Why USC football fans shouldn’t panic after Justus Terry’s decommitment

On Wednesday, defensive lineman Justus Terry announced his decommitment from USC's 2025 class. The five-star prospect from Manchester (GA) is the Trojans' second decommitment in two days. On Tuesday, five-star defensive lineman Isaiah Gibson reopened his recruitment.

Both players were committed to Lincoln Riley's program since March, but neither officially visited the USC campus.

USC fans must be leery of early verbal commitments.

Of course, social media was immediately ablaze, with rival fans mocking USC and some Trojans fans expressing concern. Losing a pair of five-star recruits in 48 hours is not ideal, but it is still very early in the 2025 college football recruiting cycle.

As I said yesterday regarding Gibson, it is not surprising that a five-star player from Georgia decommits from a Southern California program in June. Moreover, recent recruiting cycle history has taught us to be cautious of early verbal commitments from players. Players' minds change multiple times during a recruiting cycle, especially after experiencing campus hoopla during official visits.

I think that Terry and Gibson bought into Eric Henderson's vision for the USC defense and were excited about the prospect of playing in Los Angeles. However, Coach Henny's message lost its luster as time passed. Also, reality likely crept in for a pair of young men born and raised in the Southeast.

The Trojans do not have an NIL problem.

Some fans on Twitter/X have speculated that USC has an NIL problem. Thus, Terry and Gibson backed out of their commitments. I'm not an NIL insider, but I seriously doubt there's a money problem at a university whose endowment grew by $330 million from fiscal year 2022 to 2023.

We're hearing stories of top high school recruits receiving multi-million dollar NIL deals in exchange for their pledges. We know such is true for some players from the 2022 and 2023 recruiting classes, but such offers are rare and typically apply to quarterbacks. Does Julian Lewis have a lucrative NIL deal to sign with USC? Maybe.

The Trojans, like most programs, remain tight-lipped about their NIL dealings. However, USC's move to join the Big Ten is a significant step toward making more money.

Riley's program was among college football's top ten teams in profitability for 2022. Ohio State topped the list at $251 million in athletic department revenue. The list comprised the Big Ten and SEC's top programs, except for Texas and Oklahoma, now SEC schools.

As for the 2025 recruiting cycle, I would advise USC fans to avoid becoming attached to committed players until December's National Signing Day.