Following the Early Signing Period in December, we took a hard look at USC’s recruiting class. At the time, it was ranked dead last in the Pac-12. With the February’s Signing Day behind us, let’s take one final look at the Trojans and examine where things went wrong and how they can do better next year.

The good news is, yes the Trojans did move up the rankings. The bad news? They only moved up from No. 12 to No. 10 in the conference and finished No. 55 in the country.

To put that in perspective: In the last 20 years, USC only finished outside the top two in the conference twice. And in both years, those classes still finished inside the national top 20.

USC was able to climb two spots by landing a pair of four-star recruits that we do like a lot. Gary Bryant, ranked No. 45 nationally in the 247Sports Composite, actually signed in December but announced his commitment at the All-American Bowl in January.

Bryant is a potential early impact player for the Trojans, even though the team is loaded with gifted receivers. He’ll instantly be the most explosive receiver on the team, the kind of player who can take a short pass, make a few guys miss in the open field and go the distance.

Also committing and signing during the late period was tight end Jack Yary. Yary is rated No. 383 in the 247Sports Composite but is much higher in the 247Sports rankings, checking in at No. 250 and a four-star prospect. He’s a talented tight end with size, hands and underrated athleticism.

Unfortunately for the Trojans, those two players were the only two added since December. They narrowly missed out on four-star running back Michael Drennen, who chose Kentucky on Wednesday night. That means the Trojans didn’t sign a running back or a quarterback in this year’s class.

They put out late quarterback offers to Blake Shapen, who chose Baylor, and Boise State commit Cade Fennagan, who signed with the Broncos Wednesday.

It was a small class numbers-wise. USC signed just 13 players but only had about 16 total spots to give out. That’s not trying to spin things — that’s reality. USC’s average rating per player wasn’t bad; 87.49, good for fourth-best best in the conference. But that’s not going to make many Trojan fans see the glass as anything but half-empty right now.

“Early on, the plan was to go quality over quantity,” said Gerard Martinez, a senior analyst at USCFootball.com. “They went hard after guys like Bijan Robinson, Bryce Young, Justin Flowe, Elias Ricks and Jalen McMillan and probably finished in the top 2-3 for all of them. They put a lot of their eggs in those baskets but came up a little short.

“On the flip side, they needed to stack their class with offensive linemen. They only signed two last year and one of those, Gino Quinones, is a converted defensive lineman. They signed six kids this year, that’s half their class, which is good. The problem is, those guys weren’t ranked that high so the national ranking took a big hit.”

The obvious underlying issue here is the uncertain job status of head coach Clay Helton.

“Kids want to know who they’re going to play for,” Martinez said. “They know coaches can come and go but they still make decisions based on the relationships they have with the people at those programs. When you hear Helton is going to get fired every week, it becomes a dark cloud over the program.”

The new administration in place, president Carol Folt and AD Mike Bohn, is in full support of Helton moving forward and it’s obvious they want him to succeed and be the long term answer. It will be interesting to see how that impacts the 2021 class and beyond but things are off to a good start thus far.

It’s early, but USC’s current four-man 2021 class is ranked No. 11 nationally in the 247Sports Composite Team Recruiting Rankings. It's headlined by La Habra (Calif.) five-star quarterback Jake Garcia, the No. 14 player in the country and third-ranked passer. Two four-stars are defenders are already in the hold — matching the number of four-stars in the entire 2020 class.

The staff has been revamped with a whole new defensive staff coming in. The Trojans’ recent Junior Day was very well received among the players and parents we talked with who were on campus.

“There seems to new energy, especially on the defensive side of the ball,” Martinez said. “New defensive coordinator Todd Orlando is a high-energy guy and the buzz from the recent Junior Day seems to be he’s going to be a lot more involved when it comes to recruiting.

“Now USC has to start the season in Dallas against Alabama, a place they haven’t played well the last two times they were there. At the very least, USC has to look competitive in that game. If they get blown out, that dark cloud is coming back and might be bringing some thunder with it as well.”