USC beats Oregon on recruiting trail for much-needed four-star Interior O-Lineman

USC football has officially beaten Oregon out for four-star Interior Offensive Lineman out of Kennedy Catholic (WA), Micah Banuelos. Banuelos is ranked as the No. 13 IOL in this entire 2023 recruiting class, and the No. 4 player in the state of Washington (all recruiting ratings and rankings in article are as of 247Sports).

Banuelos is a tremendous athlete; being able to play both left tackle and defensive tackle this past season. Banuelos was expected to be on his way to Eugene once high school is over, but instead chose to play for the consensus best offensive coach in the nation in Lincoln Riley.

Oregon won another blue-chip's recruitment over USC in Josh Conerly Jr.'s commitment earlier in the offseason, so for the Trojans to get their revenge on the Ducks here is huge. SC now has 13 commitments in the 2023 class.

USC football already had a much better recruiting class than Oregon before Micah Banuelos' commitment.

Before Micah Banuelos' commitment, USC football had the 13th-best recruiting class in the country (first in Pac-12), where as Oregon still has just the 21st in the country. It remains to be seen where USC will catapult to after this latest development, but this is a huge momentum builder for the Trojans on the recruiting trail.

Not only did USC miss out on Conerly, but they also missed out on Francis Mauigoa and Lucas Simmons too; two other four/five-star linemen that USC was going for and missed out on. Unfortunately for Oregon, however, USC's tough luck had run out when it came to picking up a commitment from Banuelos.

Now, USC has made a statement; proving that they can indeed recruit elite linemen. USC had been having a tough time winning in recruiting battles for top offensive linemen against programs with NIL collectives, but beat out two notable collectives in Oregon and Texas A&M today.

USC is serious about recruiting linemen, and did a tremendous job with Banuelos on Monday.