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USC football has been hot on the recruiting trail of late. After picking up several high-profile commits over the weekend, the Trojans now hold the No. 1 class in the country for the 2026 cycle. It is obviously still very early, but it seems as though new general manager Chad Bowden and a revamped recruiting staff are having success.
The national media is taking notice of USC’s recruiting surge. On a recent episode of his popular college football YouTube show, Josh Pate of CBS Sports—who has not been afraid to criticize Lincoln Riley in the past—praised the Trojans for their moves.
“It’s not gonna be talked about nationally for a while, but there’s some stuff happening inside that program that’s real,” Pate said of USC. “It’s tangible. It’s not smoke and mirrors, it’s not acting, it’s not performative, it’s not winning a spring national championship or anything like that.
“The right people are in the building. Lincoln Riley had a couple of things happen to him at USC—one was his fault, and one wasn’t. He handcuffed himself to a losing defensive staff. To his credit, he rectified that a couple years in . . . that’s his fault. To his credit, he took ownership and then they started to press the right buttons, I think, on that front last year.
“The second thing that was kind of out of his control was I think administratively he was a little handcuffed. College football kind of changed overnight . . . but not every program adjusted overnight. And it’s not just up to you, the head coach. Your administration has to be on board. And in some places, they got it—boom, and they were immediately at the forefront. But not everyone adjusted at the same speed.
“USC has not earned benefit of the doubt . . . no one thinks that you’re Oregon right now. No one thinks you could tote Ohio State’s jock right now. Because you haven’t…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/college-football-analyst-josh-pate-161029781.html
Author : Trojans Wire
Publish date : 2025-02-26 16:10:00
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