USC recruiting: What we know, don't know and should watch for with the 2025 class (2024)

LOS ANGELES — The early signing period is still six months away, but a lot of recruiting groundwork will take place over the next two months as visits — official and unofficial — kick into drive.

After December, June and July are probably the most important months on the recruiting calendar. That’s no different at USC, which is in the middle of a critical 2025 recruiting cycle after signing some solid but not elite recruiting classes the past two years.

The Trojans got off to a fast start with their 2025 class, which ranks fourth nationally, per the 247Sports Composite, and is bolstered by two five-star prospects and five top-100 players. It’s the best USC has been situated headed into the summer since Lincoln Riley’s first full cycle, when he had top-100 players Zachariah Branch, Malachi Nelson and Makai Lemon already committed.

Though it’s cool to have a top-five recruiting ranking in May, the real work is about to begin for USC. So here’s a primer on an important summer of recruiting for the Trojans.

What’s the significance of this recruiting cycle for USC?

Across the roster, USC is probably more talented than it was in Riley’s first season, but it’s not dramatically more talented than it was in 2022, which Riley said would probably be his least-talented team with the Trojans.

When Riley was hired, it was safe to assume most USC fans thought there would be more elite, high-profile talent on the team by this point. But the Trojans aren’t elite at any particular position — with the potential exception of receiver — heading into Riley’s third season.

As the program transitions to new surroundings in the Big Ten, it needs more high-level talent. There are some reasons USC’s recruiting has lagged behind the past few cycles; the Trojans didn’t have the most uniform setup for name, image and likeness, and recruits didn’t buy much into former defensive coordinator Alex Grinch (and Riley retained Grinch after the disastrous end to the 2022 season). So USC faced a major uphill climb recruiting the defensive side of the ball.

USC has a new defensive staff in place now. A new athletic director is in charge, Jen Cohen, who is more in tune with NIL, and there’s been a shift in NIL policy about engaging with high school prospects.

We’ll see if those changes lead to the Trojans landing an elite class this cycle.

How should USC fans feel about their class right now?

Good … at least for now. As mentioned, there are two five-star prospects in this class and five top-100 players. That’s a good thing.

The concern, though, is that both five-stars (defensive lineman Justus Terry and quarterback Julian Lewis) and four of the five top-100 commits are out-of-state recruits. It’s difficult to retain those commitments over a long period of time, and all of those top 100 players have been committed since at least April. Lewis has been committed since last summer.

We’ve already seen it with Lewis. He’s taking visits to Auburn, Colorado and Indiana over the next few weeks. High-profile programs will continue to pursue Terry and four-star defensive line commit Isaiah Gibson, who like Lewis are from Georgia, as well as Florida native and four-star safety Hylton Stubbs.

For USC’s cause, it must have a good season, especially after a major flop of a 2023 campaign, so it can sell an upward trajectory. If things get tough on the field, that’ll likely resonate on the recruiting trail.

🏈2025 5🌟COUNTDOWN🏈

At No. 6 is USC commit Justus Terry (@JustusTerry80)

“Terry is not one of those massive defensive tackles who just take up space and swallow up running backs at the line of scrimmage. The Manchester, Ga., standout who flipped his commitment from Georgia to… pic.twitter.com/n11PPomt1d

— Rivals (@Rivals) May 28, 2024

What’s the outlook for the new defensive staff as recruiters?

The jury is still out on them. The early results are positive. USC has a top-100 commitment on each level of the defense.

To no surprise, the early standout is defensive line coach Eric Henderson, who joined the program in January after he spent five seasons with the Los Angeles Rams, with whom he won a Super Bowl and coached future Hall of Famer Aaron Donald. Henderson’s background and resume were going to give him a vision to sell recruiting-wise, and that has played out with commitments from Terry and Gibson. It’s Henderson’s first full cycle recruiting at the Power 4, and he has embraced all that comes with recruiting, but we’ll see how he closes this cycle.

There’s still much to learn about coordinator D’Anton Lynn, linebackers coach Matt Entz and secondary coach Doug Belk. This will be Lynn’s second season working in college. He was at UCLA before this, and Chip Kelly didn’t place much of an emphasis on high school recruiting.

Entz was previously the head coach at North Dakota State, which has a different type of recruiting profile than USC. Belk started his career working for Nick Saban at Alabama, but he was coaching at Houston recently, which was in the Big 12 and AAC, so he’s swimming in much different recruiting waters now.

So there are still plenty of questions there, and this cycle should give us some early indicators.

Are any other assistants under scrutiny during this recruiting cycle?

In the spring, Riley said he and offensive line coach Josh Henson have to coach the position group better. The program needs to recruit offensive linemen better, too.

There have been some solid wins, like signing four-star Elijah Paige, who figures to be the Trojans’ starting left tackle this spring, but they’ve lost out on several high-caliber offensive line recruits the past few cycles.

One of the few they did sign, 2024 four-star center and top-150 prospect Jason Zandamela, transferred after just a few months in the program back in March.

USC is in a tough spot because Southern California hasn’t produced a ton of elite offensive linemen lately — though it had some highly rated OL prospects last cycle and the staff didn’t pursue them heavily — so it has to go out of state more often and it’s harder to win those battles.

There are some solid offensive line prospects in Northern California this cycle. USC is in the mix for some, such as four-stars Jackson Lloyd and Champ Taulealea.

The Trojans have to elevate the talent level along their offensive line, so the onus is on Henson (and Riley) to accomplish that this recruiting cycle.

How’s local recruiting going?

This is a topic that typically riles up the fan base. Riley has taken a more national approach to recruiting during his tenure, and though he has declared that Southern California is a priority, it’s not a priority to the extent it was under previous coaching staffs at USC.

Of the top 25 prospects in the state this cycle, the Trojans have a commitment from just one of them. That’s the same number as UCLA and one less than Oregon and Texas A&M, both of which have commitments from two of the state’s top 25 prospects. And USC was recently left off the top four of five-star corner Dijon Lee, the state’s top player.

The Trojans’ 2025 class consists of 12 players right now. Just two are from California, so USC will have to sustain the strong national recruiting it put forth earlier in this cycle to offset the talent it’s not getting from its backyard.

Which prospects are worth keeping an eye on?

Though USC has more pressing needs at other positions, quarterbacks always serve as the centerpiece recruiting classes are built around. So, it’s worth paying attention to Lewis to see if his commitment sticks. If it does, USC can go out and recruit others to join him in the class. If it doesn’t, the staff will have to come up with a pivot plan at quarterback, a position at which it doesn’t have much youth.

The Trojans haven’t signed a ton of elite defensive linemen from SEC country in recent history, so Terry and Gibson will be worth watching as teams continue to put on the full-court press for them.

It’s a good cycle at linebacker in Southern California. That’s also a critical position for USC. The Trojans have received a commitment from four-star San Clemente (Calif.) linebacker Matai Tagoa’i, but local linebacker prospects Noah Mikhail and Madden Faraimo remain uncommitted. Mikhail and Faraimo are both top-100 players.

🤞🏽 https://t.co/LIo0iweS6f

— Matai William Kose Tagoa’i (@MataiTagoai_) May 16, 2024

What about NIL?

There’s always some consternation about NIL and high school recruiting among USC’s fan base. In previous cycles, USC-related collectives didn’t engage in NIL deals before a player enrolled in class. Other programs were much more aggressive with their NIL offerings.

That has created some frustration for Trojans fans. When USC would lose a high-profile recruiting battle, fans would point to NIL, rinse and repeat.

And though there might have been some truth to that, it also gives the coaching staff a free pass — one that’s probably not justified yet.

Has USC’s NIL situation been perfect? Nope. Has the staff been recruiting with national championship intensity? Nope.

Look, USC’s not poor. As The Athletic reported in March, House of Victory has an NIL budget for football that is three times the size it was a year ago. That’ll help, but the program can help itself in other ways, too.

No Trojans assistant coaches were at St. John Bosco’s college showcase two weeks ago. Does USC have its reasons for that? Likely. St. John Bosco doesn’t have a ton of highly touted recruits in the 2025 cycle, but when there are already questions about the Trojans’ local recruiting, it probably helps to stop by. Especially at the high school program that’s been one of the top talent producers in the state.

BYU had five or six assistants present. UCLA sent both coordinators — Eric Bieniemy and Ikaika Malloe — and Arizona had three assistants there. Oregon didn’t have any either, but there are no doubts about the Ducks’ recruiting efforts.

Riley has been an elite recruiter of quarterbacks and skill talent. Tight ends coach Zach Hanson has done a good job recruiting his position. Henderson has displayed some positive signs so far. But the staff isn’t filled with elite recruiters from top to bottom, either.

USC has some work to do in all aspects, and this cycle should tell us a lot about those efforts.

(Photo of Lincoln Riley: Darren Yamash*ta / USA Today)

Antonio Morales covers USC football for The Athletic. Previously, he spent three years at the Clarion Ledger in Mississippi, where he covered Ole Miss for two seasons and Jackson State for another. He also spent two years covering preps for the Orange County Register and Torrance Daily Breeze. Follow Antonio on Twitter @AntonioCMorales