Calling it now: USC will end up with at least three of those 21 five-stars before signing day and I am not being a homer about this. The ESPN five-star tracker dropped and people see us with zero commits in that group and immediately assume we are out of the race. That is such a lazy read of the board. The dead period is the perfect time for the staff to work behind the scenes without the pressure of OVs and publiic flips every weekend.
I have sources close to the program telling me we are in serious contention for at least four of those five-stars and two of them are heavy leans toward the good guys. The crystal ball chatter on one particular West Coast edge rusher is getting louder by the day and I hear our NIL collective has been quietly working on a package that would make him the highest-paid non-QB in the conference. The 247 composite has us sitting outside the top 10 right now but that does not tell the full story when you factor in the silent commits we are holding.
People forget that USC was the first school to offer two of those five-stars back when they were still underclassmen and that relationship equity matters in a world where bagmen are everywhere. The staff is playing chess while everyone else is screaming about the ESPN list. Mark my words: when the dead period lifts and these kids start taking OVs, USC jumps from zero five-stars to multiple and the entire narrative flips overnight.