USC will have younger squad in 2015 after scholarships increase
The restocking process for USC has begun. The process, however, will take a little longer than some would expect.
For the first time in four years, USC will be able to sign a full 25-member recruiting class on National Signing Day. (It should be noted blue shirt kicker Matt Boermeester counts towards the 25 players USC can sign in February. A blue shirt is non-recruited player who is awarded a scholarship after the start of fall camp. That scholarship counts toward the next year's recruiting class.)
The NCAA allows member teams to have 85 scholarship players but the Trojans won't be there in 2015.
USC began 2014 with 67 recruited scholarship players. The team entered the Holiday Bowl with 65 recruited scholarship seasons due to players who left the program during the season.
Based on that information, of those 65 players, 12 are seniors, leaving the Trojans at 53 recruited scholarship players heading into National Signing Day.
That number of 53 is before you subtract any transfers or underclassmen who leave the program early, such as Leonard Williams, who announced his intentions to enter the NFL Draft earlier this week.
The number is tentatively 52 with there still being some players yet to announce their NFL futures and the standard attrition that happens from year to year.
So getting from 52 to 85, in terms of recruited scholarship athletes, in one recruiting class won't be possible.
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"The reality of it is we'll be in the mid-70s next fall," USC head coach Steve Sarkisian said of the scholarship situation.
So, the deck still won't be completely stacked for the program immediately, but it's certainly a step in the right direction towards getting the numbers up.
The USC football team was fairly young in 2014, with plenty of contributions coming from true freshmen. In 2015, the Trojans will be even younger.
"When you think about the players we signed last year (and) the players we signed this year you're looking at about 44 freshman or sophomores on our roster," Sarkisian said. "We'll have some youth but we'll have more depth."
Depth is something the program hasn't had the luxury of having in recent years.
