As those who follow recruiting know, Mater Dei in Santa Ana is perennially one of the strongest high school football teams in the nation. It's the home of USC QBs Matt Leinart, Matt Barkley, and JT Daniels, as well as numerous Cardinal like Dave Bright, Curtis Robinson, and Osiris St. Brown (and Jason Forcier and Konrad Reuland went there but graduated elsewhere). It's of course a major feeder program of talent to USC.
An interesting thing is happening this year: Oregon is locking down Mater Dei talent and riding it to the best recruiting start of any team in the conference. Just yesterday, Oregon got a whale CB and a near-whale RB from Mater Dei. In total, that gives them (just from the same rising senior class at one high school):
38) LB Mase Funa
46) DB Jeremiah Criddell
131) RB Sean Dollars
297) DT Keyon Ware-Hudson
Few Pac-12 teams get a top four like that over an entire recruiting cycle, much less four guys from the same high school before the summer between junior and senior year has even started.
For my money, this is a bad development. It hurts USC more than anybody and to some degree that helps us, but Oregon is Pac-12 North competition for us and this is a major infusion of talent, notably to include the 240 pound Funa and 305 pound Ware-Hudson for a program that historically struggles more with beef than speed. [The caveat I should add is that these are verbal commitments and recruitments/recruiting trends can of course shift]
As for USC, they are experiencing an interesting recruiting dynamic of their own. They have a very respectable six commitments so far in the 2019 class, but OT Jason Rodriguez is the only 4-star. He's the only one who's even composite top 500. Three of the guys (a DB, QB, and DL) aren't even top 1000 composite. It's a very strange sight for those of us used to USC killing it on the recruiting trail. Presumably USC's coaches think these guys are significantly underrated by the recruiting services, but it's still an odd sight.
An interesting thing is happening this year: Oregon is locking down Mater Dei talent and riding it to the best recruiting start of any team in the conference. Just yesterday, Oregon got a whale CB and a near-whale RB from Mater Dei. In total, that gives them (just from the same rising senior class at one high school):
38) LB Mase Funa
46) DB Jeremiah Criddell
131) RB Sean Dollars
297) DT Keyon Ware-Hudson
Few Pac-12 teams get a top four like that over an entire recruiting cycle, much less four guys from the same high school before the summer between junior and senior year has even started.
For my money, this is a bad development. It hurts USC more than anybody and to some degree that helps us, but Oregon is Pac-12 North competition for us and this is a major infusion of talent, notably to include the 240 pound Funa and 305 pound Ware-Hudson for a program that historically struggles more with beef than speed. [The caveat I should add is that these are verbal commitments and recruitments/recruiting trends can of course shift]
As for USC, they are experiencing an interesting recruiting dynamic of their own. They have a very respectable six commitments so far in the 2019 class, but OT Jason Rodriguez is the only 4-star. He's the only one who's even composite top 500. Three of the guys (a DB, QB, and DL) aren't even top 1000 composite. It's a very strange sight for those of us used to USC killing it on the recruiting trail. Presumably USC's coaches think these guys are significantly underrated by the recruiting services, but it's still an odd sight.
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