By Kyle Golik
With the news of Oaks Christian (Westlake Village, CA) four-star EDGE rusher Hayden Lowe flipping from Southern California to Miami, it is the latest blow to Trojan head coach Lincoln Riley continued failures of keeping elite California talent at home.
I detailed the recruitment of Lowe in a previous column where Riley once compared Lowe to former Oregon EDGE Kayvon Thibodeaux, who is also an Oaks Christian alum. When it came time to recruit Lowe, Southern California’s priorities went into Georgia in heavy pursuit of Justus Terry and Isaiah Gibson.
While the Trojans were able to land commitments from Terry and Gibson, the duration of that commitment was on par with a cup of coffee.
Lowe, who by all accounts, was a Trojan for life and even Lowe’s high school coach said all Southern California had to do was offer Lowe and he would commit.
Southern California, out of desperation, offered the No. 3 EDGE rusher by 247Sports and Lowe committed almost instantly.
As we all know in recruiting, the job of retaining that commitment is the job of the staff until the athlete signs a Letter of Intent or whatever NIL agreement that may now supersede that.
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Miami kept on hot pursuit of Lowe, someone had to be in Lowe’s ear or even Lowe himself realizing Southern California really did not covet him until they were rejected and wanted to find someone that prioritized him.
Lowe decommitted last week from the Trojans, pledged for Miami, then immediately after shut down his recruitment.
BREAKING: Four-Star EDGE Hayden Lowe has Flipped his Commitment from USC to Miami, he tells me for @on3recruits
The 6’5 248 EDGE from Los Angeles, CA had been Committed to the Trojans since June
“Respect my decision.”https://t.co/yODznjyD18 pic.twitter.com/VPmngfkj4P
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) November 13, 2024
“In order to be the best, you have to be coached by the best and someone that has actually went through what you’re going through,” Lowe said about his Miami commitment to On3. “So, I feel like nobody in college football has that power to instill what you want other than Jason Taylor — because he’s gone through it. He’s been against the best of the best. He’s gone through all the struggles, he’s won games, he’s won Super Bowls, holds records. There’s no other coach on the planet that can really give you the information that he can.”
There is no denying the resume of Jason Taylor, he is enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame for a reason, but I wouldn’t say Riley’s staff doesn’t have the credentials to get Lowe to the next level.
Defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn, who is seen as a fast-rising coaching commodity, molded former UCLA EDGE rusher Laiatu Latu into a Ted Hendricks Award winner for the nation’s top defensive end and unanimous All-American status to being selected as the first defensive player in the 2024 NFL Draft.
Defensive line coach Eric Henderson spent seven seasons in the NFL coaching linemen like Aaron Donald and Joey Bosa, along with defensive end coach Shaun Nua both won Super Bowls.
Miami was simply all-in on Lowe, there is no denying their position, and with Riley beginning to realize he needed to re-establish his relationships with California’s top high schools.
“Recruiting California is and will always be incredibly important to us and that is always priority No. 1,” said Riley. “My definition, our definition of recruiting California well is getting the right guys and I’m excited for our staff to continue building relationships inside the state, especially our defensive staff because some of those guys are obviously new.”
During Southern California’s recent bye week, the Trojans staff spent time at Mater Dei and St. John Bosco, where the Trojans have one commitment (as of this writing) between the Classes of 2025 and 2026 in St. John Bosco three-star cornerback Joshua Holland, something Riley has been heavily criticized for.
We appreciate HC @LincolnRiley @uscfb for stopping by this morning and meeting with our HC @raul3lara @MDFootball #RecruitMD #FightOn✌🏽 pic.twitter.com/1mmGubqWYD
— Rudy Cambero (@OLCoachCam) November 8, 2024
The rest of Riley’s staff also made visits to Sierra Canyon and Oaks Christian to help fortify pledges and relationships.
The efforts have certainly begun to pay dividends as Riley was able to flip five-star quarterback Husan Longstreet from Centennial (Corona, CA) who is rated the No. 4 quarterback in the nation by 247Sports. This was to replace Carrollton, GA five-star quarterback Julian Lewis, whose Crystal Ball is leaning toward Colorado, but Georgia has reentered the race.
Having that California commitment helps, but Southern California only has three of the Top 20 California athletes in the Class of 2025 cycle. Outsiders like Alabama, Texas A&M, Penn State, and Oregon – where it was mentioned from several California high school coaches see Dan Lanning more than Lincoln Riley, all have multiple Top 20 California athletes in this cycle.
That has to change for Riley to be successful. That will ultimately doom him and the Southern California boosters will buy him out if they continue to fail on the field and see California talent being exported rather than coming to Southern California.
