USC Trojans Predicted To Land Elite Four-Star Recruit Peyton Dyer Over Penn State

Still currently on his visit to USC, Steve Wiltfong of On3 logged a prediction in favor of the Trojans for Dyer. On3's Recruiting Prediction Machine has USC with an 88.1 percent chance of landing the Georgia native.

Prior to USC's big recruiting weekend, Tom Loy of 247Sports said that USC is the team to watch in Dyer's recruitment. Dyer has been courted by some of the best teams in college football including Georgia and Penn State.

"Georgia has made this one interesting. There is some chatter that the Bulldogs currently lead. On the flip side, Penn State believes it holds an edge. But the Trojans are ones to watch. Look for a decision later this month. This race is very close," Loy said.

The No. 24 cornerback and No. 32 player in the state of Georgia according to 247Sports, Dyer would become the fourth highest-rated defensive back to joins USC's class if he commits. He add some depth to the class after losing one of their 2026 commits to a reclassification.

The Trojans' 2026 recruiting class is filled with talent in the secondary. USC has four defensive backs committed to their recruiting class, but originally had more until four-star cornerback RJ Sermons reclassified to the 2025 recruiting class and elected to enroll this summer.

Still, the defensive back group is arguably the strongest part of USC's recruiting class.

The Trojans have two four-stars and two three-stars with Elbert Hill, the No. 10 cornerback and No. 4 player in the state of Ohio according to 247Sports rankings, leading the way for the unit. He is the most recent defensive back to commit to USC and became the highest-rated cornerback after Sermons reclassified.

Four-star cornerback Brandon Lockhart is one of the most underrated players in the Trojans' recruiting class. An early addition to USC's 2026 recruiting class, Lockhart pledged to the program back in late 2023 and has remained steadfast in his pledge.

USC general manager Chad Bowden said that the program would take the most amount of high school recruits they have ever this recruiting cycle, and with 27 commits currently, it looks like the Trojans are well on track to meet that mark.

"We're going to take the most high school kids this place has ever taken this year," declared Bowden. "I truly believe a culture can be built through recruiting, and it can be done, especially when they're from high school. We're [going to] recruit the most guys we ever have."