Recruiting was not Clay Helton’s No. 1 problem as USC head coach
USC is recruiting really well right now. To be sure, USC is recruiting at a higher level than what we saw during the Clay Helton years. Trojan fans might be tempted to say that Lincoln Riley is showing everyone what real recruiting looks like. To a certain extent, that might be true.
Yet, if we’re focused on the big picture — competing for national championships and restoring the Pete Carroll (John McKay, 1970s John Robinson) standard — recruiting isn’t the whole story.
USC football analyst Josh Webb offered these comments about USC recruiting and overall football success:
“USC has recruited at this level before,” Webb began. “Fans might recall the infamous 2014 class that was the best class ever recruited at one point. The class featured Adoree’ Jackson, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Bryce Dixon, Toa Lobendahn, Viane Talamaivao, and Damien Mama. This was expected to be the class that got USC back on track, a base class from which they could recruit around and build. Of those players, only Adoree’ Jackson and JuJu Smith-Schuster turned out to be worth anything.
“The next year featured another hyped class. This one saw Iman Marshall, Rasheem Green, Chuma Edoga, Osa Masina, Porter Gustin, and Ronald Jones II. Of those players, only Rasheem Green and Ronald Jones II have gone on to have especially productive careers.
“I could list the 2016 class blue chips by name, but the end result was the same. A bunch of highly-touted prospects signed with USC and ultimately went on to irrelevance. That was the huge problem during the Clay Helton era, and it became really apparent at the end of his run. Why mention Helton now? Because he left Riley with absolutely nothing. He truly left Riley less than the Grinch left Whoville.”
(Was that an intentional indirect reference to Alex Grinch? You decide.)
There were highly-touted prospects, as Webb notes. They just didn’t amount to anything. What are we getting at here? While Helton’s recruiting was far from flawless — no one would say he was an ace recruiter — he did have his moments.
Player development was a far, far worse problem for Helton than his recruiting, if we are to compare the two.
College football has seen more than a few examples of coaches who could recruit reasonably if not extremely well, but who couldn’t coach their way out of a wet paper bag. Ron Zook, the successor to Steve Spurrier at Florida, comes to mind in this discussion. He brought in their players, but he couldn’t develop them.
It’s not just about buying good groceries; someone needs to know how to prepare them.
