Losing the recruiting battle for Matayo Uiagalelei shows Lincoln Riley still has work to do at USC

As good a season as USC had, it's disappointing that Oregon was able to steal such a talent from the Trojans' backyard

Matayo Uiagalelei is one of the most highly-touted high school prospects in the country and was one of the few elite players who hadn’t at least verbally committed before Wednesday’s early signing day. 

The USC Trojans were in the running to land the No. 2 ranked edge rusher in the country, but Uiagalelei chose to sign with Oregon, indicating that USC doesn’t yet command the respect on the west coast that it once did.

Lincoln Riley had a great first season with the Trojans and turned around a team that’s been sliding in the wrong direction for years. NIL and the transfer portal allowed Riley to accelerate USC’s revival and go from 4-8 to 11-2 much faster than has previously been possible in college football.

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However, as fast as premier coaches are now able to reboot programs in the sport’s relatively-new landscape, we are seeing that it still takes time to build credibility, even at massive football brands like USC.

Considering Uiagalelei played high school ball at St. John Bosco, practically in USC’s backyard, missing out on the five-star stings a little bit more, and not only because his individual talent won’t be aiding the Trojans next year. It says more about the state of the program as a whole.

In order for Riley and his staff to really elevate this program to the level it reached under Pete Carroll, controlling recruiting out of Southern California is a must. In USC’s glory days, programs in other states almost didn’t even try to tap the SoCal talent pool. All of the best athletes out of Los Angeles and Orange County simply wanted to stay home in the sunny weather and play for USC.

So, as good a season as the Trojans had, it's disappointing that Oregon was able to steal such a talent out of what should be USC’s territory, and it shows that the recent years of mediocrity are one of the reasons deterring some recruits from buying into what USC presently offers.

Now, this is one player, and it’s not the end of the world, though it would have been nice to have him. It’s also unrealistic to assume every SoCal recruit wants to stay in Los Angeles and play in the cardinal and gold.

However, there are other factors playing into the decisions these athletes make, and it’s more complicated now than ever before. The same factors that allowed Riley to build a winning team incredibly quickly can also be weaknesses for USC.

For example, through the support of Oregon alumnus Phil Knight and the Nike connection, an Oregon scholarship can come with a very enticing NIL package, likely better than anything USC’s donor base currently offers. It’s difficult to say for sure, but there’s a high chance that a large NIL deal played a role in Uiagalelei’s decision.

Broadly speaking, Riley acknowledged in his press conference Wednesday that his program probably lost some recruits because other schools offered more NIL money. “Yeah, of course we did. Everybody did,” Riley said. “Everybody’s priorities are different and who am I to sit up here and say that this is a correct priority and this an incorrect one?”

“USC’s priorities are going to be about the team first. It's going to be about the university and education first. NIL’s gonna be a part of it here and a tremendous opportunity, but it’s not ever going to be No. 1 on the priority list.”

Riley has a point. Money talks, and in this case, Oregon’s donors are louder. For a talented high school athlete like Uiagalelei, it’s difficult to turn down what could potentially be millions of dollars.

Maybe continued on-field success will be enough for USC to lock up the west coast and land all of the hottest recruits, but it’s a different game than it used to be. There are a ton of reasons a recruit, especially from SoCal, might choose USC over Oregon. Better weather, bigger market, closer to home, bigger brand, better education, more historic program. 

But right now the most important one might be NIL, and USC doesn’t top its own conference in that area.