USC defensive coordinator Todd Orlando has made it clear over the last year that until the pads come on there's nothing really for him to evaluate or assess, and that won't happen for the Trojans until Saturday, so Orlando was reluctant to speak about individual players in talking with reporters Tuesday morning.

With a few exceptions.

Orlando and safeties coach Craig Naivar were at Texas when 4-star safety Xavion Alford picked the Longhorns coming out of high school. When he hit the transfer portal this winter, it was only a matter of days before he announced he was coming to USC.

His relationship with Naivar in particular was key to that addition for the Trojans, and while he wasn't ready to break down Alford's first spring practice earlier this week, he did share his perspective on the kind of player the team added.

"Just an unbelievable person, to start off with. And as a worker, a yes sir, no sir guy. The internal makeup of the kid is outstanding, and then as an athlete he's explosive, he's strong, he's weight room developed, which always gives you the ability to be able to put him into situations and physically he's ready to go. And he's moving around really really well," Orlando said. "He got a handful of reps the other day in practice, did a really nice job, but I'm excited to watch him because I think he's a run and hit guy. That's the biggest thing I can remember in our recruitment of him.

"And he's been accepted really quick, which is a really good sign. He does things the right way, so really excited to watch him when the pads go on. I think that's when he's going to shine more than anything else."

Alford worked with the second-team defense in practice Tuesday, but he is very much in the mix for the starting safety job vacated by Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year Talanoa Hufanga. Redshirt junior Chase Williams has the most experience of the group and worked with the first-team in that practice.

As for filling that sizeable void, the Trojans are not just replacing a safety but a versatile playmaker who led the team in interceptions, could also rush the passer, made big tackles, even played a little linebacker. So Orlando expounded on what he's looking for at that position with Hufanga off to the NFL.

"The scheme itself is the scheme. There's a lot of calls in it, but as you start to put it out there in practice you watch guys, what they can do and what they can't do. Fortunately for us last year, Tally could do a lot of things and there were some things he did exceptional, maybe as a blitzer. So you just watch, and at the very end of spring ball once you get through the whole package itself, you start to say, this is really good for this guy, this is not good, this is not what he does well, and you try to fit your scheme toward your personnel," he said. "We'll just let it rip in the spring to see what guys can do."

Whoever wins the job, Orlando said that player will be used in pass-rush calls just like Hufanga was.

"It's what the position is. In the last seven years in this position, and I've been fortunate enough I've been with Craig this will be six years, and he's done an outstanding job. We were at Houston together, the guy was a big-time player, when we were at Texas it was an All-American there, Tally an All-American here. So he's done an outstanding job of developing that position so we'll find somebody and we'll keep working with them," he said.

Josh Jackson Jr. was one of two wide receivers the Trojans signed in their 2020 recruiting class, out of local Narbonne HS. But he was used exclusively on special teams last year and this offseason was approached by the coaching staff about moving to cornerback.

Now on the defensive side full-time, Jackson looked natural at the position in what he showed Tuesday, which granted was a pad-less, practice without a lot of downfield passing.

Orlando explained how that position change came about.

"It was a discussion last season where we thought we were a little bit thin and we were looking for athletes, especially guys with ball skills, and he's done a great job," he said. "It was funny because you kind of put people out there and you kind of hold your breath, but he bought in. That was the one thing, when we brought him in, because that's always the player's choice -- as a coach that's the one thing you don't want to do is force upon somebody. And when you sit down and look at him eye to eye, you get a sense whether they're committed to it or they're just doing it because they want to be a good team guy. And he was committed to it.

"And then when he went out and we started doing one-on-ones, or more importantly when [Donte Williams] started taking them through individual drills he just had natural movements for the position. And obviously when you get a guy that skillful with the football, that's a huge advantage, so when the ball goes up he can reverse himself and go after the football just as good as the receiver. We're excited. I can tell you this, I'm really, really excited about him, and when Donte gets a chance to really show him the finer parts of the position, I think he's going to be damn good."

Like others have done, Orlando praised new director of football sports performance Robert Stiner for the impact he made in his first two months working with the players.

Asked if there was any player in particular who showed significant physical gains from the offseason program, Orlando surprisingly indulged the question and spotlighted redshirt freshman defensive lineman Jamar Sekona.

"Sekona did, in my opinion. Jamar's done a really good job of developing. There's other guys, but that was the kid that I was like, man, he walked in there and changed his body, he's doing some things athletically that are better. I'm excited about him," Orlando said. "Coach Stiner and his staff have done an unbelievable job of hip strength and core and all the things that go along with that, but he was the guy that stood out to me?"

Sekona didn't get much opportunity on defense as a freshman, but he was prominently involved in the first practice Tuesday with USC missing several starters up front.

Meanwhile, linebacker Kana'i Mauga also spoke about the impact of the offseason training program under Stiner.

"I'm pretty sure we all felt the same thing. We felt that it was tough in the beginning but we found a way to [push] through it. We buckled down. It was very different. It was more upbeat, more I guess you could say higher tempo than the last strength coach," Mauga said.

Said Orlando: "It's been an outstanding eight weeks of winter workouts. I think that's where it begins. Coach Stiner and his staff have done a really good job. Kids feel, look strong. First day of practice, typical non-padded spring ball first day, excitement, guys running around. but we'll get a true sense of what we have on Saturday when we put the pads on for the first time and start to see a little bit of separation of who can play the game with physicality, who can play in their pads. Looking forward to it."

Looking back on this unusual past year, Orlando said one of the main challenges as a new defensive staff coming in was not being able to use the spring to establish the culture and set expectations. He tried to do it to a degree in the fall preseason camp, but the focus then also had to be on getting ready for games.

"That was the most difficult part about last year was we came in and we talked pretty big about the physicality and how hard it is to practice day in and day out with just relentless pursuit so you're ready for it. ... Because you've only got one shot at it. When you come in as a new guy, if it's not set in stone it's hard to fix or you can't come back, you can't do things soft and then come back a year later and say we're going to start hardening up. When you first get here it's got to be hard," he said.

"So to go in the first practice like OK, that was pretty decent, and then get cut short [last spring], the spring is all about culture. Plays are good, but you're training people how to do things. And once that's taken away from you, you get into fall camp, and it's like are we going to train culture when we have a game in four weeks? So we take the first two weeks of it and it almost hurt us, because you're going through some things and you're teaching them how to be tough, but in the back of your head you're saying, 'We've got a game in like two weeks. We have to make sure we have a ballclub to put out there for the game and we don't tax these guys so much. So having a full 15 practices just to teach that is going to make it a lot easier for us in fall camp."

As head coach Clay Helton mentioned earlier in the week, there is a priority being placed on building on the defensive identity of creating turnovers that was established last fall. The Trojans forced 16 turnovers in six games (9 interceptions and 7 fumbles).

"All those things we kind of mandated this spring. We probably have anywhere from five to six individual periods where each unit will go do their own drills, but we mandated it to make sure that at least one of them was put into some type of turnover [focus], whether it's a strip, strip sack, interceptions. I think at the end of the day whatever you emphasize is what you get, so if you keep talking about it, you keep drilling it, eventually it will happen," Orlando said. "And then sometimes it just pours and they just keep coming, which is a good thing. When you're talking about things that you have to get better at and things that you were decent at -- the turnovers were good last year -- but that's a different ballclub. But we can train it and we are training it every day in practice."