USC football recruiting: Big-time local offensive line target names Top 10

A critical USC football recruiting target, Earnest Greene of St. John Bosco, released his Top 10 favorite schools, setting the stage for a fierce recruitment.

The quickest way for USC football to start competing among the best in college football is to upgrade the offensive line.

While the Trojans regularly have top skill-position talent right in their backyard, that's not always the case with elite offensive linemen. So it's that much more important to keep those guys home when they do pop up.

Earnest Greene is one such target, and he just dropped his Top 10, including USC, Oklahoma, Texas, Oregon, Texas A&M, Ohio State, LSU, Florida, Georgia, and Alabama.

Those are some heavy hitters pursuing Greene. It's easy to see why. The 6-foot-5, 330-pounder ranks No. 52 nationally in the class of 2021 and No. 2 among offensive guards in the class, per 247Sports.

Greg Biggins of 247Sports compared Greene to Wyatt Davis. That's a comparison that should put USC on high alert.

USC football needs to start keeping elite linemen home

In 2017, Davis was a five-star prospect coming out of St. John Bosco. He spurned staying home with USC for Ohio State. He was a unanimous All-American in 2020. USC did land Alijah Vera-Tucker in that class. It's no coincidence he was the Trojans' best offensive lineman last year and is now slated for a first-round draft selection.

Davis is one in a long line of local offensive line prospects who have been allowed to walk away from the Trojans.

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There were no Top 150 offensive linemen in California for 2021, but in 2020, the Trojans let Myles Murao from Mater Dei go to Washington. In 2019, it was Jonah Tauanu'u who left for Oregon and Sean Rhyan to UCLA. While Justin Dedich came to USC in 2018, fellow highly-rated lineman Tommy Brown went to Alabama.

USC losses were those other school's gains. The Trojans have to stop being so generous to their rivals. Locking down Greene would be a very welcome development.