Take Two: Does USC need to expand its recruiting efforts?

Take Two returns with a daily offering tackling a handful of issues in the college football landscape. Rivals.com National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney lays out the situation and then receives takes from Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell and a local expert from the Rivals.com network of team sites.

MORE TAKE TWO: Can Miami hold on to five-star WR Leonard Manuel? | Is Darnold the No. 1 pick? | Can Oklahoma regain pair of five-star commits?

CLASS OF 2019 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | State | Position | Team

USC is considered the Pac-12 powerhouse program, but it has not yet played in the College Football Playoff while conference foes Oregon and Washington have made appearances.

The Trojans last won the national championship in 2004, also the last time any Pac-12 school won the title.

Since then, SEC schools have won nine championships and ACC programs - Clemson and Florida State - largely made up of players from the Southeast, have won two others. Ohio State and Texas have won one each as well.

During Pete Carroll’s tenure with the Trojans, he and his coaching staff did an extraordinarily good job of peppering the roster with elite players from the Southeast and from spots across the country.

Of course, there was plenty of California talent, but Dwayne Jarrett was from New Jersey, five-star Keith Rivers from Florida, Brian Cushing from New Jersey, Patrick Turner from Tennessee, the late Joe McKnight from Louisiana and the list goes on and on.

For USC to become a national power again and compete for national titles, must the Trojans start taking a more national approach to recruiting especially butting heads more with Alabama, Georgia and Clemson for elite Southeast prospects?

“Does USC need to recruit the Southeast again like they did under Carroll? The answer is yes and no. These last two recruiting classes have shown USC has a chance to sign the top class in the country by controlling the West Coast. USC missed on some five-stars out West in 2017 and still finished with one of the best classes in the country. I’m sure that if USC signed Darnay Holmes, Wyatt Davis or Jaelan Phillips, it would have been arguably the best class in the country.

"In the 2018 class, USC parted ways with a Rivals250 defensive lineman late in the recruiting process and also missed out on another local Rivals100 recruit and still finished in the top five. So, in that sense, no. The talent is there on the West Coast, usually concentrated in Southern California, and USC will almost always get first choice of that talent, regardless of what’s happening on the field. If there’s a quality coaching staff in place, USC can win huge with that talent.

“But of course you want to recruit the Southeast, not to mention Texas and Ohio, and any other areas with a big population and name football players. USC was very successful at going outside the West Coast to sign players under Carroll, and USC should strive to do that again.

"But USC will have to win big again before it can pull those top, top kids from outside the West Coast successfully. That’s why there’s a difference in recruiting philosophy right now. Carroll had won two national titles and seven straight conference titles. He could go to Florida and beat Miami, Florida State, Florida and everyone else down here for a five-star. He could go to New Jersey or Ohio or Georgia or Louisiana and get that five-star kid. It’s not just because he was a great recruiter, it was because USC was on an historical run.

"The Trojans can still attract talent from outside the West Coast, but not the top, top talent. It’s not the same top talent that USC always attracts from Los Angeles. If the Trojans want to use that Carroll recruiting philosophy to increase the amount of talent, the staff has to win big on a national stage and compete for national titles every year. USC isn’t there yet.”

“They have to recruit the Southeast to get there. When Carroll was on his run, he was recruiting nationally. They were getting kids like Keith Rivers from the Southeast. They were involved with top kids from every state around the country.

“They’re going to have to do that. They can’t just rely on West Coast kids and try to win a national championship. They could get to the playoff that way, but I don’t think they can win it all. Until they start having more success recruiting kids across the country I don’t think they’re going to be a national title threat."