USC Football: Top National Signing Day targets
By Jordan Luth
Who are the top-ranking recruits left on USC’s board as national signing day approaches?
The end of USC’s season may have been hard to see coming after the start to the year that the Trojans had. After starting the year 1-3, USC rattled off eight straight wins, including a 26-13 win over Washington. That streak of great play paid off as the Trojans would go onto the Rose Bowl and play the Big Ten Champion, Penn State Nittany Lions. USC would finish off a remarkable season with a 52-49 win over Penn State in the Rose Bowl.
True freshman quarterback Sam Darnold was not only the answer for USC, but also became a rising star through out the season. Junior quarterback Max Browne was the original starter for the Trojans at the start of the year. Darnold took the starting job from Browne by the end of September and would go 9-1 in his time as the starter. It appeared that the inexperience of Darnold would not be a problem.
USC had found itself in a sort of limbo. They had gone to the Holiday Bowl two years in a row and have sat around eight to nine wins for the past few seasons. The 2016 campaign was different, USC found itself in a familiar place, the Rose Bowl. USC has the most wins in the Rose Bowl with 25. The next closest is Michigan, with eight.
They were back in a BCS, now New Year’s Six, bowl game for the first time since 2009. They played Penn State in the Rose Bowl that year, much like they did this year. The Trojans won both meetings.
The Trojans should come into 2017 with a lot of confidence. The ended as No. 3 in the AP top 25 poll and will have their eye on the CFP this year. They will be coming in with a very strong recruiting class for 2017 as well. It is seen as top-15 recruiting class by most of the recruiting services and is ranked as high as the 10th best class in 2017 by 247Sports.
As National Signing Day gets ever so close, there are still some players that the Trojans would love to get to strengthen their class even more. Here are five big targets that USC could pick up on National Signing Day.