Griffin and USC parted ways after he was informed to either stay committed to the Trojans and stop taking visits or reopen things if he wanted to stay on the road.

The four-star linebacker from Gainesville, Ga., opted for the latter and now he’s back on the market with Ohio State, Alabama, Texas and Florida State as the frontrunners.

Texas and Ohio State have been coming on strong but there are numerous reasons why my prediction is that Griffin ends up in Tuscaloosa.

He’s an Alabama legacy. He met with the Alabama coaches twice recently – and some of that prompted his de-commitment from USC. It’s a manageable four hours away.

There is one caveat: If Georgia gets much more seriously involved then the Bulldogs could have some significant pull here. There’s a chance the four-star linebacker makes it to Athens for the Scavenger Hunt this weekend but there is a lot of family stuff going on as well so his absence from that event could be telling as well.

Over the last couple weeks, USC had de-commitments from four-star receiver Kohen Brown and four-star linebacker Xavier Griffin.

It looked like the start of a repeat from the 2025 class when the Trojans landed all these out-of-region stars only to see numerous five-stars and four-star prospects back off their pledge later in recruiting.

This is not the same case.

The word coming down is that Griffin and Brown wanted to take other visits and USC is just not going to play that game right now. Maybe it’s a reaction to last year’s collapse especially from players in the Southeast or maybe the Trojans have a different recruiting philosophy under new general manager Chad Bowden, but this does not look like the same circumstances.

Even with the losses of Griffin and Brown, two very talented prospects, USC still has the No. 1 recruiting class in the country and has at least 10 more commitments than any other team in the country.

Only 10 pledges are from out-of-state. That’s a much different mix of recruits from last recruiting cycle so the Trojans should be just fine moving forward, even if there are some inevitable departures to come.

Oregon lost four-star quarterback Jonas Williams to USC. The Ducks missed on five-star quarterback Jared Curtis, who picked Georgia over Oregon in recent days.

The Big Ten powerhouse might still end up winning in the end, especially since this opens a nice pathway to focus on landing five-star quarterback Ryder Lyons.

Over the last few days, Oregon offered four-star quarterback Matt Ponatoski from Cincinnati (Ohio) Moeller but let’s not forget Lyons is basically a 2027 prospect since he’s taking a one-year Mormon mission.

So offering Ponatoski helps both sides – Oregon gets a quarterback but he’s not someone that would necessarily scare off Lyons once he gets to Eugene.

Recently, Oregon, Michigan and BYU have emerged as the leaders for the five-star quarterback. USC cannot be counted out while Ole Miss, Ohio State and others are involved.

The Ducks have had some painful recruiting losses recently – Curtis, Kayden Dixon-Wyatt, Jackson Cantwell. But Lyons would be a huge addition and with Williams and Curtis going elsewhere, Oregon might actually win out in the end.