UCLA and USC have both underperformed in 2018. Before they go head-to-head for the Victory Bell on Saturday, Daily Bruin Sports took a look at the two struggling programs to see which school was in more pain in three different categories: coaching, recruiting and quarterbacks.
USC recruiting – 0
USC had the No. 4 recruiting class in the country in 2018, and it has plenty more help on the way.
The Trojans currently own the top-ranked recruiting class in the nation for 2021. Despite owning the No. 29 class in 2019, USC will still bring in seven four-star recruits and seven three-stars. That also means that the Trojans are in line for the best overall slate of recruits among the Pac-12 schools for the next three seasons.
With so much talent scheduled to be coming in, it is hard to deny that the Trojans are best positioned to take over power within the conference – especially since they already have some foundational pieces in place.
Freshman wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown – a five-star recruit in 2018 – has already been making his presence felt this season, averaging 55.8 receiving yards per game.
Freshman and former five-star recruit JT Daniels has also proven that he is worthy of the starting job at quarterback for USC. The Trojan signal-caller is averaging 220.7 yards per game through the air this season, good for seventh-most in the Pac-12.
UCLA coaching – 2
UCLA hired Chip Kelly just under a year ago in an effort to revitalize a program that was hovering around mediocrity for too long.
In his first year with the Bruins, Kelly made it clear that youth was the priority, but it came at the cost of winning in the short term. UCLA lost its first five games of the season and is currently sitting near the bottom of the Pac-12 South with a 2-5 conference record and a 2-8 record overall.
However, there is no reason for fans to panic about Kelly or the $23 million that the school shelled out to get him.
A program-record 20 freshmen took the field for the Bruins this season and many of them proved that they belonged. Freshman quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson struggled a bit, but he showed that he could be a good fit with Kelly for the foreseeable future despite being recruited by former coach Jim Mora.
With time and a few more recruiting cycles, Kelly will finally have the roster he envisioned when he took on the challenge of turning UCLA around, and fans can expect to see the success shortly thereafter.
Although it is easy to be discouraged by the potential two-win season on the horizon, there are brighter days ahead for the Bruins.
UCLA quarterback – 4
Thompson-Robinson may have lost his starting job to graduate transfer Wilton Speight, but don’t let that fool you – Thompson-Robinson is still the future.
No matter how well Speight played against Arizona State last weekend, this is still his final year of eligibility. Devon Modster – who started two games for the Bruins in 2017 – left the team earlier this season and will be transferring to another school. Like it or not, Thompson-Robinson is the quarterback for UCLA moving forward.
The reality is that Thompson-Robinson got beat up this year, both on the field and off it. He injured his shoulder against Arizona and Oregon and has an above-average 8.9 percent sack rate. The true freshman has been under fire on social media, and his father posted a public rant against Kelly early in the season. This season has been an eventful one for the former four-star recruit, but his on-field performance has been overshadowed by the drama.
Thompson-Robinson has thrown seven touchdowns in roughly six and a half games, and he owns a 1.75-to-one touchdown-to-interception ratio – better than Daniels. And while Thompson-Robinson’s 57.7 percent completion percentage may not pop out, it is 0.5 percent higher than Daniels’.
Don’t forget that Thompson-Robinson was the No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in the nation last year. He has carried the ball 30 times for 207 yards, and his 6.9 yards per carry are the second most among Pac-12 quarterbacks with more than 15 attempts.
A bumpy freshman year wasn’t the start UCLA fans were expecting for their quarterback of the future. They wanted the next Marcus Mariota, but people need to be patient.
He’ll be here soon.
USC quarterback – 6
Daniels was never going to have a great freshman year.
Daniels graduated high school a full year early – it was easy to anticipate his inconsistencies on the field. Daniels has three multi-interception games and three games without a touchdown this season, but he has also hit the three-touchdown mark two times.
And while Thompson-Robinson was the No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in the nation, Daniels was the No. 2 pro-style quarterback recruit in the country. And he really plays like a pro-style quarterback – he only has 35 rushing yards this season.
But while Thompson-Robinson has had a veteran backing him in Speight, Daniels has had the weight of the entire USC program on his shoulders. Daniels is roughly as efficient as Thompson-Robinson statistically, but with the drama in the USC locker room – with midseason coaching changes and coach Clay Helton’s flaming-hot hot seat – Daniels’ development is up in the air.
Kelly can be trusted to develop dual-threat quarterbacks, like he did with Mariota. But while Helton has proven he can work with young quarterbacks such as Sam Darnold, who knows how the Trojans’ next coach is going to handle Daniels’ development.
UCLA recruiting – 8
The Bruins are slow to hit the recruiting trail this year.
It’s not like Kelly is in dire need of five-star prospects though. He built his career in Oregon on three- and four-star system fits with one five-star to round it all together.
The only concern for UCLA is that Kelly isn’t swapping quality for quantity like he did at Oregon. The Bruins don’t have any four- or five-star recruits, and they only have nine commits at the moment compared to the Trojans’ 14. Kelly was able to sign 30 recruits last year, but that number seems like a stretch this time around.
Kelly’s No. 1 recruit this year is tight end Michael Martinez, but Martinez ranks No. 524 overall and No. 24 among tight ends. Martinez is 6 feet, 6 inches, which gives him good size for his position. Plus, he is from a UCLA pipeline school, Mater Dei High School. Martinez’s high school teammate, safety William Nimmo, is the Bruins’ No. 3 recruit, and he also has good length for his position at 6 feet, 1 inch.
The Bruins also earned a commitment from offensive guard Beau Taylor, who played high school football with Thompson-Robinson at Bishop Gorman High School. Taylor is 6 feet, 5 inches and is one of UCLA’s four out-of-state commits.
This is Kelly’s first full recruiting cycle, and although he has brought in some quality depth pieces, he still might be behind schedule.
USC coaching – 10
USC thought it had its head coach of the future when Clay Helton led the Trojans to the Holiday Bowl as an interim in 2015. Three years later, however, Helton is reportedly on the hot seat.
USC is likely going to finish the regular season at or below .500 for the first time under Helton, and with the expectations that come with coaching the Trojans, it would be wrong to assume his job is safe.
Last season, a loss to USC cost former UCLA coach Jim Mora his job. Will we see the reverse Saturday?
Either way, it is clear that the Trojans have regressed in 2018 and Helton is going to take the fall. There will be a number of big names on the coaching market this offseason, so USC would be foolish not to at least look into every possible option.
With a promising freshman in Daniels at quarterback, a new coach would also have time to get on the same page with the young signal-caller.