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Chris Steele was an eighth-grader the first time Donte Williams took notice of him. Little did either know then how tangled their paths would become over the next several years, ultimately leading to both ending up at USC.

After a few earlier close calls, that is.

That all made the ultimate outcome a bit kismet for Steele, now the Trojans sophomore cornerback, and Williams, the cornerbacks coach hired away from Oregon in February.

"I was always his guy. I was always his ideal boundary corner, and he's always been my ideal coach, so it's cool for us to actually be together now," Steele said while joining the Trojan Talk podcast.

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Their backstory, while not at all the driving factor in Williams ending up at USC, nonetheless made for an obviously intriguing subplot to his arrival.

Steele went in-depth on how their connection formed from the earliest moments of his recruiting process and how it led to some tough phone calls along the way as his recruitment took a series of twists and turns.

"Everybody knows that we have a really good relationship," Steele said, telling the story from the beginning. "When I was actually in eighth grade we had a 7-on-7 thing -- every Trinity League team had a feeder 7-on-7 team and we were all playing against each other, so I would play for [St. John] Bosco. We practiced during their spring ball ... Donte walked in one day and he was like, 'Hey, Coach Negro, who's this kid here?' talking about me. ... He was at San Jose State at the time and I didn't really know who this dude was.

"I started talking to him my freshman year a little bit, and then sophomore year he offered me at Arizona. The relationship just went on from there. He offered me at Nebraska, I almost took a visit out there."

And when William got to Oregon in 2018, things really got interesting.

Steele was heavily conflicted on his college choice coming out of high school and that aspect of his story is well-known now. He committed to UCLA early, later committed to USC, ultimately signed with Florida and then transferred to USC after a semester in Gainesville, Fla.

Meanwhile, he had come close to choosing Oregon out of high school, and then upon entering the transfer portal from Florida, Steele actually publicly committed to the Ducks briefly before later explaining that family matters helped steer him back to USC.

"Donte tells me all the time that I'm the only recruit who ever broke his heart twice," Steele said. "I was supposed to [join him] out of high school, ended up committing to USC. And then I was going to commit to him and I ended up committing to Florida. I went to Florida, was supposed to go Oregon and then ended up at 'SC. I think that says a lot about our relationship. He understood that it was never personal with me and him, so he never held a grudge about it or anything. He let me know if I ever needed anything he was going to be there for me and he held through with that."

That said, Steele still vividly recalls how stressed he was about making that call to Williams at the end of his initial recruiting process to say he was going to Florida.

"It was definitely one of the hardest things I've ever had to do in my life," he said. "My mom can tell anybody better than I can, but the night before signing day -- this was in high school -- me and my mom took a ride in the car and I was in the car crying, 'Mom, I don't know how I can tell Donte I'm not playing for him.' It was bad.

"It was definitely one of the hardest things for me to do, because when you're going through the recruiting process, what I realized is a lot of coaches have on these masks, you know -- they put on this face that's not really who they are. Donte was really one of the only coaches recruiting me who kept it solid the whole way through for three, four years. For four years, he kept it solid. It was real difficult for me to do it, but he understood and it ended up working out."

Williams' hiring was such a big deal for USC because of his track record as an elite recruiter -- and especially an elite recruiter here locally as someone who grew up in the Los Angeles area.

He's already produced immediate results, playing a key role in the commitments of 4-star prospects Anthony Beavers and Julien Simon in particular. When recruits are asked what makes Williams an effective relationship builder, they talk about how he's straight-forward, genuine and relatable.

Steele reiterates that assessment, but to him his connection with Williams is deeper.

"For me, I'd say it's a little bit more personal with me and Donte because he's somebody that knows a lot about me. He's somebody that I talk to on a regular basis just about problems I'm going through, so our relationship is real different," he said. "... You can see through his actions, he takes his time to get to know his recruits, his players -- what they've been through, their story. You have to approach everybody different. Donte really takes his time to figure people out, and he really knows how to talk to people. Everybody needs to be talked to a different way, and he knows how to approach everybody.

"He's really relatable too. Donte's got a lot of swag. He's getting old, but he thinks he's still kind of young so he relates to us a lot," Steele added with a laugh.

What ultimately excites Steele, though, is his belief that Williams will help him maximize his abilities.

Steele notes how soon after he signed with Florida, the cornerbacks coach who helped recruit him there, Charlton Warren, left for Georgia. He then went through his first season here building a connection with DBs coach Greg Burns before he was let go as part of a total overhaul of the defensive staff.

"It was kind of difficult for me. I felt like I was in a tough situation when Coach Burns got fired at first because, you know ... it's like, I've been in college for two semesters and I've had three different coaches already, like, 'What is going on?'" he said. "I went through a similar situation at Bosco and it made it kind of tough for me there as well. But then Donte came and it was like, all right ... I'm in a very good situation right now."

Williams has already worked on addressing some technical flaws he's identified in how Steele operates at the line of scrimmage, making sure he doesn't allow receivers a free release by emphasizing to him to "stay as square as possible for as long as possible." They've also discussed some his film from last season.

"I was just on the phone with Coach Donte earlier," Steele said. "Just the little things he's taught me already, I'll go back and watch the film from last year. The Notre Dame for example, just game-swinging plays that I could have had that I was one step off or something. The post that I broke up on Chase Claypool, he [set me up] outside to break inside. All receivers do that and I knew it was coming, but at that moment of the game -- it's a big game, I'm a freshman playing at Notre Dame at that -- so my technique would be a little off and things. If I would have put myself in a better position I could have picked that ball off. Just things like that."

More recently, Steele has been running passing/coverage drills in Long Beach a few times a week with a group of players that has included NFL wide receivers John Ross and Victor Bolden and USC wideout Amon-Ra St. Brown among others.

Steele has appreciated the opportunity to match up against NFL talents and notes that he's won a few battles here and there against those guys. He's sent Williams some clips of those sessions, and just as he prefers it, the coach has been blunt in his critiques.

"Donte's the type of guy, I sent him some clips of me guarding Victor Bolden -- he's been in the league for three years -- I sent Donte a couple videos of me having a couple pass breakups, I think I had a pick on him, and Donte calls me and he didn't even tell me I did good. It was, 'You won and you didn't even do this, this or this right,'" Steele shared. "I love that about him because he really pushes me to my limits every day and that's what I need."