Recruiting: Defensive Tackle Kevin Scott to Take Official Visit to USC by Alicia de Artola

With Signing Day just over a week away, the final touches and last pushes are being made on recruiting classes around the nation. The USC football recruiting saga, meanwhile, has turned to a question of numbers. How many players can and the Trojans sign?

Technically, and for the first time in years, USC is limited to 25 initial scholarships after being limited to just 15 since the 2012 recruiting class.

Since the Trojans’ squad has been thinned as a result of scholarship limitations, Ryan Phillips of RumorsAndRants.com says that there’s a real possibility that USC could oversign to make up the numbers.

Talked to a #USC source earlier. Yes, Trojans do plan to take more than their allotted 25 on signing day. — Ryan Phillips (@RumorsandRants) January 27, 2015

Re: #USC tweet. I was told how Trojans would do it, wasn’t asked to stay quiet but others have been, so assume they don’t want it public yet — Ryan Phillips (@RumorsandRants) January 27, 2015

How could they do that?

The precedence has been set throughout the SEC for years. In fact, last year Tennessee signed a class of 32 players while their conference has become the poster child for skirting scholarship limits.

The key — atleast the legal one — is blueshirting, which we covered earlier this week.

The short explanation is that certain players beyond the official 25 can enroll and be eligible to play in the fall while technically counting towards the class of 2016. The loophole is available to players who have not been recruited in an official sense by USC. So long as they did not take an official visit, receive an in-home visit from Trojan coaches or get sent an official LOI by USC, those players could join the team in the fall.

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USC has already used that tactic with kicker Matt Boermeester, a JC transfer who enrolled in 2014 and was eligible to play last season even though his scholarship will be included in the 2015 class. In fact, Boermeester’s presence is the reason the Trojans are actually limited to 24 initial scholarships this recruiting season.

Of course, the plans to get around that limit are already coming into place. Chris Swanson of TrojanSports.com reported over the weekend that current offensive lineman commit Clayton Johnston is planning to take the blueshirt route.

#USC four-star OL commit Clayton Johnston says he’ll likely blue shirt and count towards the 2016 class: http://t.co/C4otjhDtXr” — TrojanSports.com (@USC_Rivals) January 25, 2015

Reports also have the Trojans offering a similar path to linebacker Jay Jay Wilson of Valencia. Wilson’s coach told the Santa Clarita Valley Signal that USC’s scholarship offer was an offer to blueshirt.

Tuesday night, the news that defensive tackle Kevin Scott will take an official visit to USC on Wednesday crossed him off the list of potential blue shirts.

Of course there are other ways to oversign, including grey shirting, which is essentially deferred enrollment, with a player sitting out the fall after graduation and enrolling in the spring.

Either way, with just 60 scholarship players currently enrolled, including five early enrollees who will count against the 2015 class, there’s reason to believe the Trojans will make every attempt to bring in as many athletes as possible to shore up numbers.

Are you ok with USC potentially oversigning in 2015? No, that's SEC cheating and USC should be above it.

Yes, low scholarship numbers have to be made up somewhere. View Results