Elite Defensive Line recruit gives USC football a chance in his top 6

Four-star 2023 DL recruit Edric Hill (all recruiting ratings and rankings in article are as of 247Sports) has officially given USC football a chance, as he has placed them in his top six. They will have some competition, as Alabama also sticks out in that top six. Hill is giving them a shot, though, and perhaps a big season can result in either a commitment or a flip to USC for him.

Hill is the No. 7 player in his home state (Missouri) for the class of 2023, and he is the No. 27 Defensive Lineman in all of the country. SC needs beef anywhere they can get it. There's D-Line talent on the west coast, but it's not the same as it is over in Missouri or in the deeper South. Poaching Hill would be pretty massive for this program.

Currently, USC only has 15 commitments for the 2023 class. Only six of them are defensive players. Four of them are four-stars, but that's still not enough defensive commits right now to be comfortable. SC just got the commitment from Braylan Shelby, an Edge out of Texas, so that was huge. Bringing in another D-Lineman from another region like that would be game-changing.

Edric Hill would be just the third four/five-star recruit in the front seven to sign with USC football.

Edric Hill also has impressive size on the field for USC football to take advantage of. He's 6-3, 290 pounds, which would be the biggest defensive recruit that the Trojans have in this 2023 class. It would also be a high-quality get, which USC has had many of in this cycle. He's the No. 187 player in the nation.

Despite being outside the top ten in recruiting (12th in the country), only seven teams ahead of them have higher average recruit ratings. Clearly, they're bringing in the big fish. They just need to bring in more of them. Hill is a great first option and they would continue to tower over the rest of the Pac-12 in recruiting (second-place Oregon has just the 15th-ranked class).