With the departure of both starting cornerbacks -- Christian Roland-Wallace due to the NFL/exhausted eligibility and Domani Jackson to the transfer portal -- USC needed reinforcements at that spot as badly as any position on the field.
On Wednesday, shortly after announcing its early signing class of HS prospects, Mississippi State cornerback transfer DeCarlos Nicholson announced on Twitter that he was also joining the Trojans.
Nicholson played the last two seasons for the Bulldogs after transferring from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. At Mississippi State, the 6-foot-3, 195-pound corner played in 12 games with 7 starts this season, tallying 42 tackles, 2 tackles for loss and 2 pass breakups.
He received an 69.4 coverage grade (around average) from PFF, which had him allowing completions on 74.2 percent of his targets (23 of 31) for 312 yards and 4 touchdowns.
Nicholson joins a USC cornerback unit that also returns Jacobe Covington (who has yet to lock down a steady role through two years in the program, after transferring in from Washington), Prophet Brown (who played 125 defensive snaps in his third year in the program this fall), untested redshirt freshman Maliki Crawford (who missed the season due to injury) and incoming four-star freshman Marcelles Williams, Braylon Conley and Isaiah Rubin (who did not officially sign his National Letter of Intent with USC yet).
The status of veteran Ceyair Wright, who opened as a starter each of the last two seasons before losing the job, is unknown as coach Lincoln Riley confirmed late in the season that Wright wasn't with the team.
Riley intimated Wednesday that USC expected more additions to the secondary.
Dave Emerick, USC's football general manager, was previously at Mississippi State when Nicholson was recruited there out of the JUCO level.
USC also landed Mississippi State running back transfer Jo'Quavious Marks on Wednesday, giving it now six transfer additions this month along with long-snapper Hank Pepper (Michigan State), defensive end Nate Clifton (Vanderbilt), linebacker Easton Mascarenas-Arnold (Oregon State) and safety Akili Arnold (Oregon State).
