed… Read more »
Early NIL reminds me of when the Internet first started. The phrase that still loudly stands out in my mind is, “It’s the wild, wild west. Anything goes.”
I needed to quickly make the transition to that murky, exploratory world and away from primarily print/fax/radio/900 lines because it was so obviously perfectly suited to monetized massive 24/7 recruiting coverage which would take over. Whew! What a freaky carnival it was in those days, at least for me.
As far as I’m concerned, NIL is going to destroy college football. A lot of these players have no loyalty concerning the school they play for. They’re in it for one thing.$$$$$$$$$. They’re mercenaries. How do you build team unity with guys who don’t care about the team?
LR’s offense at Oklahoma was quite a bit like this years Oregon and Washington offense. Spread the field from sideline to sideline by just the way they line up. That gives the running backs plenty of room to run. Then throw a lot of quick short stuff. Sooner or later the safeties start to creep up and that’s when you take the top off of the defense with those speedy receivers.That’s not what they did this year. Instead of using that strategy to get the safeties closer to the LOS of scrimmage so that they could throw deep, Caleb just… Read more »
SC has a really great recruiting strategy. They bring in a really top notch player from the transfer portal. That leaves us with one less scholarship to offer…Right? Well….yes and no. We’re only down one scholarship until somebody playing that position decides “there’s too much competition here…I’ll never see the field at this school” and they tranfer out and now you have one more great player and the same amount of scholies. Then they bring in another outstanding player and the process continues.
Recruiting Confidential: High School Football Stars Dish On NIL Deals Grace Raynor & Manny Navarro (The Athletic) — ORLANDO, Fla. — For the second year in a row we caught up with some of the best high school football players in the country at the Under Armour All-America Game’s media day event to tackle a variety of recruiting topics. We granted them anonymity to gather their insights on NIL. Question — Did you sign with the school that offered you the best NIL deal? If not, how much did you leave on the table to sign with where you ultimately… Read more »
The key here is they are getting up front offers BEFORE they sign. That’s called pay for play. If USC is not playing that game they are not going to get much in the way of elite talent. So far no 5* guys.
USC’s motivation-hinged NIL strategy actually works much better with some preps, like Zach Branch, who has a much bigger NIL wallet now than he otherwise would have… One coach’s outlook on USC Marshall Levenson (WeAreSC) — I spoke with one high school coach, who will remain anonymous, about the strategy for USC in their use of NIL in recruiting. For context, this is a coach of a USC verbal commit and has knowledge of the conversations taken place on the matter. The coach expressed that he thinks USC will lose out on some names from time to time but that… Read more »
This NIL is so fascinating. USC’s strategy may work well in the long run. Sign 4* guys with no guarantees, hungry to prove themselves and proud to be Trojans. Clearly 5* guys all want and expect good money up front. Many 5*s will be prima donas and not put in the work. But the others will win you championships. The 5* guys USC gets will be special, huge talent and the discipline to make the most of it. I guess patience is the key for fans. USC still has to prove it is a championship program. Then the 5* flood… Read more »
“USC still has to prove it is a championship program.” That’s the key. Before the season, back when we were all looking forward to a big year and a playoff team under LR and CW, USC’s prospects for a better recruiting performance seemed assured. Then the wheels completely fell off. LR and the Trojans got browbeaten by its fans and the local and national media, and underperforming assistants finally got fired. But unfortunately, USC dropped off the radar of many elite recruits. With these new coaches at USC (I sure hope D’Anton Lynn doesn’t get lured back to the NFL)… Read more »
SC is trying to hang on to that Georgia high school QB scheduled for 2025 or 2026. MIllers awesome bowl game was great in that regard. The kid is probably thinking, “the rumors must be true about LR being a great QB guru coach….what other coach could turn a 2nd string QB into a 6 TD pass QB when the Heisman guy doesn’t show up”.
One of the guys said that he was getting tens of thousands a month from Florida State even though he hadn’t signed a LOI or even committed. They just sent him the money every month no strings attached.
Great article
Random but interesting 2023 Power 5 conference bowl records. Overall pretty close,
Pac12 5-3
Big 10, Big 12, SEC all at 5-4
ACC 5-6
However, Power 5 versus Power 5,
SEC 5-4
Big 12 4-3
Big 10 4-4
Pac12 3-3
ACC 2-5
No cupcakes for the SEC when bowling. The ACC with the worst record played the most Group of 5 opponents, 4. So, who belonged in the Rose Bowl, Alabama or Florida St? Still amazing the Pac12 as talented as any conference couldn’t get a decent TV deal. Go Huskies!
I wonder if any bowls will drop their affiliations and make some changes with the new realignments.
I believe the first round of the playoffs will be home games for 5-8 seeds. Then 4 bowl games for the quarterfinals, 2 more for the semi and then the final. That’s the top 7 bowls getting playoff games. That leaves 35 bowl games with a lot of teams to pick.
A Few USC Portal Targets: WR Evan Stewart (A&M), QB Chandler Morris (TCU), OT Lance Heard (LSU), DL Jamaree Caldwell (HOU)
https://youtu.be/8cpEWTd-ipI
Would really love to reel in Lance Heard.
Interestingly, Heard’s leaving LSU because he can’t start for the Tigers at OT, and he thinks he’s an OT, which USC desperately needs on the right side. But the fact that LSU doesn’t think he’s good enough to start for them at OT, is a cause for pause. Are LSU’s tackles really that great? Maybe so, apparently. We’ll find out quickly to start the season. Hopefully, it won’t be another tough lesson for LR. We all saw what happened last season when some of our OL Portal transfers weren’t as strong as we needed. Shoe-horning transfers into spots of need… Read more »
If we only get one, let it be Caldwell.
WR Dorian Singer enters the NCAA transfer portal Erik McKinney (WeAreSC) — USC wide receiver Dorian Singer entered the NCAA transfer portal on Wednesday as another in a long line of Trojan wideouts leaving the program. Singer looked like a big-time addition for USC this past offseason as he came over following a 1,000-yd season at Arizona. But despite finishing with the third-most snaps among USC wide receivers this season, he finished sixth on the team with just 24 receptions for 289 yards and three touchdowns. He never caught more than four passes in any game and he never had as many… Read more »
Two USC signees will be playing in the All-American Bowl being played this Saturday, Jan. 6, at 10:00 am PT (NBC and Peacock) at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
1) #5 EDGE Kameryn Fountain (6-6, 240)
Atlanta Washington
On3 Industry Ranking: No. 136
2) #4 CB Marcelles Williams (5-10, 176)
Bellflower (Calif.) St. John Bosco
On3 Industry Ranking: No. 103
Of the 18 Trojans who have entered the Portal, only three have hitched on with other teams:
USC adds needed WR depth in Div. 3 standout Jaden Richardson Ryan Young (Trojan Sports) — Richardson (6-3, 210), who has two years of eligibility remaining, had 46 catches for 830 yds and 13 TDs in 9 games this season for Tufts University in Medford, Mass. Originally from Atherton Menlo, Ca, Richardson had a program-record 20 career TDs in 18 games over two seasons and was named the NESCAC Co-Offensive Player of the Year this fall. Yahoo Sports Richardson is USC’s ninth transfer addition this cycle overall, along with long-snapper Hank Pepper (Michigan State), DE Nate Clifton (Vanderbilt). LB Easton… Read more »
From Single A Minor leagues to the Majors, hope he is ready for the Big Show. LR’s portal recruiting research must be pretty deep to scour Div III.
Oh and by the way, The Tufts Jumbos went 6-3 and failed to make the playoff field of 32. But Richardson was the star receiver this season.
Hard to say how good this guy is but there were some good schools going after him so that’s a good sign. He looks like he is 6’2″ +. I saw him standing next to some others. He’s got good size. I watched his films. This kid can block. He’s the kind of guy you want out there on those bubble screens. I guess that means that they are not going after the kid from Texas A&M
Jaden Richardson Highlights. Also offered by UW, UTAH, WIS and CAL (decommitted from the Bears), among others, including Clay Helton’s Eagles.
Highlights
His QB has an arm. Maybe he’d like to be a backup for Moss.
Remember when Caleb Williams said he just wanted to “go home and cuddle with my dog” after UW beat USC 52-42 in the Coliseum on Nov. 4?
Caleb, aka Superman, and his 10-month Olde English Bulldog “Supa”
Kalen DeBoer, Dabo Swinney, Bob Stoops… Stewart Mandel (The Athletic) — Washington’s remarkable rise from 4-8 in 2021 to 11-2 in Kalen DeBoer’s first season to now 14-0 and a win away from the national title is quite the story. Clemson was the last against-the-grain national champion, but Dabo Swinney spent eight years climbing that ladder. DeBoer reminds me more of this century’s first national championship coach, Bob Stoops, who took over a downtrodden Oklahoma program, went an unremarkable 7-5 his first season, and then became the 13-0 national champion in Year 2. Stoops did it in part by bringing in… Read more »
Misguided, Ill-Prepared George Kliavkoff speaks!
“Happy for the kids. They don’t deserve all the nonsense going on around them. We were focused on rebuilding football. Took 2.5 years. I wish it would have happened quicker. If some of our schools would have been a little more patient, it would have paid off.”
2.5 years is an eon in sports and entertainment. Sorry George, you were brought in to make it happen and you didn’t. The rest is, as they say, history. Plus, it probably doesn’t matter anyway because realignment isn’t over. The SEC will get bigger, the B1G will too, there will be just a few super conferences, who will then partition back to regional divisions of some sort, and we’ll effectively come full circle and end up where we are today, albeit under different names. Who knows, they might even name the divisions after the old conferences just for quaintness sake,… Read more »
Pac-12 continues to be a cash cow for bad commissioners
Jon Wilner (Seattle Times) — In the coming weeks, if not days, don’t be surprised if the always-risk-averse school presidents dismiss Kliavkoff, pay him the full buyout ($8.75 mil), promote deputy commissioner Teresa Gould — she is both highly competent and fully qualified — and move on.
The outbound universities have little need for him.
The remaining universities have no regard for him.
seattletimes.com
I want to see the job description for the new P? commissioner position. 😉
What’s she going to be the commissioner of…….the Pac-2. What if one of those teams also leave. Then she’s the commissioner of the Pac-1 for $8.75 million.
Should the Rose Bowl host the CFB NC every year? Kirk Herbstreit thinks so, and Joel Klatt agrees — It might be pretty cool since USC totally owns the Rose Bowl, winning a whopping 25 times in 34 appearances. OHIO ST and MICH both have nine wins, STAN and UW seven, UCLA and ALA five. Kirk Herbstreit @KirkHerbstreit “I’ve been saying this for years and I’ll say it one more time. As the world of CFB changes in so many ways, I really wish the leaders and decision-makers would just make the Rose Bowl game the host for the National… Read more »
Enough of that attention W and his F ing dog
Best players + Crap coach = loss after loss. Time to eye another bad coach’s ten and prove USC isn’t (just) a football school