USC football recruiting frustrations can be tempered by specific memories

It has been a rough month of June for USC football recruiting. The Trojans have endured several decommitments which have dragged down the ranking of their 2025 recruiting class. Those decommitments have also reinforced the idea that USC isn’t yet back to being an elite heavyweight-level program. As we contemplate and digest these recruiting setbacks, however, it’s worth reminding ourselves that highly-ranked recruits don’t always pan out. A prominent example at USC: Korey Foreman.

USC fans would like to forget about him, but his story remains a cautionary tale:

At a media scrum after USC practice on Tuesday, Lincoln Riley — upon being asked by a reporter — said USC is considering giving a redshirt to Korey Foreman. This is a clear indication that no one should expect Foreman to be a significant contributor to the defense at any remaining point in the 2023 season.

We didn’t spend a lot of time discussing Foreman in the offseason because we were skeptical of him and didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up. We needed to see real improvement before we talked up Foreman as a likely contributor to this defense. That instinct — skepticism toward Foreman — proved to be a correct one.

We talked more about Foreman and recruiting in the opening segment of our recent show at The Voice of College Football:

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