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When Pete Carroll was at the height of his powers at USC , the legendary coach made it a point to own the California recruiting scene. In turning the Trojans into perennial title contenders, Carroll set out to “put a fence” around the Southland, to keep all of its top prospects at home, in cardinal and gold.

It turned out to be a winning strategy. But recruiting the best players in your own backyard, as Carroll saw it, wasn’t really rocket science.

“It seemed like common sense,” Carroll told The Times in 2006 , after the Trojans had signed back-to-back recruiting classes ranked No. 1 overall.

Yet since Carroll’s exit, his successors at USC haven’t made it look so simple. Any

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