USC ended the 2024 recruiting cycle with 22 signees and a No. 18 ranking from Rivals.

All the very fair hand-wringing over the fact that the Trojans landed none of the top 10-ranked prospects in California and only two of the top-25 in-state recruits took place around the early signing period in December. It's definitely a glaring statistic and is a matter to closely monitor moving forward.

But as a whole, USC built some very fresh recruiting momentum since then, thanks to the high-profile hires on the defensive side in new defensive coordinator D'Anton Lynn, co-DC/defensive line coach Eric Henderson, linebackers coach Matt Entz and cornerbacks coach Doug Belk.

That momentum is tangible as six of the Trojans' final seven commits in the class were on the defensive side, and USC wrapped up this recruiting cycle by signing three intriguing defensive prospects Wednesday -- former three-star Washington DT signee Ratumana Bulabalavu (who was released from his Huskies NIL after the coaching change there), former three-star Michigan State LB commit Jadyn Walker (who formally flipped his commitment on signing day) and local four-star CB Isaiah Rubin, who had been committed since October but didn't sign in the early signing period.

Also include in that conversation four prospects from the early signing period who had committed after former DC Alex Grinch was fired and as the Trojans were compiling this new defensive staff -- four-star LB Desman Stephens, three-star DE Jide Abasiri (formerly a Minnesota commit), three-star LB Lorenzo Cowan (formerly a Kentucky commit) and four-star DT Carlon Jones.

To rally that many high-upside prospects on one side of the ball that late in a recruiting cycle is about all that could have been hoped for when the staff changes were made.

No, a No. 18 recruiting class and losing that many in-state recruiting battles is not the results this program ultimately needs, but from where it was in late November to where it ended up provides plenty of reason for optimism moving forward.

We brought in Rivals national recruiting director Adam Gorney to break down the three final signees in the class and share his overall thoughts on how USC finished this cycle.

The big news Wednesday was USC 'flipping' Michigan State commit Jadyn Walker -- what are the Trojans getting in the linebacker from Michigan and what was your reaction to how it unfolded?

Gorney: "I don't think it was necessarily surprising because it seemed like he was looking at USC very seriously. The timing was a little strange because he had first mentioned Thursday, so it was a little surprise that he had announced it early on Wednesday morning. It looked like it was trending USC for a while there down the stretch -- he had kind of distanced himself from Michigan State a little bit.

"What USC is getting is a physical linebacker. I don't know if he's going to end up as an edge guy. I don't know if he's going to end up as an outside linebacker. But wherever he plays he likes to knock people around and sort of has what you'd think of as a Midwest linebacker [makeup]. His speed, we'll see there. The speed he's going to see at the college level is a lot different than what he sees in Portage, Michigan, but in terms of a physical hitter that wants to hit people and knock them around, he's a good around."