Not much had gone right for USC on National Signing Day.

The Trojans lost out on their top linebacker target, local four-star Madden Faraimo, as he signed with Notre Dame on Wednesday after recruiting analysts had tabbed USC the favorites. Four-star defensive tackle Christian Ingram, out of Georgia, was also projected to the Trojans but picked South Carolina instead.

Meanwhile, three-star linebacker commit Jadon Perlotte, also from Georgia, flipped to Tennessee, and USC came up short in late efforts to sway four-star defensive tackle Josiah Sharma (Folsom, California) off his Texas commit or uncommitted four-star defensive end Tobi Haastrup (Houston, Texas), who signed with Oregon.

But ...

In the midst of all of that, the Trojans won the biggest National Signing Day prize of them all in landing five-star defensive end Jahkeem Stewart, out of New Orleans.

Stewart, ranked the No. 8 overall national prospect in this 2025 recruiting class, was the highest-ranked uncommitted player entering the week, and the Trojans held off a late push from LSU after becoming the favorites in his recruitment following his latest visit to Los Angeles three weekends ago.

In all, the Trojans signed 21 prospects Wednesday -- including flipping three-star safety Alex Graham off his Colorado commitment -- and settled at No. 15 in the Rivals recruiting rankings.

But no win (or loss) was bigger than reeling in Stewart -- the most coveted prospect at the Trojans' biggest position of need and a potential future cornerstone for the defense.

“It was important. Jahkeem was somebody that we targeted very early on. The tough thing was, so did everybody else," coach Lincoln Riley said. "But he’s a neat young man. I mean, we got to spend a lot of time with him. He was able to come out to LA, several times throughout the process. And everybody sees the physical ability, the length, I mean, he has a very unique combination physically. But I do think Jahkeem’s mentality, the way he attacks and his confidence – he has a real, gritty, tough, hardworking mentality. And I think that is really what makes him such an outstanding prospect and made him a dominant high school player.

"And so, you look at guys and you’re like, all right, do they have the mental makeup, and do they have the physical, are they far enough developed physically to feel like that they can come in and make an impact? And I mean, he certainly has that. Like every other player on our roster, he’s going to have to come in and earn it. But knowing Jahkeem, I mean, that’s what he wants anyway. And so, nah, it was important. He’s one of the more talented defensive linemen that I’ve had a chance to be involved with recruiting. And it’s just, this is one of those things where everything about this just fit. We’re really glad he’s a Trojan.”

RELATED: Everything Lincoln Riley said on National Signing Day | See bios for all of USC's signees | Join the discussion on our Trojan Talk board

The 6-foot-6, 266-pound Stewart was so advanced physically that he reclassified from the 2026 recruiting class into this one, but ultimately an eligibility matter related to changing schools kept him from playing his junior season.

As a sophomore in 2023, though, he showed all he needed to show at St. Augustine HS while tallying 85 tackles, including 33 for loss (with 20 sacks), 6 forced fumbles and 2 fumble recoveries.

'I felt like when we watched him in high school that he was advanced enough, that he could’ve made an impact on a college field even as a high-school-aged player," Riley said. "I mean, you watch the way that this guy plays the game, it’s pretty impressive. ...

"But he’s a driven kid. He’s very confident, very, very hyper-focused. And everything that we know about him, and everything that we’ve been able to see when we’ve had a chance to evaluate him in person – we had zero hesitation to target him and had zero hesitation or questions about what he brings to the table here."

USC's team leader in sacks this season was linebacker Easton Mascarenas-Arnold with 3, while no Trojans defensive end had more than 2 sacks in what was the glaring deficiency of an overall improved defense.

Freshman Kameryn Fountain and redshirt freshman Sam Greene flashed late in the season, while sophomore Braylan Shelby remains intriguing if he can meet his potential, but there's no one standing in the way of Stewart coming in and pushing for a role immediately as a freshman.

In a recruiting cycle that may be defined for USC by the players who got away -- including several five-star defensive prospects -- closing on Stewart was a much-needed win for the staff, with defensive line coach Eric Henderson leading the way.

"Coach Henny is such a passionate guy. You feel the passion in the way he coaches. You feel the passion in the way he recruits. And then when you add in his track record and pedigree, proven track record of development behind that, he did a great job," Riley said. "He obviously had some great connections to Jahkeem, being from the same general area. Both of those guys hit it off early on. We had recruited Jahkeem before that happened, but having Eric here and our defensive staff was certainly a huge, huge part of our pursuit of Jahkeem and ultimately how it turned out here today."

Overall, USC signed five Rivals250 prospects -- Stewart, four-star QB Husan Longstreet (No. 88 overall national prospect, from Corona Centennial HS), four-star LB Matai Tagoa'i (No. 104, from San Clemente HS), four-star WR Corey Simms (No. 118, from St. Louis) and four-star OT Alex Payne (No. 196, from Gainesville, Georgia).

Longstreet, of course, committed last month as USC pivoted from long-time five-star QB commit Julian Lewis, who would end up at Colorado. The more and more Lewis continued to look at and visit other schools late into the process, the more USC ramped up its pursuit of Longstreet, who would back off his Texas A&M commitment to flip to the Trojans while visiting for the game against Nebraska three weekends ago.

"I give [QBs coach Luke] Huard a lot of credit. I think Luke did a really great job continuing to maintain a great relationship with Husan and his family at a point when we had another player committed at the position. I think as that relationship began to grow, you’re always constantly evaluating these guys, just like they’re constantly evaluating schools. That goes both ways," Riley said.

"I think this was really about Husan, and the more we got to know him, got to evaluate him, the more we got to see his mental makeup, how team-oriented he was, how serious he was about the game, we just felt like in the end there wasn’t a better fit for us. That’s eventually why we made the decisions we made. Really excited to have him. I think that all these players are so important, but the quarterback in terms of fitting into the program and what you’re trying to build is obviously an important piece. I feel like we landed on the perfect guy for us."

Ranking the Trojans' priorities in this recruiting cycle could involve some debate as they had so many, but along with finding a potential game-changing pass rusher and landing a top quarterback, next on the list might have been offensive line, as USC continues to try to restock and develop a foundation of young talent across the unit.

To that end, it was a nice haul for the Trojans to bring in three four-star offensive tackles in the aforementioned 6-foot-5, 265-pound Payne (a flip from North Carolina last month), 6-foot-8, 290-pound Aaron Dunn (from Spanish Fork, Utah -- a flip from Utah in October) and mountainous 6-foot-8, 365-pound Elijah Vaikona (Santa Margarita Catholic HS) along with three-star center Willi Wascher (Bellevue, Washington).

Then again, maybe an even bigger need was in the secondary, where USC is expected to lose all of its starters (if safety Kamari Ramsey leaves for the NFL).

USC signed five defensive backs in four-star cornerback Trestin Castro (Upland HS), four-star safety Kendarius Reddick (Thomasville, Georgia -- a flip from UCF in August), the aforementioned three-star safety Graham (from Detroit -- a NSD flip from Colorado) and three-star versatile DBs James Johnson (Douglasville, Georgia) and Stephen Miller (Greensboro, Georgia -- a flip from Mississippi State in October).

"Defensive back was obviously a high priority in this, with what we’re obviously getting ready to lose with having seven seniors and going to lose bare-minimum seven. And so, that was a very, very important part of this, and getting some different skill sets," Riley said. "We really tried to look at guys in the defensive backfield that we felt like had position flexibility, and guys that we felt like had the opportunity to come in here and compete early. Because we’re gonna need, we’re gonna need a little bit of that in that room. No question about it."

Last year on signing day, Riley noted that he felt linebacker signee Desman Stephens II was a bit underrated nationally, so on Wednesday Riley was asked who he'd say that about in this class and he circled back to some of those DBs.

"It’s hard to nail down one, but there’s a couple of guys in the class that I think people don’t quite know their names, but they will soon," Riley said. "Dee Reddick is one of my favorite players in the whole class. The way this guy plays the game, some guys just look different. I would put James Johnson, JJ, in that camp too. Both of those guys play live. The term is football players, guys where it’s very natural, the game’s easy for them. They did a lot for their respective high school teams. Those are two of the more versatile, dynamic players that we signed. There’s a lot on this list that I’m pretty excited about, but I’d list those guys.

"Castro had a phenomenal senior year here. Alex Graham just won a state championship at Cass Tech –- another guy that had a great senior year. That DB class as a whole is pretty exciting, and we need them to be. They’re walking into a great opportunity, and I think that was something that was certainly on the minds of these guys when they looked at us. They saw the opportunity to come in here and compete right away."

In terms of other big needs, missing on Faraimo and losing Perlotte (and a few weeks ago four-star Ty Jackson, to Florida) left USC with just one linebacker signee in Tagoa'i.

The Trojans did a little better on the defensive line in terms of numbers, adding size with three-star DTs Floyd Boucard (6-foot-3, 305 pounds, from Miami, Florida) and Cash Jacobsen (6-foot-5, 285 pounds, from Jenks, Oklahoma) and three-star defensive end Gus Cordova (6-foot-5, 255 pounds, from Austin, Texas) in addition to Stewart.

"Certainly, the lines of scrimmage, the defensive line, the offensive line, as you can tell, with what we’ve signed up to this point – were huge, were very, very important," Riley said. "We were able to get the numbers, the body types, the sizes. AndI know I’ve been asked a lot throughout the last year about how are we adapting and changing our roster, and one of the big things has been the added size, the added weight. And as we’ve talked about, there’s part of that, which is developing the guys in-house. And then the other part is, obviously, recruiting those body types. And you see, you see what we brought in here today, and there’s certainly a real effort to do that."

And then, of course, USC restocked on offensive talent per usual with three-star running backs Riley Wormley (Southlake, Texas) and Harry Dalton (Dinwiddie, Georgia), three-star tight end Nela Tupou (Folsom, California -- a flip from Utah two weeks ago) and three wide receivers in the aforementioned Simms, four-star Tanook Hines (Houston, Texas) and speedy three-star Romero Ison (Baltimore, Maryland), holding off late pushes from Georgia and Penn State in his case.

As noted, it's hard not to take stock of what could have been for the Trojans as well, as they endured a rash of high-profile decommitments dating back to the summer. That list of former commits includes the aforementioned five-star QB Lewis (the No. 6-ranked national prospect who landed at Colorado), five-star DT Justus Terry (No. 9, undecided), five-star DE Isaiah Gibson (No. 13, Georgia), five-star S Hylton Stubbs (No. 23, Florida), four-star WR Jerome Myles (No. 32, Texas A&M), four-star CB Shamar Arnoux (No. 112, Florida State), four-star DE Hayden Lowe (No. 162, Miami), four-star OT Carde Smith (No. 191, Colorado) four-star LB Ty Jackson (No. 235, Florida), four-star safety Dominick Kelly (Georgia), the three-star LB Perlotte (Tennessee) and three-star RB Daune Morris (Tennessee). (Four-star S Anquon Fegans, the No. 128 overall prospect, decommitted back in August of 2023 and ended up at Auburn.

Riley pointed to the earlier signing period -- coming right on the heels of the regular season and not allowing coaches to make the rounds with in-home visits in December like in past years -- as a factor in the uptick in decommitments and flips nationally.

Overall, he was pleased with where the Trojans ended up Wednesday.

Of the 21 signees, 16 will be early enrollees in January -- Boucard, Castro, Dalton, Dunn, Graham, Jacobsen, Johnson, Longstreet, Miller, Payne, Simms, Stewart, Tupou, Vaikona, Wascher and Wormley.

"It’s been a unique stretch, I think, for all of us in college football. And I’m proud with the way our program has handled this. I’m proud of our staff," he said. "I mean, so much goes into signing these guys. There’s years and years of work, travel, relationship-building, obviously so much going on in the world right now. And I think our staff did a really tremendous job. Excited about how the morning played out.

"I think it was pretty much expected for us. Kind of, after the last couple of days, we had really two kind of battles here at the end, or two kind of ones that we knew were gonna go down the wire. And one certainly went in our favor and one didn’t. And that’s a little bit of the nature of this right now. But we feel like we did a great job of addressing some of the biggest needs that we felt like were going to be important to our football team going forward."