Talent Tracker: USC hopes its Georgia efforts aren’t waste of time, a wide-open Big 12 and this week’s awards

Your weekly serving of college football roster acquisition thoughts — recruiting, transfer portal, you name it — from 247Sports Director of Scouting Andrew Ivins. 

Was USC’s recruiting push into Georgia worth it?

Trojans lose 66% of Peach State 5-stars

With Lincoln Riley preparing for life in the new-look Big Ten, the Trojans have spent more and more time looking for difference-makers in the state of Georgia. Last recruiting cycle, USC pulled a pair of promising pass-rushers out of the Peach State in Kameryn Fountain and Lorenzo Cowan as well as jumbo tight end Walter Matthews. 

The early returns on Fountain, a top-60 recruit who participated in spring practices after a favorable showing at the annual All-American Bowl, have been rather promising for a program that’s trying to rebuild a broken defense, but his addition might have given the Trojans a little false confidence in one of the most talent-rich regions of the country. 

Last week, USC’s 2025 recruiting class suffered a pair of major defections when five-star defensive linemen Justus Terry and Isaiah Gibson both backed off verbal commitments to USC. The news came as a surprise to some, but not to those that eat, breathe and sleep recruiting. After all, both are considered major priorities for Georgia, and Kirby Smart tends to get what he wants, especially at the point of attack. In fact, Gibson committed to Georgia on Monday, six days after his USC decommitment. 

We won’t turn this week’s column into a soapbox and make any proclamations that Riley and his staff should blacklist any and all Peach State recruits, especially as their recruiting efforts are certainly better than the preceding staff’s, but some self-awareness could go a long way, even in the Name, Image, Likeness era. Before Terry and Gibson, the Trojans tried to steal another blue-chip defensive lineman from the Bulldogs’ backyard in five-star Mykel Williams. The result was no different as the No. 7 overall prospect in the class of 2022 flipped his pledge from USC to Georgia two months before the signing period.

But what about Fountain? One could make the case that he’s the exact type of talent that the Trojans should be…