Why USC Trojans, Snoop League Connection Is Crucial To Future of Recruiting

The USC Trojans recruiting staff, led by general manager Chad Bowden, is making a concerted effort to reestablish roots in the heart of Los Angeles through Snoop Dogg's youth football league. How is this connection crucial to USC's future recruiting efforts?

Dec 27, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Southern California Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley reacts after the game against the Texas A&M Aggies at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Relationships are the most valuable commodity in the football world. The connections built through the game can last a lifetime and hold firm through any facet of life, and in college football recruiting, relationships mean more than anything else, even in the NIL era.

For the USC Trojans, they’re making a genuine attempt at building those relationships from the ground floor. 

International superstar Snoop Dogg, a Long Beach native, is a well-known football fan. So much so, he founded a youth football league over 20 years ago that has developed some of the best players to come out of California in the last two decades.

Players such as Pro Bowl quarterback CJ Stroud, former USC Trojan and Super Bowl champion JuJu Smith-Schuster, and various others. In total, over 60,000 players have come through Snoop’s local league. 

Dec 28, 2024; Tucson, AZ, USA; Rapper Snoop Dogg during the Colorado State Rams game against the Miami (OH) RedHawks in the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl at Arizona Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Earlier this week, USC general manager Chad Bowden, assistant general manager Dre Brown, and assistant athletic director Gavin Morris visited a Snoop Youth League football practice in Baldwin Hills.

Bowden was photographed giving a speech to the Baldwin Hills Bruins, and it perfectly illustrated the importance of planting seeds, especially in your backyard, where this hotbed of talent resides. 

The lasting impact small moments such as that visit can have on not just the youth, but their families and coaches is incalculable. Whether any of those players become that next five-star recruit from Snoop’s stable or not, the effort to establish real connections and let those players and communities feel seen can sow roots that breed lifetime support, and that’s what USC football has been about.

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"He was a huge factor in my recruitment to Notre Dame, especially," Notre Dame transfer Kennedy Urlacher told 247Sports. "That was one of the main guys who recruited me. He's a great friend of my family, a great friend of mine. And for USC, really, right when I got into the portal, I knew West Coast was somewhere I'd want to go. And Chad had reached out after I got into the portal, and it was something that definitely sparked my interest."

If the strength of establishing a real connection and respect can be impactful for a player like Urlacher, who was a part of a historically great program like Notre Dame, imagine the profound impact it can have on a young kid from Los Angeles. Those kids from Snoop’s league may not remember the name of the staffers who visited them in the years to come, but they’ll never forget the logo and the effort of the attempt.

Nov 30, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Southern California Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley reacts against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the second half at United Airlines Field at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

That attention to detail is something that has been missing from USC’s recruiting and program. Since his arrival in January, Bowden has emphasized building a border around the state of California and keeping the best players in the state home. Planting small seeds such as this not only impacts that community directly, but the word spreads throughout the state and across the country. 

“If I could be here for forever, I would,” general manager Bowden said in a recent sit-down with the LA Times. “That’s how much this means to me.”

The intentionality is crystal clear. The USC Trojans are back to the business that made them a national powerhouse spanning decades. To some, the gestures of visiting a youth football team may be small, but to Los Angeles, it means everything.