USC's 2020 recruiting challenges are well documented.

Coming off a 5-7 season that would seem to leave head coach Clay Helton's future as tenuous as ever while he tries to stabilize his program, many of the top recruits on the Trojans' wish list are either taking a wait-and-see approach until the fall or have already committed to programs with less questions swirling.

USC is presently ranked No. 64 in Rivals' team recruiting rankings with nine commits -- including only two 4-star prospects in QB Bryce Young (Mater Dei HS) and WR Joshua Jackson (Narbonne HS). The program has never finished lower than it's No. 19 standing last cycle in the history of those rankings, which go back to 2002.

And even if the Trojans do indeed enjoy a renaissance on the field this fall to regain momentum with the top prospects, there remains a limit to what this class can be simply due to numbers.

As the dust has settled on USC's 2019 class, which included 26 initial signees, 23 remain (after two non-qualifiers and Trey Davis' decision to enter the transfer portal), while the Trojans also added 5-star Florida cornerback transfer Chris Steele and Tennessee grad transfer offensive tackle Drew Richmond. (Bru McCoy's transfer to and then back from Texas is factored into that 23 as he was already an initial counter for the Trojans.)

As Adam Maya noted in laying out USC's perfect 2020 class, the Trojans project at this point to have 11 spots available plus the usual annual transfer portal attrition that will create more spots. But regardless, this is going to be a much smaller class somewhere in the teens in terms of number of signees.

That said there's still plenty of opportunity for USC to significantly impact its eventual 2020 haul.

For the purposes of this column, we are ranking the remaining top targets by priority and need. This does not include the nine present commits. Obviously, keeping Young in the class is a top priority. This ranking is the for the priority uncommitted or flip targets.

Also, this is TrojanSports.com's take and may well differ from USC's official recruiting board (*we note one specific expected difference below). Further, there are good players not on this list who USC continues to pursue.

Without further ado ...

Flowe is as much of a sure thing as there is in terms of evaluating high school prospects and their potential. He will be a difference-maker wherever he commits, and given that he's in USC's extended backyard and has been in the program's sights for years his ultimate decision will be a difference-maker one way or the other for the Trojans' recruiting class as well.

Landing him would go a long way to salvaging some satisfaction from a fan base that is not going to react well to the inevitable final recruiting rankings. More to the point, USC got fortunate to reel McCoy and Steele back into the fold after the fact and adding Flowe would further help offset at least some of the concerns about too many top Southern California prospects getting away.

Flowe is highly interested in some of the Southeast power programs like Clemson and Alabama, though, and if that's where he ends up it will be viewed as a costly byproduct of USC's stumbles last fall.

Flowe has been consistent in maintaining that he needs to see the Trojans have a big bounce-back season if the program is going to have a real chance in the end.

"If the season goes good with them then my opinion might change with them. I still like them, though, a lot," he told TrojanSports.com last month.

Meanwhile, he took a visit to Clemson last week that seemed to leave a strong impression on him.

In the rankings: Flowe is the No. 1 OLB and No. 2 overall prospect in the 2020 class

Decision plans: Flowe has said he could announce a decision in December during the early signing period or wait until National Signing Day in February.

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