LOS ANGELES — As soon as Greedy Vance Jr. got a handle on USC’s new scheme, he didn’t want to see what anyone else had to offer. After the 5-foot-11 Florida State cornerback hit the spring portal in early April and committed to USC more than a week later, his arrival created an immediate surplus of luxury resource.
Vance Jr. started five games with the Seminoles last year, a program that came a very public snub away from a dream College Football Playoff appearance; suddenly, with a few months before fall camp, he was walking into a USC room already brimming with two experienced transfers, three veteran returners and a stockpile of eager freshmen. But USC had a slight need, still, for depth, after cornerback Tre’Quon Fegans transferred.
And Vance saw, from a distance, how defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn orchestrated a one-year revitalization at UCLA in 2023. He didn’t mind competition. So USC got Greedy.
“That was the thing to me, knowing that this group can be very special, knowing that this team was 8-5 last year and they was a couple of stops on defense away,” Vance Jr. said in late July at USC’s media day. “They got a new staff, they confident in what they want to do, what they’ve been asked to do.
” “So I feel like, being a part of this will be special.” Really, the program was more than a couple of stops away last year, the secondary in particular simmering with such dysfunction that players visibly threw their hands up over multiple communication breakdowns during a November loss to Oregon . In the midst of a full-scale overhaul that’s since brought in Lynn and former Houston coordinator Doug Belk to man USC’s defensive backs, the group has shone at every possible public turn, holding off Louisville in a 42-28 win in the Holiday Bowl and the Trojans’ own offense in their April spring game .
As UCLA transfer John Humphrey has been fully cleared after an injury in spring camp, and Vance Jr. and Mississippi State transfer DeCarlos Nicholson continue to develop, there might not be a deeper room on USC’s roster this fall camp than in the secondary – particularly at cornerback. “Coach Belk always tell us, this squad’s gonna go as far as we go, as a defensive back group,” Vance Jr.
said. Belk truly believes that, he confirmed with a smile in late July. And on paper, there’s more depth for optimism in USC’s cornerbacks than at any point in head coach Lincoln Riley’s tenure.
Belk said Tuesday he’d “hopefully” look to play at least eight to 10 defensive backs weekly, a range that would allow for several combinations beyond a starting package. “I’ve learned that – man, we got some dogs in our room,” Nicholson said Tuesday. The question, however, is what cornerbacks fall on the fringes of that rotation, as Belk said there were “six or seven guys” repping between starting and backup units.
Nicholson is all but entrenched at an outside spot, his lanky 6-foot-3 limbs an ideal fit for Lynn and Riley’s vision for length in USC’s secondary. Vance Jr., too, is likely to start at nickelback, as Pro Football Focus tabbed him allowing just 13 catches on 29 targets last season at Florida State.
Humphrey, a key fixture in Lynn’s defense at UCLA in 2023, will factor into the mix with redshirt senior Jacobe Covington for another outside spot. Another veteran in the mix, junior Prophet Brown, played well against Louisville. Add in likely starting transfer safeties Kamari Ramsey and Akili Arnold, plus returning safeties Zion Branch, Christian Pierce and Bryson Shaw, and USC is already full on Belk’s quota.
“I could see it, honestly, going a lot of different ways right now,” Riley said Tuesday. A potential odd man out through the first half of fall camp is senior Jaylin Smith, who was USC’s second-leading tackler and defensive MVP in the Holiday Bowl. After he didn’t play in the spring with injury, coaches have been adamant on Smith as a more fluid piece, able to morph between cornerback, nickel and safety.
There’s plenty of positive to that. It also means he hasn’t nailed down a spot. “You’ll see him moving around day to day,” Lynn mentioned in late July.
“And where he’ll be involved, that kinda depends on how the rest of the defensive backs turn out.” There’s a fleet of freshmen vying for snaps, too, from spring standout and St. John Bosco alumnus Marcelles Williams to Texas product Braylon Conley, whom Riley complimented had “really caught some eyes” the first couple weeks of camp.
But Belk and Lynn have their hands full at the top, already, with veteran depth. Not a bad problem to have. “We have some confidence coming out of the spring game,” Belk said in late July, “and I think it’s only going to go up from there.
”.
