USC Trojans red hot on the recruiting trail

Andrew Nemec | Feb 23, 2025

USC commit Jonas Williams (13) tossed three touchdowns, including the 100th of his high school career, in leading top-ranked Lincoln-Way East to a 42-0 win over Niles West in the opening round of the Class 8A state playoffs. / Dean Reid

The USC Trojans are suddenly red-hot and rolling on the recruiting trail, flipping Oregon Ducks quarterback commit Jonah Williams and landing Santa Margarita Catholic (California) elite defensive lineman Simote Katoanga.

The result? An 11-man 2026 recruiting class ranked No. 1 nationally.

USC's surge began, in earnest, when the staff traveled to Lincoln-Way East (Illinois) in late January to visit with the then-Duck commit, rated the nation's No. 6 quarterback.

Williams quickly scheduled a Junior Day visit to Los Angeles and rumblings almost immediately began that he was likely to flip.

Coupled with that, Oregon's pursuit of Nashville Christian School (Tennessee) five-star quarterback Jared Curtis accelerated, leading to the Ducks recent inclusion in his top two (along with Georgia).

The writing was, therefore, on the wall.

A flip was imminent - and it finally came Friday.

Just two days later - Sunday - Katoanga, the nation's No. 6 defensive lineman, was added into the fold.

Throw in Aaron Donald's appearance on campus this weekend, and the hype train is officially rolling in Los Angeles.

In truth, it's a somewhat sudden change from what we saw in December.

Fresh off a 7-6 season, USC stumbled to the finish to the 2025 recruiting cycle, losing a total of 14 commitments, including four five-star prospects - defensive linemen Justus Terry, Isaiah Gibson and Hayden Lowe and wide receiver Jerome Myles - as well as coveted quarterback Julian Lewis.

The additions of five-star quarterback Husan Longstreet and five-star defensive lineman Jahkeem Stewart stopped the bleeding, but even those two additions came with loud rumblings of a possible massive overpay to salvage the class.

Since that time, USC has seemed to go all-in on modernizing its approach, hiring new general manager Chad Bowden away from Notre Dame in February and finally pushing the gas pedal on a professional NIL approach.

Since Riley arrived at USC the program has frequently been the subject of critiicsm when it comes to being slow on the uptake to college football's new normal.

Oregon and Dan Lanning seemed to figure it out quickly, while USC was haunted by the all-too-frequent label of "sleeping giant."

But that giant finally seems to have arisen.

If USC can maintain this momentum - and build upon what is the nation's No. 1 recruiting class so far - they may finally become a power again.