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USC Commitment: Christian Thomas to USC

That makes it 3 elite tight-ends for this class. Christian will probably be a candidate to move to another position.
Predictions: 5/8

Recruiting: Predictions for National Signing Day

Here's my stab at who I think we sign on National Signing Day:

Seantrel Henderson, OT (start with a bang!)
Markeith Ambles, WR
Josh Shirley, OLB
Christian Thomas, TE
Nickell Robey, CB
Demar Dorsey, S
John Cullen, OT
Glen Stanley, LB
Soma Vainuku, FB
Sean Parker, S

I still consider Giovanni Di Poalo a commit (albeit soft) so it's a matter of him decommitting or not.  It'd be a complete guess, but I think he sticks with SC.  I also think, as I've mentioned before, that Dak Smith is out.

So with that said, we have 12 current commits, and I think we take 10 players on National Signing Day whether it's the list above or completely different.  You might be wondering, "Well that only adds up to 22 commits which is well short of the scholarships available!"

Here's where I go out on a limb and say Lane purposely keeps this class small in anticipation of the NCAA sanctions coming up later this month.  Yes, call me crazy.  I think the NCAA buckets everything under "lack of institutional control" and docks us 5-7 scholarships (over several years) which would round out the leftover scholarships.

Gotta give me some points for thinking outside the box ;).

Recruiting: Official Visit List for Final Weekend

Big weekend for recruiting.  Here's the official list:

• Corey Nelson
  Height/Weight: 6'0, 210lbs
  Position: OLB
  Ranking: 4-star (Rivals), 5-star (Scout), 4-star (ESPN)
  Status: Committed to Texas A&M

• Nickell Robey
  Height/Weight: 5'8, 165lbs
  Position: CB
  Ranking: 4-star (Rivals), 4-star (Scout), 4-star (ESPN)
  Status: USC/WVU

• Dietrich Riley
  Height/Weight: 6'1, 200lbs
  Position: S
  Ranking: 4-star (Rivals), 4-star (Scout), 4-star (ESPN)
  Status: USC/UCLA

• Latwan Anderson
  Height/Weight: 5'11, 185lbs
  Position: S
  Ranking: 5-star (Rivals), 4-star (Scout), 4-star (ESPN)
  Status: Committed to WVU

• Demar Dorsey
  Height/Weight: 6'0, 175lbs
  Position: S
  Ranking: 4-star (Rivals), 4-star (Scout), 5-star (ESPN)
  Status: USC/FSU (Decommited from UF this week)

Xavier Grimble, the Top Rated TE in the Nation, Commits to USC

From LasVegasSun.com:

The nation’s top high school tight end has committed to play football at Southern California.

Bishop Gorman senior-to-be Xavier Grimble, who is rated by recruiting Web site Rivals.com as the nation’s top tight end, said Thursday he picked Southern California over Florida and Oklahoma.

“I liked everything about USC, especially that it was so close to home,” Grimble said.

Xavier is currently rated the top TE in the nation.  This is a great pick-up for SC because it not only completes the TE class for 2010 with Randal Telfer already on board, but brings balance to the position for the incoming class.  Whereas Randal Telfer is more an athletic receiving TE that will stretch defenses, Xavier brings prototypical size and athleticism to be either a dominating blocker or possession tight-end.

With the commitment, Christian Thomas, the 2nd rated TE in the nation, is likely the odd man out.  This should be positive news for UCLA as they will now likely be the favorite to pick up Thomas.  It's still a long time till signing day, so I wouldn't rule Thomas completely out just yet.  Lot of things can happen.

USC Leads for Elite 2010 TE Recruit Christian Thomas

From ESPN.com:

"USC is still my top school, no question about it. I've always been a fan of winners and that's all they do is win. I've been a longtime fan of them and it was huge when they were the first school to offer me. Are you kidding me? The best college team in the country is the first school to offer me? That was great."

Christian was recently rated the #2 TE in the nation in the Rivals100 and top TE in CA.  SC has extended offers to 4 TEs thus far:  Christian Thomas (CA), Randal Telfar (CA), Xavier Grimble (NV), and Delvin Jones (FL).  Right now it looks like Thomas and Telfar might be the TE duo out of the 2010 class.

Rivals Releases First Top 100 Ranking for 2010

Rivals.com

Complete ranking is here.  The following are some names that have SC high on their list:

2.  Lache Seastrunk, RB (TX)

6.  Jackson Jeffcoat, DE (TX)

10.  Jeff Luc, LB (FL)

11.  Malcolm Jones, RB (CA)

13.  Ronald Powell, ATH (CA)

14.  Trovon Reed, WR (LA)

17.  D.J. Morgan, RB (CA)

23.  Markeith Ambles, WR (GA)

26.  Robert Woods, WR (CA)

28.  Dillon Baxter, WR (CA)

42.  Tony Jefferson, LB (CA)

49.  Sean Parker, DB (CA)

57.  Christian Thomas, TE (CA)

62.  Jake Matthews, OL (TX)

77.  Delvin Jones, DE (FL)

80.  DeMarco Cobbs, WR (OK)

92.  Pete Thomas, QB (CA)

Bold = Current Commits

Lot of speculation came out of the Army All-American bowl as to whether Lache Seastrunk favored us since he was wearing SC socks (picture above) during practices - in all likelihood, probably shouldn't put too much stock in it.

Malcolm Jones and D.J. Morgan are rated too high and Sean Parker too low IMO. The one player I wish showed more interest in SC is Lamarcus Joyner (#7 player in nation) - kid is absolutely ridiculous.

Orson Charles Chooses Georgia Over USC

My gut feeling was he would end up at Georgia, so no surprise here.  Wish him the best of luck in Athens.  If I had to root for any team in the SEC it would be UGA, so glad he chose them over Tennessee and Lame-ass Kiffen.

So with Orson out of the picture, what happens to our recruiting at the TE spot? SC's top priority will likely be Christian Thomas out of Palmdale.  I personally think Christian is by far and away the top TE recruit in CA and many believe he's an SC lean, although that might have changed recently if you believe his choice to attend UCLA's Junior Day over SC's is an indication.

Outside of Christian, Randal Telfar is another local prospect that has shown a lot of interest in SC.  He was recently at USC's Junior Day.

Josh Pinkard Gets His 6th Year, Jawanza Starling Signs, and Other Recruiting Updates...

A handful of updates since my last post:

• Jawanza Starling faxed over his letter-of-intent on Thursday morning.  This is the 2nd year in a row USC will pick up a recruit from Lincoln HS in Tallahassee, FL (FSU pipline).  There were thoughts last year, after we picked up T.J. Bryant, that Starling would be a prospect that the coaches keep an eye on; nice to see that fulfill over a course of a year.  I love seeing the inroads being made into the state of Florida.

Starling is a big-time get for SC since we will have a mass exodus in the secondary in 2010 similar to what we saw with the linebackers this year.  Jawanza is a nasty hitter with great closing speed and he's going to fit nicely alongside Drew McAllister, who looked very good in limited minutes this year. 

• USC also picked up LOIs from Simione Vehikite and Hebron Fangupo.  I haven't seen Simione play but from what I've read he's going to play the hybrid FB role behind Stanley Havili.

Hebron is another big-time get and candidate to get early PT.  There is a reason why he was rated the #2 player and #1 DT in the JC Top 100 - this guy is simply huge.  He should be key in clogging up the middle next season.  Last year we were a little light at NT, although Jurrell Casey stepped in and looked solid as a freshman; Hebron will split time with Jurrell and Christian Tupou. 

• Saving the best for last, Josh Pinkard received his 6th year of eligibility from the NCAA after injuring his knee two years in a row, which means he will forego entering the NFL draft.  Josh looked solid last season and more importantly stayed healthy. 

Josh will move back to his original position at FS.  This means our starting 4 next season will be Pink, Mays, Wright, and KeTo putting our secondary at the top of the list in the Pac-10.

I love how this secondary perfectly compliment each other.  KeTo will be the pure cover corner lining up against faster receivers while Shareece will make plays in the flats and blitz from the blind-side; Pink will make the natural transition back to the center field role while Taylor will essentially play a hybrid position of SS/4th LB taking away the corners.

Other Recruiting News

With Starling, Fangupo, and Vehikite signing, Chris Metcalf is the only commit left from the '09 class unsigned.  I was surprised that Chris didn't pull a Michael Bumpus from '04 and jump ship after seeing us pull in our DB class. 

He has academic issues which is the current hold-up, but I won't be surprised if Chris has a change of heart about coming to SC.  With Moore, Hall, McDonald, and Starling coming in, Chris will have a hard time getting any PT.  

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With 3 scholarships remaining, SC is still on the radar for Bryce Brown and Orson Charles.  Bryce (top-rated RB from Kansas) was by far and away the best player at the Army All-American practices/game.  (I'm still perplexed as to how Tajh Boyd earned co-MVP honors with Bryce).  Miami is still the favorite in this race with his brother Arthur currently enrolled there, although there have been rumors of Arthur looking to transfer, but SC is still definitely in the running.

Bryce has gone on record saying he wants to be used like Reggie Bush, so it's no surprise that he'll take an official visit to Tennessee next week and then likely SC afterwards.  I've seen a lot of Bryce and he reminds me of a cross between Reggie and Jonathan Stewart; he's compact and physically imposing like Jonathan but has great explosion out of his cuts like Reggie.  After the Army AA game, he was without question the #1 player in the nation in my mind; if he came to SC, he would overtake Matty B. as the gem of the class IMO. 

As for Orson Charles, TE hasn't been a big priority in this class with Blake Ayles looking like a future 1st round pick.  Orson showed nice catching ability at the Army All-American practices/game, but with SC being the early favorite for Christian Thomas next year, and again TE being a non-priority, I'm a little ambivalent in this situation.