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Every day, at least back before life changed for everyone a month and a half ago, USC offensive coordinator Graham Harrell, tight ends coach John David Baker and offensive quality control analyst Seth Doege would carpool to and from campus together.

The three Texas natives and former college quarterbacks from the Lone Star State -- "Team Texas," as they're known around the program -- had been with the Trojans for almost a year when the thought originated.

If USC was going to rejuvenate its recruiting efforts and compete for top prospects nationally, they figured, then those recruits needed to see Los Angeles the way Harrell, Baker and Doege had come to see it. They needed to gain the perspective three small-town Texas guys had gleaned in not only adjusting to life in the big city but coming to truly appreciate it -- so much so that Harrell would sign a contract extension this offseason amid considerable outside interest.

As those three were on their regular commute one day, the idea was hatched.

"We talk about everything under the sun, and the idea came from really driving home and thinking of everything that this city has to offer," Doege said. "... We just thought that we need to create a video that maximizes the beaches, the sunsets, the palm trees, the major league sports in this city, the music concerts, the superstars that play and live here and that you have access to every day that you wake up. Obviously, the kids that live here know that, but if we're going to recruit nationally and a handful of our kids are going to come from Texas, a handful maybe from Florida, a couple kids from the Jersey area or whatever, Maryland, maybe Missouri, those kids have never been to LA.

"And we really thought, with us all three being from Texas, and really being from small towns in Texas and then going to school in small towns in Texas, when we got out here we were kind of intimidated thinking of LA, 'Oh man, this city, I don't know, we'll just get lost in it.' Then you live here and you're like this is one of the best places in the country. I don't ever want to leave, you know what I mean? It just felt like we need to put out a video that showcases everything this city has to offer."

The 1-minute, 22-second video, which is pinned to the top of the USC football Twitter account with more than 57,000 views, was sent to USC's commits and top targets and started circulating from some of their own accounts on March 24 (racking up plenty more views that way).

It was, in itself, a singularly strong idea by the staff and a well-executed concept by the Trojans' video team, but most important is that it wasn't a one-off notion -- it was symbolic of a couple larger points.

It reinforced that this coaching staff is setting its sights nationally and is intent on reminding today's recruits why USC has long been a premier destination for elite prospects -- something that seemed to get lost as the Trojans slumped to National Signing Day in February to finish with the No. 65-ranked recruiting class nationally.

The video also served as a prominent harbinger that the offseason makeover this program underwent, from the overhaul of the defensive staff to the beginning steps of augmenting the recruiting staff, has come with a more concerted, unified public presence as well.

And fans have noticed.

As USC has ushered in a wave of high-profile commitments over the last month and a half -- six and counting since March 11 -- each announcement has been followed by a cascade of tweets from seemingly every member of the football staff celebrating both the moment and the lead recruiter, to a level that wasn't happening before. Or it's a nearly 2-minute video produced about USC's history of developing DBs and shared by offensive and defensive coaches alike.

More than anything, this has all been especially fortuitous.

The USC football program's commitment to creating a greater social media imprint for itself just so happened to immediately precede and then coincide with this unprecedented time, in which that digital presence is as valuable as ever with regards to football recruiting.

"The biggest thing right now is to do everything we can to bring LA to the players," USC cornerbacks coach Donte Williams said. "It's hard right now because we can't get them on campus. I know we're fortunate that we happen to be -- in my opinion -- the best city in the world, so that helps us out a lot. At 'SC, the education speaks for itself, the alums speak for itself, so right now we're just trying to do as much as possible to make sure the players, the parents, that everyone sees the things that USC has to offer without truly being on campus. ...

"With the social media presence right now, the whole deal is bringing USC to them virtually."

With USC recently climbing all the way up to No. 6 in the Rivals recruiting rankings (now at No. 8), several key catalysts of that turnaround opened up to TrojanSports.com about what's changed since February, the emphasis to get the program's message out there, the behind-the-scenes efforts and why there is such internal optimism for where it is all leading.

"Just from a football culture standpoint on our staff right now, it's unbelievable because everybody's on the same page," said USC director of player personnel Spencer Harris, who coordinates the recruiting department. "We're just really unified right now, and it doesn't matter what position you're coaching, what side of the ball you're on -- there's just an extremely good feeling right now of our process."

That LA-themed video is the jumping-off point in discussing this broader topic of USC's burgeoning recruiting resurgence because it was so unlike anything the Trojans' social media efforts had involved in recent years, and therefore it sort of signaled a new way of business.

"It was pretty much shock and awe. We hadn't really produced anything like that," Harris said of the reaction he heard. "So I think it was just the whole concept of it and making sure every single recruit got it and they were posting it, all of our commits, just kind of the overall feeling that day ... It put us on the map for social media that day and definitely caught the attention of our recruits and fans and other programs."

Harris said the video -- which was put together by staff producer Tanner Vonnahme with supervision from director of video production Rich Rodriguez -- was an involved process as the football and recruiting staffs took the idea from "Team Texas" and offered additional thoughts and suggestions along the way.

"It was probably back in December-January when we started talking about it, and we'd seen some other schools do something similar. I've seen a video from Texas, when I was back at Washington we did something similar with Seattle, and we definitely felt like just selling LA as a whole was a missing piece in our recruitment," Harris said. "Obviously with everything that goes on in this city, we need to showcase that as much as possible, both to our local kids knowing that they can stay here and this is your home, this is where you grew up, and obviously the non-local kids to show what LA is all about.

"We consistently were trying to find different tweaks -- hey, we're missing this, we want to show this, trying to get the order right and the details of it, make sure we're capturing LA and every sports team and geographical shot and what not."

Indeed, the video takes viewers through aerial footage of downtown, Staples Center, Dodger Stadium, the Griffith Observatory, Hollywood, the Santa Monica Pier and of course the Coliseum, with clips of the Lakers, Dodgers, Rams, the LA film and concert scene and ultimately Trojans QB Kedon Slovis throwing a touchdown to Amon-Ra St. Brown set against the soundtrack of Dr. Dre's "All in a Day's Work."

Again, Doege said he, Harrell and Baker looked at it from their perspective -- if they didn't understand the full gamut of advantages the USC experience offered until they got here then how could recruits coming from backgrounds similar to theirs?

Doege thought about the leisure and entertainment options abound, being able to take his daughter to the beach anytime he wants, having some of the biggest brands and athletes in professional sports right down the road, etc.

He and the others also had the perspective of having been recruited athletes -- Doege and Harrell played quarterback at Texas Tech and Baker played QB at Abilene Christian -- and Doege said he tried to look through that lens.

"Not only you're working at one of the premier spots in the country -- USC -- and I think people forget that. I mean, this is USC, and traditionally I don't know if it gets much better," Doege said. "... So to me it was like, the weather, I can go to the beach, I'm working at one of the elite places in the country, how does it get better? So if you think of it from a kid's perspective, OK, all right, I'm going to school at one of the major academic schools in the country, I can get to the beach whenever I want to, and anytime I'm working football I'm outside in beautiful weather. To me, it's an easy sell, right? That's kind of our pitch."

New USC defensive line coach Vic So'oto came to the Trojans from Virginia, but he grew up in Southern California in Oceanside and had his own LA/USC memories already ingrained. When he learned of the concept for the video, it made perfect sense to him.

"Most of the general input and mine as well was just 'How can you feel what this place is without being here?'" he said. "Because LA really sells itself, but then marrying the two that USC is LA and LA is USC and trying to put all the ideas in a one-minute video, Spencer took off with that and it turned out really, really good."

Perhaps the biggest domino in USC's recent recruiting momentum was landing a commitment from 4-star running back Brandon Campbell, from Houston, Texas. The Trojans, with so many coaches having deep Texas roots, have made recruiting in that state a major emphasis.

And Campbell's commitment was interesting because unlike the other prospects who have announced Trojans pledges this spring, he's never been to campus or Los Angeles.

Campbell would announce his commitment a few days after that USC-LA video came out, and while it wasn't a cause-and-effect situation -- he was poised to commit regardless -- recruits like him were the precise target audience for the production.

"Really, it just made me excited, got me more excited to get down there and stuff," Campbell said. "It looks beautiful out there. I mean, I can't see who really wouldn't want to live there. [RBs coach Mike Jinks sent it to me and] he just said, basically, 'This is your new home. Let's build it.'"

Campbell, a top-200 overall prospect, is a good example in a number of ways for what the Trojans are hoping to be able to do recruiting-wise despite the restrictions created by this pandemic and the national shutdown of all on- and off-campus recruiting indefinitely.

The USC staff has not relented in targeting elite prospects nationally despite not knowing when or if they'll be able to host them on recruiting visits before those recruits make their decisions.

As So'oto put it matter-of-factly: "We're USC and that is the mindset. This place is not for anybody to be average, and I'm going after the guys that are the best in the country because the best [belong] at USC. So, 5-star, 4-star, for me it's how do we get the USC that I grew up watching to be what we put on the field now?"

In Campbell's case, the Trojans staff led him on a virtual tour via Zoom, where he got to speak to an academic advisor and learn what he would on a typical college visit.

"It was them showing everything they have to offer, facility-wise, academic-wise. ... They tried to make it as close to a visit as they could and try to put me in front of all the people that I had questions for and my parents had questions for," he said.

Again, Campbell's decision was already made at that point, but the staff is hopeful such creative workarounds can help close the deal with other top recruiting targets.

All the while, it's as important as ever that they continue reinforcing their message publicly during these unusual times.

"I feel like it's very important because the more you stay in the social media eye doing the right thing and doing it the right way, I feel like it just keeps you in everybody's head and keeps you around and keeps everybody talking about you, which I feel is good for recruiting and for the recruits we're really going after," Campbell said.

That USC was already well down the road of making improvements in that area was the fortuitous part, with that video being sort of a tone-setter for a new social media presence at large.

"It just happened to be when the whole world's looking at their phone, it just played into our favor," Doege said.

The most compelling part of the message, though, is how the USC football staff has collectively bought in and brought the movement to life.

It's become anticipated content after the Trojans land a commitment to see all the gifs and comments from the staff.

Those interviewed said to a large degree, the social media banter has just come organically and reflects the continuity and attitude permeating through the football office now.

Well, the general mindset has come naturally, that is -- mastering the celebratory gifs came easier to some than others on staff.

"Obviously we have a group chat with all the coaches and the recruiting department as well. Well, anytime we get a commitment, coach [Clay] Helton will tell the group, 'Hey I just got off the phone with a certain player, he's given me his commitment.' Everybody will send gifs of funny, excited, let's go or whatever," Doege said. "Well, coach Mike Jinks, he didn't know how to do that on his phone, so every time somebody sent one he would get mad and respond like, 'Hey, how do you all do that?' People would just give him a hard time with another gif -- nobody would ever explain to him how to do it -- and it was almost like, it was just kind of picking on him and he would get so mad. Well, finally he figured it out, and it's nonstop gifs from Coach Jinks."

Said Williams, laughing: "I'm not going to lie, Jinks is still ahead of me. I am not the technology king. I may be good at ideas, but technology I'm not the best."

It's not just after commitments, though. Last week it was Harrell reinforcing Baker's tweet about why WRs/TEs should be taking a close look at USC's offense, and So'oto playing up wide receiver coach Keary Colbert's tweet about the Trojans' rich WR history.

"I think it's the camaraderie of the staff, to be honest with you," Doege said. "... That allows us to be active on social media because we're all spitting the same language and we're all spitting the same message and we're having fun with each other. You should see my cellphone with how many group chats there are with different coaches, and then it's not always about [football]. Yeah, we're always sending information to each other, but it's constant comedy of videos of guys cooking, of guys playing with their kids. That's what makes it special because you can't have that type of relationship on social media if you really don't believe it.

"You preach it all the time as a coach, you want to have that tight chemistry in the locker room. Well, to me it starts with the coaches, and to me we've found it here at USC. I'm a coach's son, so I grew up around coaches my whole life -- so I know what it's supposed to look like from a family and atmosphere. We finally have that here. And the best thing about it is the kids that we're recruiting, and our players, they feel it. That just allows us to be who we are. None of it's fake."

Williams added "this is just all who we are" while So'oto said "it kind of just happens."

"I think that's usually from a recruit's perspective or the general public, when it's authentic that's the best," So'oto said. "I've always been active on social media, but especially in this time when we can't have any recruits on campus, can't have in-person contact with anybody, it's been a huge tool for us to just let people know who we are and how we interact and post messages that we want out into the world for everybody to see. Social media, I think it's been critical at this time."

While having the coaches independently engaged in promoting the program in this way is an asset, there is certainly a component of organization to the plan overall.

Harris noted that more recruiting videos to showcase what USC has to offer are likely on the way, suggesting future ones might take a more specific look at, for example, the business opportunities going to school at USC and in LA can offer.

Meanwhile, an area where USC simply has lacked the manpower previously has been in the way of graphic design and creating content to send recruits and have them share on their social media accounts. In the last couple weeks, a number of key USC targets have tweeted out graphics showing them sitting with Helton at a future NFL draft, or caricatures like an artist on the boardwalk might produce.

Those latter images, shared by Campbell and 4-star WR target Quaydarius Davis (Dallas, Texas) came from an idea new defensive coordinator Todd Orlando had and were actually outsourced, while the department's interns deserve a lot of credit for some of the other creations.

Which leads to a significant point in all this ...

While it was expected that new athletic director Mike Bohn's commitment to doubling the size of the recruiting department from essentially five full-time staffers to 11 would impact the production and digital presence of the program, most of those hires haven't actually gone into effect yet. (Read our in-depth feature on Bohn's strategy and plan for USC football here.)

Because of the hiring freeze brought on by this pandemic, only three new hires formally went through -- that being new director of graphic design Alex Verdugo, director of high school relations Armond Hawkins Jr. and assistant director of player personnel Drew Fox (promoted from graduate assistant) -- and then another spot opened last month when graphic designer Ryan Miller left, leaving Verdugo as the lone full-time graphic designer.

That means, for instance, that Trey Johnson, USC's director of scouting/recruiting strategy, is still playing a lead role in running the program's Twitter account for the time being in addition to being one of the lead talent evaluators.

The master plan for the program is to eliminate such double responsibilities as the staff is expanded with four more additions still to come in creative capacities. Ultimately, the Trojans will eventually be adding a director of football marketing and branding, director of football-specific video production (Rodriguez works with all sports), an assistant director of football video production and another graphic designer.

"It's not done yet because of this hiring freeze. ... What you see on social media right now is just the beginning of what it's going to be. We're going to do some really cool stuff once it's going," Harris said.

But they've managed to start putting this plan in motion nonetheless.

"In this day and age, you have to have a presence on social media and you want to have the biggest presence on social media," Harris added. "Especially at a place like USC where we have so much to sell here, and we really to be honest were a little bit behind some of those major programs, and felt like we really needed to catch up and make some investments in it and make some investments in people and positions and really invest our focus and come up with a plan -- a daily, weekly, monthly plan on what we need to do on social media.

"A lot of this, the new coaching staff has helped a ton. We take ideas from everybody. ... I think it's just that transition to this year and bringing in a new staff, returning so many players, the culture is just really good right now. I don't want to knock what happened last season or the last staff. Football is funny like that -- it feels like a long time, [but] it can change really quickly in a short amount of time."

Indeed, it was just a little more than two months ago that USC wrapped up the 2020 recruiting cycle with no buzz whatsoever -- well, no positive buzz at least.

The Trojans added just one signee on National Signing Day -- 3-star tight end Jack Yary -- while losing final recruiting battles for 4-star RB Michael Drennen II (to Kentucky) and 3-star QB Blake Shapen (to Baylor). This after having a previous silent commit, 4-star CB Darion Green-Warren, flip to Michigan in January, continuing a trend of seeing top targets -- more to the point, top local targets -- land elsewhere.

USC had never finished outside the top 20 in the Rivals recruiting rankings, which date back to 2002, before landing in a tie for 65th with East Carolina and dead last among Pac-12 programs. The program chose not to even make Helton available for the customary signing day press conference.

"Signing Day was pretty tough. But that's just what it was, it was a really small class, we really like the guys that we did sign. I think there's some really good pieces there with six offensive linemen. But moving forward, we want to be, or we need to be in the upper echelon of those recruiting rankings and I think that's where we will be," Harris said. "... We trusted our process and trusted what we were doing, trusted our evaluation and I think the fans and the media will see those results in these next classes. Like I said, the whole staff is all-in to the process and we just want to win. Everyone is all-in to every step of the process in order for USC to win football games."

USC already has three times as many 4-star commits in this 2021 class (6) as it signed in the entire 2020 class, and after landing just one of the top 25 in-state players last cycle the Trojans are so far recruiting California better than anyone with 5 of the top 25 in-state prospects committed (and 7 of the top 35).

While Helton's long-term status will again be evaluated through the 2020 season, the cloud of uncertainty that has hung over him and the program the last two years seems to be lifted somewhat with the high-profile staff investments made this offseason. (It's at least not as much a talking point from recruits as it was the last two years).

But not only did the Trojans change out their defensive staff, they strategically brought in a group of aggressive recruiters to fill those roles.

Whereas former defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast was mostly disengaged from the recruiting process, Orlando is relentlessly involved. After USC was unable to land any defensive backs last class -- despite trying -- Williams comes in with a reputation as one of the most successful recruiters in the country after his work at Oregon, and safeties coach Craig Naivar might be the most underrated addition of the bunch after following Orlando from Texas. So'oto, meanwhile, already has the Trojans in play for several top defensive linemen, including quickly building a strong relationship with No. 1 overall 2021 prospect Korey Foreman, who de-committed from Clemson last week.

And that's the other part of the equation, of course -- the highlighted public improvements are only impactful if supported and set up by everything that happens behind the scenes.

"I believe [social media] is a big piece, but at the same time you have to be able to build relationships. If you're not building relationships with people, you could give them all the content in the world, but if you have no relationship built it doesn't matter," Williams said. "KC's a great recruiter, Graham's been a couple other places, Clay's been all over. You've got TO who has been all over and been a great recruiter. You've got Craig Naivar who is a great recruiter. Vic who has been at different places and seen it done a different way because of course at BYU and Virginia they do it [different] than most schools. We all have came together and provided a level of expertise."

The early returns are already encouraging from the new defensive staff in particular, as the Trojans recently landed three DB commits in 4-star safety Anthony Beavers (Williams and Orlando played key roles, along with Naivar, in a collective staff effort), fellow local 4-star safety Calen Bullock and 3-star safety Xamarion Gordon.

High-upside 3-star offensive linemen Mason Murphy and Maximus Gibbs and Campbell, the 4-star RB, have rounded out the recent wave of commitments since March 11, joining a class that already featured 4-star QB Jake Garcia and 4-star OLB Ma'a Gaoteote -- both Rivals100 prospects -- along with 4-star DT Jay Toia.

"Literally, I wake up at 7 a.m., I'm on the phone, and the majority of time I'm a night owl, I may go to sleep at 2 a.m., and I'm still on my phone texting," Williams said. "So it's literally all day -- FaceTimes, text messages -- it's all day. There's no time of the day I'm not doing it. It's how it is. I couldn't even tell you how many players I talk to a day, but it's a ton because it's a lot more than just DBs. As a staff we recruit a lot more than just our own positions."

Said So'oto: "I couldn't put a number on it, but texting, DM-ing and reaching out, I'd say there's a lot of guys. But then getting on the phone, I'd say between 10 and 20 real conversations and then FaceTiming a couple more. But a typical day is wake up, recruit, get something to eat, recruit, get lunch, recruit, get dinner, recruit and then go to sleep. That's basically it."

As for the forces at play behind the scenes, Harris joined USC last April after working in the recruiting departments at his alma mater Washington and then Fresno State. He credits Helton for supporting and letting him implement his vision for the department and credits Bohn and senior associate athletic director Brandon Sosna for recognizing the recruiting staff was undermanned and acting on the recommendations of he and football chief of staff Joseph Wood in initiating those pending staff additions.

Sosna and Wood went to work immediately the day after the Holiday Bowl loss to Iowa, holding a marathon meeting that lasted several hours to discuss not only recruiting needs but all issues within the program. Subsequent meetings with Harris, Wood and Sosna helped formulate the plan for staff additions moving forward, and Sosna -- with a background in budget management, having spent time as the Cleveland Browns' salary cap and contract analyst -- got creative to figure out how to make it all work.

With regard to Harris, while most fans may not know what he does, those in both the recruiting office and athletic department at large are quick to spotlight his impact in this recruiting turnaround.

He, Johnson and Fox lead USC's scouting efforts, working with the coaches to identify and evaluate prospects, while Harris also organizes the recruiting efforts overall and manages that department.

Taking from his experiences at Washington and Fresno State, Harris has tweaked some of the processes for the coaching staff in determining which prospects USC will choose to pursue, requiring the coaches to ask and answer questions that paint a deeper perspective on prospective targets.

But most important in these unusual times is having an organized plan of attack.

"We are recruiting more than ever right now and that's in a lot of different senses," Harris said. "Every week our coaches have assignments to A, evaluate younger guys, so they're evaluating film on our recruiting database and typing in notes and connecting with those high school coaches on social media or text or phone calls to get background information. They're texting their assigned guys to text every day, so it's anywhere from 5-10 people they text every day, and they get a different list every day -- whether that's the recruits or their parents or their 7-on-7 coach, whatever it is, the people close to him.

"And we'll give them assignments to get guys on the phone with Coach Helton. So they'll be assigned a couple guys every week -- hey, you need to get this guy on FaceTime with Coach Helton. Sometimes those are really quick calls, sometimes they're longer. We've been setting up Zoom calls where we're getting our academic staff on it, our strength staff on there, Coach Helton goes through his whole recruiting pitch, and those are the guys we're closer on and we're treating it as, this is our unofficial visit. ... The recruits can feel the energy from us nonstop."

That's the overarching point to all this -- whether it's through an increased social media presence, an influx of new assistant coaches who have made an immediate impact, or simply remaining ever present with the program's top targets in general, the most encouraging development from the USC football program has been laying the foundation for a potentially significant recruiting turnaround during the most unideal of circumstances through this pandemic.

All of the coaches and staff interviewed were asked their opinion on the biggest reason for that, and perhaps Williams summed up the common theme of the answers best.

"The biggest key is how we all gel together. I think that's the biggest key -- us doing it truly as a team," he said. "It's one thing to say it, it's another thing to do it, and right now we're all on the same page from head coach down.

"We all feed off each other, and the greatest thing ever is sometime when we don't even have conversations about this stuff but we're so much on the same page, when that player talks to different people we have the same message. ... It's like you would think that we've been around together for years on years because we're already on the same page, which usually takes forever for that happen."