USC Football Four-Star DL recruiting target passes on SC for Alabama

Elite four-star USC Football Defensive Line recruiting target Edric Hill had the Trojans in his top six, but chose the Alabama Crimson Tide over them when he announced his commitment on Monday. Hill would have been a huge get for the 2023 class, as he's ranked as the No. 7 Defensive Tackle in America for the 2023 class (all recruiting rankings and ratings in article are as of 247Sports).

USC only has two four-star commitments in the front seven--Braylan Shelby and Tackett Curtis. They only have three total front seven commits for the class in general. Their class is certainly a solid one right now, but not a great one. It's ranked 13th in the nation, and would likely be much higher if they were able to have more commitments.

That's why it's complicated. It's not really that they're totally lacking in the front seven for the class. Poaching Curtis and Shelby from the south was huge. The issue really is that they aren't getting a lot of commitments in general. Look at the 12 teams ahead of them in the class rankings for 2023.

USC football has 16 commitments, and all 12 teams ahead of them have more.

In fact, 11 out of the 12 teams ahead of USC football have AT LEAST 18 commitments right now. It is early in the cycle, but the elite classes are all ahead of the Trojans right now. The problem isn't the quality of commits SC is getting.

USC has higher average recruit ratings than three of the teams ahead of them. They're hanging on there, but the problem is clearly the quantity of commitments right now. Hill is another example of a player that is of great quality, and the type of player SC has been bringing in, but not consistently being able to bring in enough to rank with the top dogs.

Lincoln Riley took the 2022 overall recruiting class from outside the top 100 and into the top six in about six months last cycle. He's going to get the job done for this cycle too. There's no need to panic.

There is, however, reason to notice that the class hasn't been as good as it was expected to be, and hope for the best for this team as they are about to enter the season. After all, the best recruiter is a winning product on the field. SC has a chance to prove themselves on that front very quickly here.