LOS ANGELES — If you thought USC football coach Lane Kiffin and his staff were going to buckle under the pressure of having to be perfect, think again.
Limited to 15 scholarships as part of the penalty for past recruiting violations, the Trojans didn't seem to slow down one bit. Wide receiver/safety Nelson Agholor of Tampa Berkeley Prep and defensive lineman Leonard Williams of Daytona Beach Mainland High School decided to leave Florida and play in Los Angeles. Both could end up seeing significant playing time next season.
The Trojans hope they scored big on the offensive line, where they need to replace All-American Matt Kalil and others. They signed three offensive linemen ranked by Scout.com among the top 13 at their positions: tackle Zach Banner, and guards Jordan Simmons and Max Tuerk. They also landed a tight end, Jalen Cope-Fitzpatrick, who's ranked No. 4 at the position.
Overall, Scout.com judged USC's recruiting class the 20th-best in the nation. UCLA and its new head coach, Jim Mora, were ranked 11th by the website. Texas, Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan and Florida make up the top five.
Agholor should provide immediate impact any time he catches a Matt Barkley pass, but Banner will probably make the biggest impact — literally.
Banner, from Lakes High School in Lakewood, Wash., is 6-foot-9 and 335 pounds, with excellent ability as a pass blocker. Some evaluators have said he's not aggressive enough on running plays, but with his size and athleticism — he is also a basketball player — Banner should only get better.
Athletic director Pat Haden has said repeatedly that for the Trojans to continue the progress they made in 2011 and overcome the NCAA penalties, they had to be perfect in their recruiting.
"We can't waste any scholarships," he said. "We can't afford to make mistakes the next three seasons."
It will be a while before Kiffin knows how close to perfect he came Wednesday, but he's very happy with his signees.
"Exciting class that we were able to sign," Kiffin said at Heritage Hall. "We wanted to make sure . . . that we looked at quality players who would come in here and fill specific needs for our team and for our roster next year and the next four or five years.
"We didn't reach. We had a specific plan targeting the highest-quality players. And while you're not going to get them all, we feel good about next year."
Kiffin said that getting quality offensive linemen was a top priority.
"We were able to add some very big offensive linemen, all different types and sizes of guys," the coach said. "In general with that group, size really sticks out. Really big guys who can play a number of positions on the line.
"On defense, we got a real good player in Leonard Williams, who will play defensive end. Hopefully, he can be a dominant defensive end for us. His size might force us to move him inside later on, but he should really help us on the outside right now. That's a big need for us."
If the majority of the recruits play as well as their projections indicate, USC could end up being better than the 10-2 team they were in 2011. But for the next two years after this, Kiffin and staff will feel the pressure of recruiting under the specter of only 15 available scholarships. When you throw Haden's mandate of perfection on top, recruiting at USC has become a daunting endeavor.
"Yes it has," Kiffin said. "We always evaluate (the recruits) in all areas, but even more than ever (this time). There are some guys who if we'd had (more scholarships) available, we'd have reached out to, or maybe taken some risk on — from a football talent standpoint or an academic standpoint — but we tried to really stay away from it. It's going to be really critical for these players to stay in our program and succeed in our program, on and off the field.
"We can't afford to get into a situation over the next three years where guys are transferring out or have academic issues. We really need guys who can compete in (the framework) of a very competitive program."
