Significant Big Ten news gives USC a potential roster-building opportunity
The hazing scandal at Northwestern is creating a shakeup at a Big Ten football program. People in the college sports industry believe that a mass exodus is about to occur at NU, with lots of players leaving in the transfer portal.
Remember this: While the main national transfer portal windows are currently closed, a coach firing creates a specific transfer portal window for the players at the school where the coach was fired. Therefore, we will see Northwestern players enter the portal in the coming days and weeks, giving other programs such as USC a chance to further augment their rosters.
The website Inside NU has noted that a four-star freshman linebacker recruit has already hit the transfer portal:
“(Nigel) Glover is the highest-ranked player in Northwestern’s incoming recruiting class. He flashed defensive versatility in high school as a star for Northmont, primarily playing as a hybrid safety. He was expected to transition to outside linebacker for Northwestern, giving an upperclassman-heavy group some valuable depth in the near future.
“But now, NU is set to lose the defensive centerpiece of its 2023 class. Per 247 Sports, Glover is one of three four-star recruits in a class of 19, and he is the only member of that trio to play defense. The only other linebacker who has joined the team as an incoming freshman is Justin Cryer, a three-star recruit out of Brookshire, Texas.
“According to 247, Glover was the seventh-best recruit in the state of Ohio, and the 25th-best linebacker in the nation. He committed to Northwestern on April 10, 2022, but will now go portaling with less than eight weeks before the NCAA season begins.”
As USC prepares to move to the Big Ten in 2024, it’s hard to think of a player the Trojans could use more than Glover. Linebacker is a position of need. Glover comes from Ohio and would give the Trojans a chance to increase their presence in the Big Ten geographical footprint, particularly one of the more talent-rich states in the whole conference. Glover, as a freshman, would give USC multiple years of eligibility. Given his time spent within the Northwestern program, he has likely already studied some film of NU’s Big Ten opponents, so he would have working knowledge of the Big Ten teams USC will soon face.
Let’s see if Lincoln Riley can make a move for a player the Trojans could certainly use.
