Jay Toia Twitter post re why he may leave USC, if he hasn’t already — “One of the toughest decisions in my young life” … “my childhood dream school.”
“The 2020 pandemic was tragic to so many that lost so much. For me and especially my parents we felt forced to make a major decision signing with USC based on limited information because of COVID-19 restrictions. We were not able to take any official or unofficial visits to any of the other schools on our short list, such as Michigan, Utah, UCLA, Miami among others.
“I as well as my family are truly thankful for the USC staff and students for all the support this past semester. Although I earned all A’s last semester at USC as an early enrollee and worked myself into the 1’s and 2’s deep rotation during spring ball 2021, we as a family felt it was important to really take a closer look at all my options regarding my short term and long term future.
“I have major respect for USC, but I owe it to myself and my family to reevaluate my current situation.
“A special thank you to coach Helton for all his support throughout this process.
“Thank You Kindly Trojan Family and Tu’a ‘Ofa Atu.”
Jay Toia and Parents Viliami and Fa’aki Toia
What others are saying about USC per The Athletic: “The talent is there,” one Pac-12 assistant said. “I think the O-line will be a question and Graham (Harrell) needs to evolve and quit being so stubborn. He has the same issue why Leach has never ever won or played in a conference championship game. You have to be able to run the ball and control the line of scrimmage to win the big games.” “Drake Jackson is their best player by far on defense,” another asst said. “After that, they’re very average. He’s special. He has really good initial quickness… Read more »
I (and many others) have been saying the same thing about GH but I don’t think he will change at all. He has the same problem hugs has, he believes he knows more than anybody else.
Maybe true. Last season, Harrell dropped off and his offense payed a huge price for not being able to run the ball. I have no real idea if USC will have a running game in 2021 or not.
I wonder if Harrell knows people think he is stubborn?
Allen, thanks for the above post. Still at 8-4? Several obvious points: (a) we are now hearing what opposing recruiters are saying about SC (and it is accurate) – wonder what Donte is doing to counter it? (b) the kids inside the program are hearing the same things – wonder how they are taking it? Toia leaving is very much a “canary in a coal mine.” He is a solid student and the best DL recruit in the last four years (and we have only ONE kid on the roster with even remotely his ability on the DL). Maybe he… Read more »
@TrojanRJJ I still have USC at 8-4 even after dine-and-dash Jay Toia kicked them straight in the teeth where USC is already thin. But I think 7-5 is really possible too. USC is definitely trending down at this point. But 8-4 still seems likely to me primarily because USC has a REALLY favorable schedule and I can’t come up with more than four reg season losses against this mediocre competition. For me, those losses are now ND and ASU (for sure). CAL and UCLA could also beat USC, though the Trojans get the Bruins in the Coliseum. UTAH has trouble… Read more »
I really cannot disagree hugely with your picks. I think ND, ASU and UCLA are all sure losses, although I admit UCLA has a history of choking (and if DTR goes down, all bets are off). I think a Helton lead team is fully capable of losing to any one on any day (last year’s AZ game sure proved that verity).. So, if you take my three sure losses and split the remaining games 6-3, you get my 6-6 Split the remaining games 8-1, you get your 8-4. Take your two loses and they have to 8-2 over the remainder… Read more »
For as much high anxiety angst as we see always attached to the USC program (and it never seems to go away), I think this upcoming season should be a fantastic one to watch. Just the fact that we’ll be seeing a full season (I think) is something great to look forward to. And there’s so much uncertainty. Last year was a totally remarkable one for the Trojans, even though they often seemed to luck out both on and off the field (ALA and ND games canceled). Winning ugly is indeed a Clay Helton art form. And Todd Orlando took… Read more »
Allen, Dine and Dash is a great nickname for Toia. But I would have to say he kicked USC quite a bit lower than their teeth.
I wish I could agree with you on the 8-4, but I still see 6-6 in USC’s future. Nobody can add a couple of losses that should have been wins the way hugs can.
Ya, I’m pretty shaky on 8-4. 6-6 could just as easily happen, so I’m with you there. I just can’t name the losses.
How about you? Which reg season opponents beat USC in 2021?
For me the losses this year are:
Colorado
Utah
Notre Dame
Arizona St
UCLA
BYU
i suspect we are going to see a lot of defensive lines overpowering out OL and taking out Slovis and possibly Dart as well. Because hugs fields relatively soft teams 5-7 is a real possibility. I just don’t see them better than 7-5 this year at best. I hope I am wrong because these players deserve better, but Clay has done so much damage to this team that will take years to correct.
Wow. USC has never lost to the CU Buffs!
So your take is Karl “Radio” Dorrell actually leads the Buffs to its first-ever win over the Trojans. That’s tough to swallow.
I also think BYU has lost too much talent to beat USC in Los Angeles.
Colorado could be a trade out loss, but I have a feeling about them.
BYU will be strong on defense and I think they will overwhelm what is left of our offense at that point of the season.
@UtahTrojan CU will likely be coming off a loss to ASU in Tempe the week prior to the USC game. USC will be coming off ORE ST in L.A.
That probably doesn’t matter much as a factor in the CU vs USC game in Boulder on Oct. 2, but if the Buffs finally beat USC under Helton after 13 straight losses, I think it’ll be pretty clear that Helton won’t see the 2022 season as the Trojan HC.
Don’t get my hopes up. Helton is an absolute horror show.
I had dinner the other night with a Bruin husband/wife who can’t understand why us USC fans want Clay Helton to be gone. I’m not joking.
I didn’t want to ruin the get-together with a long, detailed diatribe about Helton’s inadequacies, so I moved on from the subject quickly, knowing it would even be easier to argue U.S. politics than work my way through a tortuous Gentleman Clay expose!
.
I can understand opposing fans wanting Clay to stay because it ultimately helps their team. But if anybody honestly doesn’t understand why USC fans want Clay gone then they are really not paying attention.
UCLA football has literally had five sickening losing seasons in a row, and Clay Helton basically owns the Bruins. I think that has something to do with it.
Possibly the only positive stat that hugs can stand on.
Well, I wasn’t there so I don’t know if they were yanking your chain — for the same reason I wanted Karl Dorrell to sign a lifetime contract with Cal Jr. 😍
They didn’t want to hear me talking about how USC should be beating OU, OHIO ST, CLEM, and ALA with a coach like Urban Meyer at the helm. That much was obvious and they’re clearly happy USC has Helton, even though he’s had his way with the disappointing Choc Chip Kelly so far. Karl Dorrell actually beat Pete Carroll 13-9. Now that was a game worth forgetting if you’re a Trojan fan. But in the end, UCLA’s still a basketball school, and always will be. I still can’t believe they made the Final Four this year. What’s the likelihood UCLA… Read more »
Utah, I do not think that GH thinks he knows more than anybody, I think he is stuck with the system he has. GH has shown great potential. The problem is he has Clay as his HC, which is like GH becoming a HC – he had to figure it all out on his own which is very difficult in a conference that is familiar with the Air Raid. GH is still learning, I think, how to use an OL and to integrate a running game into the Air Raid. He may figure it out eventually, but it won’t happen… Read more »
RJJ, I have actually been in Henderson, NV for months. Hoping to go home soon though. So I haven’t been get much news on the Utes this year. Their defense will be strong as usual and their complete OL comes back this year, so I expect whoever their QB is going to be will get time in the pocket. Their receivers are above average and I expect their running back to be very good.
It is hard to believe this kid. He contradicts himself. Dream school? This boy has been a prima donna to long already. What he doesn’t realize is if he is that good, he’s going nfl no matter who he plays for and the loss of the name image likeness money will never be better anywhere than USC, not to mention the simple value of the USC degree. Good riddance, we simply move on.
Three-star 2022 ATH/WR Kevin Green Jr. (5-10, 185) from Bishop Hills Alemany (CA) committed to USC, his dream school, yesterday (his father’s birthday) over WSU. “First off, ‘SC has always been my dream school since I was young. And then my whole family are ‘SC fans. The last sweater that my auntie bought me before she passed was an ‘SC sweater, so I just thought that was a sign. And then I talked to somebody from ‘SC every day — whether it’s Donte (lead recruiter as usual), KC, Coach Clay, Armond (Hawkins, Jr), or Gavin (Morris), I’m always talking to… Read more »
This is the new NCAA? I agree that student athletes should be allowed to leave schools for personal reasons, but honestly this portal is giving the student too much leverage. I honestly don’t know what is bothering this student, but I wouldn’t be surprised if other schools are actively recruiting him now and all it took for this to happen was to convince him (or a family member) to enter the portal.
The Portal plus the early recruiting period is hurting college football IMHO.
Tommy, The change has occurred and the landscape is now permanently altered. Football is now much closer to baseball in structure (where kids can leave almost at will and transfer almost at will). Given what has happened to SC Baseball (the team finished under .500 for I think the 14th year in a row), SC Baseball is a cautionary tale for SC Football. SC was, at one time, as dominant in baseball as it was in football. SC Baseball was decent prior to Mike Garrett replacing an excellent coach (Mike Gillespie) with an incompetent one (Chad Kreuter). Since Gillespie was… Read more »
It truly is a tragedy that USC baseball has sunk to unrecognizable non-stature. Many have blamed USC’s “private status” on the decline, but other private schools have done much better since Garrett brought in Kreuter to kill the program. I still have hope that Gill can at least become a decent coach at USC, though the jury is still out. USC football is looking more and more like a bad bowl team in 2021 I’m sorry to say. I had much higher hopes for the team before spring ball, but injuries and team defections have already taken such a toll… Read more »
I know you do not want to hear it, but I thought UCLA was on the cusp of being a very good team last year. IF DTR stays healthy, I think UCLA has much more upside in 2021 than SC. Kelly is a difficult, but he is competent. He is a better HC than Clay (not saying much there) and he is also a better OC than GH. I think both SC and UCLA return the most starters of any team in the Pac. For SC, given the issues in coaching, simplistic O scheme and the personnel groups (weak OL,… Read more »
I doubt you’ll stick your neck out Rjj and actually predict a UCLA victory. I know I would not do that because I believe LSU just has too much winning experience over the years, as well as talent, to stumble against a 5-yr-in-a-row losing Bruins program. UCLA doesn’t know how to win these types of games and CFB has adjusted to Choc Chip Kelly’s outdated tricks. There might be more Tigers fans than Bruin loyalists at the Rose Bowl! Just joking, but I’ll bet A LOT of purple and gold people show up! Great trip for them. And a great… Read more »
You are right on that one! I have no idea what LSU or UCLA look like roster wise, just what I saw from watching them. If I had to pick, I would pick LSU, but my point was that UCLA has an excellent chance in the game. And, as you correctly observe, UCLA has a history of under-performance.
“Excellent chances” don’t mean much in college football, at least for me. That sounds a little like someone might claim a “moral victory” by losing to Notre Dame, but by only a respectable amount. Yuk. I truly hope LSU pounds the Bruins. The only thing vastly better would be to have them beat UCLA on a two-point conversion with one second left. Now that would be another UCLA crash that I would pay to see. Neither USC nor UCLA are expected to win the Pac-12. Maybe I’m mistaken, but I think both ASU and UTAH are given a better shot… Read more »
Some programs are handling things just fine. Just because USC football isn’t is no reason to dump on the early recruiting signing period, which
I believe was absolutely necessary for many reasons.
Programs that aren’t run as well are obviously going to suffer more in the Portal. The better run programs use it to their advantage, or at least don’t find themselves brutalized by it, like USC has recently.
We have had one big loss in the portal, JT Daniels. Stepp and Carr would have certainly played, but neither have been great for us. All the others were guys who would have had very minimal impact on our team. Everyone who has left did so because they weren’t going to be starting. That’s just the new reality.
Why was Daniels such a big loss? Slovis was already viewed as better by many, and neither one of those guys is gonna stand for being a back-up. Daniels made a very intelligent move for himself. The loss of Stepp and Carr, both strictly mediocre backs post-injury behind the Trojan O-line, isn’t nearly as bad a loss as immediate-impact-guy Toia, who can’t be replaced by any other similar guy on the Trojan roster. USC simply doesn’t reload there and Toia’s spring game performance was as strong as any USC player’s that day. Helton was practically apoplectic about the young giant.… Read more »
. Toia might be a huge loss but we have no idea, I very much doubt it. He no Leonard Williams. He’s a really big kid who seems like he can play, but we don’t know for sure.
If Drake or Tuli transferred, that would be huge. If Nick Figueroa did, it would be a huge blow. No reason to get so worked up over a kid who has zero track record.
Tell that to Clay Helton who was publicly raving about Toia like he was literally the second coming for USC. I’m just pointing out a fact that is indisputable according to Helton’s own words and the rest of the media, nationwide, has been harping on this decision ever since Toia entered the Portal. Gee, I wonder why? Just because you don’t view Toai as a huge loss doesn’t mean others aren’t correct to see it as another typical, negative sign of USC weakness in the middle and in the trenches. You actually think Daniels was the only big loss, even… Read more »
I think his comments are pretty clear. He was getting good grades and played his way into what was most likely a starting role.
now that he has gotten a close up look at the team round him he sees the deficiencies with the head coach, the offensive line and slim quality depth throughout. He wants to be somewhere that he feels the team will go farther than what he expects USC will do over the next couple of years.
I hope he finds what he is looking for, as long as hugs is around we will not.
Clearly, if Toia wants to win very big, he might have some better options than USC. That’s still an open question at this point, but he’s decided to find out for himself if this is true or not.
I hope he finds what he’s looking for too. The ball’s in the players’ hands now, much more so than ever before, and schools are going to have to adjust quickly to this new reality if they are going to prosper instead of merely survive.
I don’t get all the panic, it’s one kid who may or may not be any good. We aren’t even sure where he would be in the d line rotation. I never want to keep a player who doesn’t want to be here. So, good luck. Next man up.
It was my dream school and I committed before the pandemic but I need to weigh all my options, NOW? Okay then… Now for the real reason?
Whether it’s an honest statement or not, it’s very well-written, to the point, and serves the purpose of making this a family decision.
I regret losing young Jay Toia even more now.
Allen, This kid is a huge loss. Carol Folt has gutted The Trojan Family. I always felt this would have a huge impact on recruiting. I might be projecting but perhaps the figured out Folt’s SC is nothing special from a culture standpoint. We all know Clay’s Trojans are nothing special in either player development or quality teams.
Oops! Should have been – his family figured it out.