'03: The class that disappeared

[ant80]

Interesting thread-disappearing recruiting classes-through attrition or lack of production are a common theme in college football-and a large reason for the sudden decline of fortunes/bad seasons for elite teams. One of the key reasons, IMO, for USC's success the past few years is the fact that they have had an extraordinary hit rate on their recruiting classes-the impact players play like impact players and stick around for 3 or 4 years. I don't really feel like looking up the #'s right now, but they are certainly better than average for college football.

I posted the following in the USC Unbeatable Myth thread.

Also look at the # of returning seniors for USC this year. USC could've had several juniors go pro. Only Jarrett did. Carrol actively engaged them to return for another year with the intention of going for a NC. Look at 2005. After the quarterback and the two RBs decided to leave, PC didn't actively ask juniors to return, and a lot of players went pro. I even think that he might've actively enrouraged them to go pro. JT on the other hand, IMO doesn't encourage players to return or leave. He looks at what's good for the players, and encourages them to make their own decision. There are positives and negatives on both areas, but PC's actions tend to leave them really "raw" in several positions in one year, and then have a really good year, or two. Ours, we will need to fill in for some positions every year. The bottomline, IMO is that PC is a cut-throat coach. He knows his job is to win games, win conference championships and win NC's. He optimizes his actions accordingly.

I think this plays a very important role for USC's dominance.

 

[goodguy]

I think this plays a very important role for USC's dominance.

That and telling kids "you're my number one guy".

I never got a good feeling about Hiley, Cotton and Maupin (various tidbits about each player). Cotton and Hiley epecially didn't exactly represent themselves well on Bucknuts Radio. Oy...those were some bad interviews. And Maupins recruitment was strange with his step father being involved.