Game can tip scales for recruits

By Joshua Mason
Daily Bruin Staff

With all that is at stake for both schools in Saturday’s
crosstown rivalry matchup, the most important prize for the victor
may be the edge that can be won in the recruiting trenches.

While many local recruits have committed to the school of their
choice already, several others remain undecided as to who they will
be signing with in February. The stories of close recruiting
battles for local stars run rampant in the history of the UCLA-USC
rivalry, and with the decisions of several blue-chip prospects
still lingering in the air, this year’s recruiting saga will
be one of which to take note.

“It’s really important to win this game from a
recruiting standpoint,” UCLA head coach Bob Toledo said.
“If there’s a guy on the fence, and he can go either
way, winning the game helps our cause.”

The Bruins have decisively won the early battle in recruiting.
They have already put together an impressive class of 16 verbal
commitments currently considered the second best in the nation, as
opposed to USC’s less-regarded commitment class of six.

“A lot of the battles are won early,” said Randy
Taylor, director of football operations at UCLA. “If you look
at the whole picture, when a guy chooses to come to one school over
another it might have been in June as opposed to
February.”

Of course, many decisions are made simply on the basis of
hometown loyalties.

“There are kids that grow up USC fans and there are kids
that grow up UCLA fans,” Taylor said. “Rarely does that
change. If you’re recruiting guys whose dads or brothers or
whole family went to USC, then it’s an uphill
battle.”

But then again, there are always those cases where the player is
on the fence. In last year’s recruiting period, rookie Trojan
head coach Pete Carroll was able to snag two Bruin targets in
defensive end Shaun Cody and linebacker Marvin Simmons when
UCLA’s season began to take a nosedive. Simmons, who had
given the Bruins a verbal commitment months earlier (on the same
day as Robert Cleary and Matt Ware), negated his agreement and
chose to join the Trojans instead, citing UCLA’s lack of a
defensive commitment as his reason for leaving.

“I think (Simmons) decommitted from here and committed
there because he probably knew he wasn’t going to get in here
academically,” UCLA freshman Jibril Raymo said. “But
(Carroll) did try to sneak in last year and grab everybody they
could. Even those of us that had already committed.”

But recruiting tactics will pull little weight during
Saturday’s game, when both teams will be forced to show why a
recruit should feel more comfortable on their side of town. The
game itself will be the biggest draw of the year for both schools.
Close to 50 recruits are expected to be at the Coliseum, and while
the Trojans will be hosting the players, to the victor go the
spoils.

“The game is a big one for recruiting,” said
freshman running back Tyler Ebell, who attended last year’s
contest after already giving his verbal commitment to UCLA.
“All the recruits we knew were at the Rose Bowl last year,
and we were all rooting for UCLA. The atmosphere of the game made a
huge difference in many people’s decisions, especially those
that were deciding between the two schools at the time.”

“I don’t know if anyone makes a decision based
entirely on that game, but it does make a difference and it gives
you bragging rights in town when you do recruiting down the
line,” Taylor said. “It’s traditionally about
four to six guys that both teams will end up battling for in the
end.”

Without a doubt the war on the field will extend itself to the
battle in the recruiting trenches.