Fox Sports Klatt questions USC’s recruiting strategy

First of all, I have great respect for Joel Klatt. He has been covering college football for Fox Sports since 2013. He is also the lead analyst for Fox’s Big Noon Saturday football games where he covers the game with play-by-play announcer Gus Johnson.

On his podcast show (The Joel Klatt Show), he decided to talk about some college football recruiting news that happened earlier this week. He first started discussing the last uncommitted 5-star player Duce Robinson. The 6’6” 225-pound #1 Tight End in the 2023 class recently said he wanted to play for Lincoln Riley and the USC Trojans.

Klatt mentioned the Robinson news could be an impact player right away. However, the next couple of comments paints a different picture.

"“My immediate reaction was – well he can’t play defense.”"

- Joel Klatt on The Joel Klatt Show

In all honesty, he is completely right. Yes, it's nice to continue the impressive offense by recruiting the nation’s best players. Offensively, the Trojans had the third most yards per game (506.6) and points per game (41.4).

However, that’s not the problem with Lincoln Riley-coached teams. USC had a terrible time trying to stop opposing offenses in 2022. The team’s total defense was ranked 106th in allowed yards per game (423.9) while giving up 27.9 points per game which were 81st in the country.

This is not going to get the job done if the Trojans have any aspirations of winning the PAC-12 conference championship or entertaining the possibility of making the College Football Playoffs. Klatt understands that said the following on his podcast show. He even purposed a logical question.

"“Does it help USC become better in the area that they desperately need to become better in? Not really.”"

- Joel Klatt on The Joel Klatt Show

Once again, he’s not wrong for questioning the recent signing. Yes, adding a 5-star TE to the roster is always going to be a tremendous pickup. However, they need to star focusing a little more on adding high-end quality defensive stars over the offensive players if they want to win championships.

Fight On!