USC Loses Another

[Ironman8]

Another Trojan transfer per ESPN:

James Boyd arrived in Los Angeles with potential to be a superstar. He leaves after bouncing from one position to another and coming up short of his potential.

At Jordan High School in L.A., Boyd starred in baseball, track, basketball, and especially football, being named to several All-American teams. He entered USC as a tight end and redshirted his freshman year in 2009. He didn't play much more in 2010, probably because he bounced around from tight end to quarterback to defensive end without finding a home.

Scott Wolf of the L.A. Daily News reports that Boyd has cleaned out his locker, and the staff at USC expect him to transfer to another school.

Boyd had also been a bench player for USC's basketball team.

 

[RyCo1983]

Any word on where he is transferring to?
Love seeing them lose guys...Now they will have to recruit younger ones with even less experience.

 

[IrishLax]

Was he a WR? A lot of these transfers are actually helping USC.

 

[Ironman8]

Was he a WR? A lot of these transfers are actually helping USC.

He was an athlete, they had tried him at both TE and DE the past 2 years.

 

[Irish Fam]

I don't think this will have a major impact on their program, it is just nice to see players leaving Kiffin and crew.

 

[ThePiombino]

Not so sure losing a marginal player, hence freeing up a schollie for another shot at a productive player, is a good thing for anyone other than USC....

 

[GoldenIsThyFame]

As IrishLax suggested, this is helping them. Kiffin is cleaning out some of the bench players so he can bring in young talent. I realize that new recruits would have less experience but this guy would have maybe played sparringly for one year so I doubt he was going to provide any leadership or experience when they are in desperate need of scholarships over the next two years. I suspect this will be a continuing trend especially in the next year or two with his most recent class. He is going to find the players that can play and the others are going to "transfer". Those 7 available scholly's will quickly become 15.

 

[BGIF]

...Now they will have to recruit younger ones with even less experience.

ND has to recruit 17 and 18 year olds and give them, particularly the OLs, a couple of years to develop. Southern Cal can bring in 20 year old Jucos and plug them in, like they did with O.J. Simpson and so many others.

 

[Old Man Mike]

Taken in moderation, this trend of losing some transfers probably DOES help alleviate the USC scholarship crunch. But it's a dangerous psychological game. If the high schoolers of California begin to envision USC as a place which didn't give people much of a chance [even if that impression is overstated], some of those kids might think that this is not the place for them. Every disgruntled player who feels rejected by a staff/program probably sullies some waters back home. Every school has to face this, of course, but it might just bite a concentrated recruiting network like USC's southern California domain. Here's hoping anyway.

 

[IrishLax]

ND has to recruit 17 and 18 year olds and give them, particularly the OLs, a couple of years to develop. Southern Cal can bring in 20 year old Jucos and plug them in, like they did with O.J. Simpson and so many others.

Hits the nail on the head. The SEC isn't dominant because they over-sign... it's because they can over-sign AND farm the JUCO ranks like a minor league baseball team.

Short at a position this year? Go sign one or two good JUCOs who won't finish their degree. While schools like Nd have to take a chance on a 3* player, keep them on their roster for years and hope they develop, guys like Lombardi winner Nick Fairley can grow and develop on someone else's dime and get plucked when they're ready to contribute.

For those that don't know, Fairley spent two years at a community college (redshirted his first year there), then transferred to Auburn where he only got two starts before ended up winning the Lombardi award as a 23 year old "junior" with a year of eligibility remaining and about as many college credits as I came out of HS with (no exaggeration).

How messed up is it to think he could have played for another year at age 24 and not even be close to graduating? That is what is wrong with the JUCO farm system, that is why ND doesn't take JUCOs, and that is why USC should be mentioned in the same academic breath as the Auburns and Ohio States of the world when it comes to football and not the Notre Dames, Michigans and Stanfords. (While Michigan does take an extremely rare JUCO, practically none of the credits transfer and they basically start over as a frosh.)