College Football 2021: Ranking the notable Power Five job openings

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Sep 25, 2021; Los Angeles, California, USA; USC Trojans football mascot Traveler, the noble white horse, runs around the field after a touchdown in the game against the Oregon State Beavers at United Airlines Field at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports /

. . Trojans . 7. team. 808.

*Note: Lincoln Riley has been hired as head coach

National Titles: 11
Home Stadium: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (77,500)
Heisman Trophy Winners: 7

Advantages

Where else would you rather play college football in the Name, Image, and Likeness era than Los Angeles? When former head coach Pete Carroll had USC rolling, he sold Hollywood. Snoop Dogg was a regular on the sidelines and in the locker room.

Even with the Rams and Chargers in Los Angeles, USC is LA’s team when they are good.

Few teams in college football have the tradition that USC has. From “Running Back U” to the Carroll era, Southern California is one of the iconic brands in all of college football. USC sits in one of the five most fertile recruiting areas in all of college football.

Disadvantages

The ceiling in Los Angeles might make it seem like a hot take to have USC so low on this list. That said, the state of the USC program is pretty poor in contrast to the openings ahead of them on this list. Athletic Director Mike Bohn and President Carol Alt were the first two hires “outside of the family.”

Former AD Lynn Swann left the athletic department in a fiscal mess. The Trojans’ money issues and Clay Helton’s ridiculous buyout kept Georgia Southern’s new head coach in Los Angeles longer than he likely should have been.

USC’s football facilities are behind because of those money issues. Their most recent facility update was in 2012 with the Mckay Center. These days, the Trojans are not competing with just the Pac-12 for recruits but with Alabama, LSU, Clemson and Ohio State.

Though LA is a destination city and a great sell for recruits, but that might make it hard to hire great assistants. You can’t pay every assistant six figures and 90k goes farther in Gainesville, Baton Rouge, and Fort Worth than it does in Los Angeles.

The Trojans do not have the recruiting infrastructure that an LSU has. They are behind in staff and office space when it comes to recruiting as well. USC could be a much longer rebuild than people think.

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