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O/NSO: The great recruiting reality edition

Greg Katzby:Greg Katz06/23/23
Jason Zandamela

The Obvious: Lincoln Riley and his aggressive band of assistant coaches have been pulling out all the stops with the June official visits, and that includes a luau pool party at the coach’s extravagant Palos Verdes Estates mansion overlooking the Pacific Ocean, breakfast on the floor of the Crypto.com Arena, a yacht cruise with personalized blankets for recruits, and an incredible display of USC spirit items in the rooms of recruits. The Not So Obvious: There is no question that even if a recruit decides USC isn’t for them, they will go back to their local communities and rave about their trip, which will resonate for a long time in the minds of recruits and those players that communicate with them who eventually could be future prospects. In a sense, an official USC recruiting trip can be a win-win situation because, in the era of the transfer portal, the Trojans could miss on a  recruit but reengage down the road.