After an offseason characterized by turnover within the football program -- both of the expected and unexpected variety -- USC was dealt another personnel setback last week with the loss of recruiting coordinator Eric Ziskin.
Ziskin oversaw and coordinatored the Trojans' recruiting efforts in recent years and had spent more than a decade in various roles within the program overall, breaking away temporarily to live overseas in Norway during the 2016 season.
Head coach Clay Helton publicly acknowledged Ziskin's departure -- which was reported Sunday -- after practice Tuesday.
"In regards to recruiting, we lost a really good man in Eric Ziskin. In February, Eric told me that he's going to get out of the profession, spend more time with family and choose another line of work. I wish him nothing but the best," Helton said. "He's done such a great job for us over the years and has been a tremendous service to our program."
USC had previously lost another key cog in the recruiting department when Alex Rios left in September. Rios held the title of director of recruiting, while Ziskin was officially assistant athletic director/recruiting and player personnel.
The Trojans added Kelsea Winkle, a recent graduate of Colorado State, as director of on-campus recruiting last month, along with Gordon Thomas, a former walk-on center at Temple (2014-17) and Owls football operations assistant in 2018.
Helton clarified Thomas, whose title is assistant director of football operations, will "help manage our day-to-day operations of our team and assist our recruiting staff."
Those two join a department that includes Gavin Morris, who is in his fifth year with the program and was just recently named assistant athletic director/player development (a change from director of player development), and assistant director of player personnel Trey Johnson (hired in June 2018 from Liberty).
Ziskin and Morris were usually the key bridges between USC and a recruited prospect since Rios left, taking the lead in communication with a majority of top targets.
Replacing Ziskin with an experienced and effective hire is a pivotal move that can't be understated in importance, especially with the Trojans coming off their lowest-ranked recruiting class (No. 19) in the history of the Rivals rankings (back to 2002) and with many top 2020 targets taking a wait-and-see approach with the program coming off a 5-7 season.
Ziskin helped USC to a No. 3 finish in the national recruiting rankings with the 2018 class.
Helton said he hopes to have the hire completed in the next 2-3 weeks, reiterating that it's important to have that person in place before the start of the NCAA's next off-campus evaluation period on April 15.
"Well obviously he's got to have organizational skills as well as being able to run a department, be able to scout, be able to have personality when people come on campus. It's somebody that has to be able to basically be like your general manager," Helton said of what he's looking for in the position. "That's what EZ did for us. You look at the job he did over several years now, if I can grab another EZ that would be great. He's hard to find, but we'll do a good job of locating him."
Helton noted that while Ziskin expressed his plans to him in February, he offered to stay on through spring break. Helton said Ziskin's last official day was two Thursdays ago.
"We've already got some candidates that we'll be interviewing," he said. "It's a little bit off time with spring ball and interviewing, but I'm hoping by the end of spring ball when we get into the recruiting period -- which is April 15 to May 31 -- that we'll have our guy in place. As you know, it's such a big hire. It's like having an OC, a DC, a special teams coordinator, strength and conditioning, this is a big hire for us and I'm not going to rush into it. Especially when that recruiting piece comes April 15-May 31. I'll have somebody in place by the end of spring ball."
Helton was asked if there is any long-term plan to grow the size of the USC recruiting staff, which is smaller than that of many other major programs.
That does not sound like it's going to happen, however.
"Right now, it is a four-man team. You added [Gordon Thomas], which helps with five, and then you have your graphic designer. So it's really six people in that area, plus all your coaching staff, plus your GAs, your QCs (quality control coaches) can be involved with on-campus recruiting and things like that," he said. "So right now that's where we're at."
