When Pete Carroll was at the height of his powers at USC, the legendary coach made it a point to own the California recruiting scene. In turning the Trojans into perennial title contenders, Carroll set out to “put a fence” around the Southland, to keep all of its top prospects at home, in cardinal and gold.
It turned out to be a winning strategy. But recruiting the best players in your own backyard, as Carroll saw it, wasn’t really rocket science.
“It seemed like common sense,” Carroll told The Times in 2006, after the Trojans had signed back-to-back recruiting classes ranked No.