Ryan Kartje (LA Times)  —  It had been a turbulent morning, at the end of a turbulent recruiting cycle for USC and Lincoln Riley. Ten prospects had already decommitted during the past six months, among them a handful of top-100 talents.

Several of the state’s top players, too, had spurned the Trojans in favor of more far-flung football powers, like Alabama or Texas A&M or Penn State, all of which inked more top California recruits for their 2025 classes, bringing Riley’s recruiting emphasis and strategy into question.

Signing day had been trending in a disappointing direction for USC, well before Wednesday had even arrived. Then, just as the class was coming together, one of USC’s prized defensive assistants, Matt Entz, took the head coaching job at Fresno State, leaving the Trojans in an even tougher spot, scrambling to secure two top linebackers who seemed solid just the night before.

It was hardly the preamble Riley had hoped for ahead of the early signing window, at the start of his fourth season as the Trojans coach. Riley, at one point, even found himself reiterating his allegiance to USC, after a report linked him to a lesser head job at Central Florida.

But when all was said and done Wednesday, the day would still conclude in just the way USC’s coach had hoped, with the biggest signing of his Trojan tenure to date.

The flourish at the finish of USC’s 2025 class came courtesy of five-star Louisiana defensive lineman Jahkeem Stewart, a game-wrecker on the interior who fittingly calls himself “Thanos,” referring to the intimidating supervillain at the center of the early Marvel films.

“It was important,” Riley said of reeling in Stewart. “He’s one of the more talented defensive linemen that I’ve had a chance to be involved with recruiting. And it’s just, this is one of those things where everything about this just fits. We’re really glad he’s a Trojan.”

Whether he’ll be able to make an impact right away on a USC defense that could definitely use him is another question. The 17-year old Louisiana defensive tackle hasn’t played a football game in over a year — and has only played 12 games at the varsity level — due to rules regarding his transfer. But after watching him wreck opposing offensive lines up close, Riley didn’t seem bothered by that.

“There’s a lot of people that I don’t think would be ready, physically or mentally, to do that. But he is one of ‘em,” Riley said. “We had zero hesitation to target him and had zero hesitation or questions about what he brings to the table here.”

Not only would Stewart’s signing bump the Trojans up to the 13th-ranked recruiting class in the country per 247 Sports, but it also made it more palatable to look past the prospects USC couldn’t close on Wednesday.

Several rumored flips fell just short for USC in the final hours, while two linebackers expected to sign with the Trojans instead went elsewhere, presumably in the wake of Entz’s exit. San Juan Capistrano four-star linebacker Madden Faraimo, the highest-rated prospect left in the state, opted to sign with Notre Dame, handing USC its biggest blue chip recruiting defeat of the day  —  and enraging Trojan fans as well.

USC also wasn’t able to sign four-star linebacker Jadon Perlotte, who was expected to flip to Tennessee, or heavily valued Georgia defensive lineman Christian Ingram, who signed with South Carolina.

USC did manage to secure a flip from Michigan four-star cornerback Alex Graham, but otherwise made few waves outside of securing Stewart.

Most of the turbulence that defined USC’s recruiting cycle had already settled a few weeks earlier, when five-star Corona Centennial quarterback Husan Longstreet announced last month that he would sign with the Trojans. His commitment came right on the heels of another five-star quarterback, Georgia’s Julian Lewis, pulling his own pledge to USC in favor of Colorado.

That dance between two elite quarterback prospects had been a delicate one, as quarterbacks coach Luke Huard was tasked with maintaining a relationship with Longstreet and his family through the process, even as Lewis kept his commitment for over a year.

That preparation would prove prescient. When it finally became clear Lewis wouldn’t sign with USC, Huard moved quickly to secure Longstreet, who had been committed to Texas A&M and whose arrival was, like Stewart, an important salve for a class that otherwise had just two signees ranked in the top 150 nationally.

“This was really about Husan, and the more we got to know him, got to evaluate him, the more we got to see his mental makeup, how team-oriented he was, how serious he was about the game, we just felt like in the end, there wasn’t a better fit for us,” Riley said. “That’s eventually why we made the decisions we made. I feel like we landed on the perfect guy for us.”

It also took steps to rebuild its secondary, replenishing a room that’s set to lose seven contributors after the bowl game. The Trojans signed five defensive backs, including Upland four-star cornerback Trestin Castro, who was one of just three signees at USC ranked in the top 20 of the state. Riley said it was a “high priority” to add bodies who could compete early as the program anticipates losing at least seven senior defensive backs.

There was still work to do, including adding a third quarterback, for “depth”, via the transfer portal, Riley said.

“We had really – two, kinda, battles here at the end, or two ones that we knew were gonna go down to the wire,” Riley said at a press conference on Wednesday, sounding almost weary after the morning’s developments. “And one certainly went in our favor, and one didn’t, and that’s a little bit of the nature of this right now.”

But after a roller-coaster of a recruiting cycle, the coach said he was leaving Wednesday with “a great feeling”. The question now, with the transfer portal set to open Monday, is how long that feeling might last.

Other coaches in addition to Entz could also leave in the coming weeks, even as Riley assured no staff changes were imminent.

latimes.com