Last night the LB Poly standout committed to Michigan over USC, this was a shock to most SC fans as he was thought to be a "lock" in coming to the Trojans. As I have said before these are kids and it's hard to see what's really in their heads and the pressure is enormous. Looking at this at a glance I can see where people could be shocked but if you look at the whole thing closely it really not all that surprising.
SC has a lot of depth at defensive back and it would have been a monumental task for Warren to start as SC has some young players that are battle tested who will not go away quietly. He was going to have a tough time getting playing time, which is what all top recruits want. I saw a comment on Wolf's Blog that Warren's family had a personal relationship with one of the coaches at Michigan that may have been overlooked. The recruiting coordinator should know that type of information.
Success sometimes gets in the way, that's what happens when you have 3 top recruiting classes three years straight. That's a lot of talent stacked and some guys will choose to look elsewhere. At the end of the day maybe he didn't want to compete against some already great players that may have kept him out of the starting line up and to me if he didn't want to compete than I don't want him. That's not to say that he won't be a great player but SC has prided itself with players that come in WANTING to compete for the starting job that's a big difference.
At a glance here is what SC is pulling in this year-
5-Star players: 4-Star players: 3-Star Players:
Marc Tyler Jordan Campbell Samson Szakacsy
Everson Griffen Brandon Carswell
Kristofer O'Dowd Malcolm Smith
Chris Galippo Aaron Corp
Da'John Harris
Marshall Jones
Michael Reardon
That's a pretty impressive recruiting class and there are a ton of schools that would kill for that level of talent. SC may not have Quantity this year but they more than make up for it in quality. In shear numbers Florida, Texas, and Tennessee may have a better recruiting class but the average ranking of our class far outweighs shear numbers. And we are not done yet as we are still in the hunt for a number of top recruits.
Finally, it must be noted that no one knows, and I doubt we ever will, what the impact of Pete Carroll meeting with the Dolphins, Kiffin going to the Raiders and the Reggie Bush scandal may have had on SC losing out on some of these top recruits.
We're in good shape and it would have been nice to get/keep some of these players but you cant' win them all.