Adoree’ Jackson and Dwight Williams in the Midst of Drastically Different Recruiting Strategies from USC

Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

Adoree’ Jackson and Dwight Williams both attend Serra High school. They’re both two of the most sought after high school seniors in the CIF Southern Section, and they both tweeted out their top schools in the past week, adding recruiting fuel to the fire of perhaps the two most transparent undecided local recruits. But as far as their recruitment from hometown USC goes, their similarities end right there, as Jackson has the Trojans in his top 10, while Williams omitted USC in his top 16, last week.

With Jackson, his recruitment has been very pro-USC for a long time. He’s tweeted about his USC letters, visited campus a slew of times during spring camp and even has made a point to wear USC socks to 7v7 competitions, which he did a couple of times this past month.

As a highly-talented playmaking corner in the mold of an Adam ‘Pac-man’ Jones, Jackson fits a need that the Trojans are desperate to fill. USC has seemingly never replaced Jason Seahorn, as corners have long been an issue for the Trojans, even during the Pete Carroll era. Last year, Torin Harris struggled in coverage, while Anthony Brown was inconsistent and Josh Shaw didn’t see time at corner until after the Trojans had seemingly exhausted all other possibilities.

During the 2013 recruiting year, Lane Kiffin prioritized the secondary, but lost his best corner commitment in the form of Jalen Ramsey, who de-committed just before Signing Day to ultimately sign with Florida State. Chris Hawkins, a four-star corner out of Rancho Cucamonga will be a valuable commodity in 2013, but even moving forward, there’s too many spare parts and Jackson is too talented for the Trojans not to throw everything and the kitchen sink at him.

It’s a predicament that vastly differs from the USC’s need for Dwight Williams, which essentially ended when assistant head coach and acting defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin resigned following the 2012 season. Williams is a  quick, yet small and slender outside linebacker, a role which thrived in the Kiffin scheme but was phased out of the USC defense when Clancy Pendergast took the reins.

The result has been a lack of interest and subsequent scholarship offer for Williams, who had long been thought to be wanting to go to USC. Though, that can’t be said anymore. Williams, tired of playing the waiting game on the USC offer, tweeted over the weekend that he was effectively done with the Trojans.

Without question, the lack of the offer from USC is personal to Williams, which is understandable given Serra’s pipeline to USC and his past interest in the Trojans. And because of that, it can’t be anything but awkward for his teammate Adoree’ Jackson to see a very different treatment from Lane Kiffin’s staff.

Williams isn’t the first highly-touted local player to lack a USC offer throughout his recruitment, as the Trojans never formally offered Bryce Treggs in 2012, ror Jermaine Kelly this past year.

Per a source close to USC, internal rationale for the said situation is due to a perceived interest in USC from a recruit that would give the school the time and ability to go after harder sells and more coveted players first.

For Treggs, it wound up building animosity, though not as vocal as Williams. And for Kelly, it meant that USC’s run at him following Jalen Ramsey’s de-commitment was too little, too late.

With Williams not necessarily fitting in schematically more than anything, it’s up in the air as to whether or not USC will ever become interested enough to try and get back on his good side with a scholarship offer. Though, a lot can happen from now ’till February 5th.