Near the end of his post-practice media session today, Clay Helton was asked about the status of USC's 2020 recruiting efforts -- on a day where No. 1 OLB Justin Flowe left the Trojans off his top 4 list and top RB target Bijan Robinson committed to Texas.
Helton, of course, can't comment about individual recruits, but he gave a general response -- obviously with a positive spin.
"I'm not allowed to talk about recruiting per NCAA rule [in regard to individuals], but you know, this year is a little bit of a different year because last year we had max numbers. We're not going to have that this year," he said. "It's a smaller class so we've got to be selective in this class, and it's something I think as you go through you're going to see a team that's winning and hopefully we get to be really selective with guys. But it's a little bit different year for us numbers-wise than it was last year."
Helton was then asked if he's felt that it's a tougher recruiting pitch coming off a 5-7 season (it definitely is) and what impact that's had on the efforts.
"It's USC. The product of USC is special, and the one thing, the beauty about this place, it's never hard to recruit," he said. "The quality of the education, the opportunity to be developed by this coaching staff, to live in the great city of Los Angeles, those things are never changing. So it opens up all doors -- not only on the west coast but across the country. And that's what I've loved since USC since I've been here."
I think I know how the responses to this are going to go …
Helton, of course, can't comment about individual recruits, but he gave a general response -- obviously with a positive spin.
"I'm not allowed to talk about recruiting per NCAA rule [in regard to individuals], but you know, this year is a little bit of a different year because last year we had max numbers. We're not going to have that this year," he said. "It's a smaller class so we've got to be selective in this class, and it's something I think as you go through you're going to see a team that's winning and hopefully we get to be really selective with guys. But it's a little bit different year for us numbers-wise than it was last year."
Helton was then asked if he's felt that it's a tougher recruiting pitch coming off a 5-7 season (it definitely is) and what impact that's had on the efforts.
"It's USC. The product of USC is special, and the one thing, the beauty about this place, it's never hard to recruit," he said. "The quality of the education, the opportunity to be developed by this coaching staff, to live in the great city of Los Angeles, those things are never changing. So it opens up all doors -- not only on the west coast but across the country. And that's what I've loved since USC since I've been here."
I think I know how the responses to this are going to go …
