Joel Klatt calls USC's recruiting ranking 'jarring'

Fox Sports college football analyst Joel Klatt called USC’s 2023 recruiting class “jarring” when he looked at the rankings.

USC finished its first season under Lincoln Riley with a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback in Caleb Williams and a berth in the Pac-12 title game, as well as the Cotton Bowl. It did not end on a positive note, but that type of season is good for momentum.

Or so Klatt thought when he looked ahead to next fall.

“Seeing them where they were in the recruiting rankings was jarring,” Klatt said on his podcast. “Lincoln Riley in this state should be able to have a top five recruiting class easy. I mean, Clay Helton was pulling in top classes … But you look back through the USC recruiting rankings, and it’s like it’s littered with top five classes, even when the program wasn’t doing a bunch.

“And so I thought to myself, like surely Lincoln Riley with the momentum that he’s generating is going to be able to just open up his back door and pull on the top five class and it wasn’t even close.”

Klatt mentioned the key of recruiting in-state for the Trojans.

“What you need to do in USC is you got to put a fence around the state of California,” Klatt said. “If you can do that you’re going to pull in a great class. And this is worrisome for me, and I know that they did a nice job in the transfer portal … But basically, there were about 20 players in California, you know, in the top 300 in the country right around there.

“19 to 20 players in the top 300 depending on who you use as a rating system, and USC got three of them. That’s not enough. That’s not enough. They should be doing much better with those players in their own backyard. And they need to do a lot better.”

USC has the No. 13 overall recruiting class in the 2023 cycle, per the On3 Database. The Trojans signed two five-star prospects, nine four-star prospects and 10 three-star players.

Going by the On3 Consensus, USC landed three of the top 10 prospects in California. That includes quarterback Malachi Nelson (No. 2), who is the No. 11 overall prospect in the class.

The others are wide receiver Makai Lemon (No. 4) and tight end Walker Lyons (No. 10).

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“They did get three of the top 10 in the state and the top 10 are all, top 150 nationally, but again, like you look at some of these other teams,” Klatt said. “Oregon comes in, gets four the top 10 players. You look around the country and you’ve got teams coming into California like Tennessee, Miami, Texas, Florida State, Georgia, Louisville or Notre Dame.

“I mean, it’s one thing if Oregon comes down, I kind of get it right … But when you’re getting poached from outside of your footprint, that is bad news.”