USC Football Mailbag: Is a Quarterback Necessary for 2017 Recruiting?

Should the Trojans take a quarterback in the Class of 2017? How important is bulletin board material? What’s Quinton Powell’s role? …Our weekly USC football mailbag seeks the answers.

Welcome to the Reign of Troy mailbag. This mailbag is a weekly feature, where we will answer your questions related to USC football.

If you have a question for the mailbag, send it in to @ReignOfTroy on Twitter or via email to reignoftroy@fansided.com.

Let’s get started:

Do you see USC using Fluker’s comments as extra motivation against Alabama?— Lakers breeze @TrojanBreeze

Given that D.J. Fluker is a former player rather than a current one, it won’t be as big of a deal as it might have been had he actually been on the current roster and would suit up for the game.

USC and Clay Helton know the importance of this game, and will not need any more motivation than knowing this is their chance to put USC back on the right track.

Who would you rather have as your passing game coordinator, Mike Leach or Sonny Dykes–SorenWestwood @SorenJRP:

Good question. I’m going to go with Dykes, because I think he develops QB’s better for the next level than Leach does. I expect Jared Goff to be very successful at the next level due to Dykes’ coaching.

If the staff doesn’t get Tua, why doesn’t the staff skip taking a QB this cycle and just stick with Corral? — Luke McCord

I would not give up on Tua Tagovailoa committing to USC in the end; he has expressed several times that he still likes the Trojans and that he plans to take all five of his official visits. If a player says they are taking all five visits while being currently committed to a school you might as well consider them uncommitted.

Should Tua end up elsewhere, plan B should be Jack Sears from Sam Clemente High School; the same school that produced current USC quarterback Sam Darnold.

Sears is a dual-threat QB and has been very impressive in recent camps. He is interested in Washington and UCLA also, so it will be a fight to get his signature.

Counting on Corral for the 2018 may be a gamble because many things can happen in two years, and USC may have a transfer coming if Max Browne doesn’t win the job in the fall, so they need to take a good, starter-quality QB in the 2017 class.

Does Powell actually get some meaningful snaps this season?

If the season started today, Quinton Powell would be the starter next to Michael Hutchings. No, that is not a typo.

While I fully expect Cameron Smith to be the starter vs. Alabama, Clancy Pendergast is going to go off of who he currently sees and make decisions accordingly.

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Regardless of what happens with Smith and Hutchings, Powell is in line for meaningful snaps. He may be beaten out by Osa Masina as an ILB, but even so I expect him to play a lot. He did well the last time Pendergast was the coordinator.

Did Chris Brown takeover the starting guard spot from Mama?

It is hard to say at this point with no depth chart being released. Brown did start a few games last year, and he is impressing coaches. But Mama also is doing that, and has dropped a large amount of weight this offseason.

Expect both to play, but Mama to start.

I see Tyler Vaughns as a great deep threat & can catch the ball up high in the end zone. Will he get much playing time this year?— asar khem @asar_khem

It would not surprise me if Vaughns is a starter this year; the guy is that good.

He does need to gain weight, but he will definitely receive loads of playing time and will be a red zone threat.

Keep an eye on Michael Pittman as well. Those two will be quite the duo going forward.

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