Joel Klatt had a notable reaction to Southern Cal’s recruiting rankings, as the Trojans wrapped up the most recent recruiting cycle ranked No. 12 in the 247Sports team rankings.

“Seeing them where they were in the recruiting rankings was jarring, to be honest with you,” Klatt said. “I look at USC and Lincoln Riley in this state should be able to have a top-5 recruiting class, easy.”

Klatt then said Clay Helton brought in some top recruiting classes, although not the final cycle as Trojans coach, but previously.

“Even when the program wasn’t doing much,” Klatt said.

That’s why Klatt figured Riley could “open his back door” with the momentum the program has, and pull in a top-5 class.

“It wasn’t even close,” Klatt said. “More specific is the struggle that they had when it comes to the state of California.”

Klatt admitted that USC did well in the transfer portal, but noted that there were about 20 players in the top 300 from the state of California. The problem is USC got 3 of them.

“That’s not enough,” he said. “They should be doing much better with those players in their own backyard.”