USC Football Recruiting: What Losing Out on Bryan Addison Means

The USC football recruiting staff was dealt a blow when four-star athlete Bryan Addison trimmed the Trojans from his list. But while a player of his caliber is always wanted, is it a loss that hurts USC?

Recently, 247sports.com writer Chris Trevino revealed that four-star Serra High School athlete Bryan Addison has eliminated USC as his possible destination when it comes to playing college football.

Addison, a good-looking 6-foot-4, 160-pound prospect, had been recruited by the Trojans as a safety because he fit the physical build of the tall, rangy safety defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast covets in his defensive schemes.

Interestingly, Addison had been considered a heavy USC lean with 247sports.com having assigned 100 percent of their “crystal balls” predicting that he would wind up a Trojan.

All of which may have fans of the Cardinal and Gold wondering just what the heck happened with young Addison’s recruiting and more importantly—how does this affect the Trojans going forward?

Well, without the benefit of being a fly on the wall during Addison’s recruiting or climbing into the prospects head, it is difficult to know why USC is no longer in his plans.

Perhaps Addison did not want to play safety at the next level or maybe he looked at the Trojans roster and saw too much competition but of course, this is speculation.

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What isn’t speculation is that USC is loaded at the position both now and in the future. As I wrote in February when the Trojans also lost out on safety Jaiden Woodbey, the Trojans are absolutely stacked.

With seven safeties currently on the roster and incoming four-stars Bubba Bolden and Isaiah Pola-Mao set to join them in the fall, the Men of Troy can afford to be picky when recruiting the position for the 2018 class.

In fact, while speculating, this may also be a reason why Addison may be looking elsewhere to ply his trade at the college level.

Many recruits look for immediate playing time, and given the depth at the position –plus the fact that Addison currently is rail thin at 160-pounds– a redshirt year was almost certainly in the future for the prospect.

When taken collectively, fans of the program should not be too concerned about losing out on Bryan Addison from its coveted Gardena Serra pipeline.

In the grand scheme of things, there are many other positions that USC could use a scholarship on rather than a prospect who will need time to develop at a position of more than adequate depth.

Now if Addison had been a cornerback—well, that would be a different story indeed.