Few USC freshmen carried more spotlight or expectation into camp this month than 5-star cornerback and Florida transfer Chris Steele.

His high-profile recruitment -- including his June transfer to the Trojans -- and his ranking as the No. 3 corner in the entire 2019 recruiting class created abundant interest and anticipation.

Those factors also perhaps obscured the reality that he's still a true freshman adjusting to a new defense and way of doing things.

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"Chris has been good. We obviously really liked him coming out of high school, spent a lot of time recruiting him, so we're excited to have him back," defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast said Wednesday after the Trojans' fifth practice. "He's catching up to learning the scheme, learning the techniques that's new to him. He's worked really hard with coach [Greg] Burns to get better and understand those things and I think he'll only continue to make progress."