USC's roster reshuffling in the wake of the Lincoln Riley hiring continued Tuesday as redshirt junior cornerback Chase Williams entered the NCAA transfer portal.

Williams is the fifth Trojan to hit the portal in the last two days, following defensive lineman Jake Lichtenstein, outside linebacker Hunter Echols, outside linebacker Juliano Falaniko and walk-on kicker Alex Stadthaus. Veteran right tackle Jalen McKenzie also announced that he would forgo his final year of eligibility to declare for the NFL draft.

As for Williams, he was a primary starter for most of the season, finishing with 48 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, 1 sack and 1 pass breakup. His 482 defensive snaps played was eighth-most on the team. Overall, he notched 85 tackles in 32 games as a Trojan.

Williams had his struggles, though, ranking third on the team with 15 missed tackles and finishing with a PFF season grade of 43.4 (on a 1-100 scale). His playing time decreased as the season went on as he went from playing 55 snaps against Arizona to 26 each vs. Arizona State and UCLA and then just 6 vs. BYU and 7 vs. Cal.

Nonetheless, Williams was well respected by coaches and teammates and was regarded as a hard worker both at practice and behind the scenes.

Williams talked previously about the obstacle of translating his work on the practice field to Saturdays.

"I felt like a struggle that I had before was I would mentally know everything that was going on, but my body just needed to react a little bit faster," Williams said back in August. "And so this spring I kind of took that extra jump to where my mind and my body we're moving at the same time. So whenever I thought something, my body was moving. I was trying to make that an emphasis not to think but just to move and just to react."

With freshman Calen Bullock and redshirt freshman Xavion Alford emerging as the Trojans' top two safeties, Williams might indeed be best served by a fresh start.

He came to USC as a four-star Rivals250 prospect ranked the No. 5 ATH and No. 134 overall prospect in the 2018 recruiting class out of Corona.