For the most part, USC’s offseason additions on the defensive side of the ball have been oriented toward improving the level of talent and competency across positions where it was sorely needed.

However, the Trojans’ highest-profile acquisition of this transfer portal cycle comes at a position where the team has consistently seen high-level play over the past few years.

Free safety Kamari Ramsey was one of the best defensive backs available in the portal this offseason, following his defensive coordinator across town from UCLA to fill the starting position vacated by former USC All-American Calen Bullock.

Ramsey was an integral cog to the UCLA defense in his first year as a full-time starter last fall. The redshirt freshman held down the back end of the defense for one of the nation’s very best units, earning a very strong 79.7 PFF defensive grade on the season. Ramsey was incredibly reliable for the Bruins, making few mistakes as he consistently maintained the last line of defense behind a highly productive front. At USC, he’ll likely be asked to handle the same role, providing a dependable presence to maintain a ceiling over the top of D’Anton Lynn’s defense.

On a defense filled with so many question marks and unproven variables, the security and consistency brought to the table by Ramsey could be invaluable over the course of the year.

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Head coach Lincoln Riley consistently praised the impact he felt Ramsey already made just in spring practice.

"We got to obviously see him last year, but he's done a great job just coming in here, I feel like really affected the group. He's a really good player, he obviously knows the scheme very well, so just having another guy out there that kind of knows it and has played in it and you can use as a great example of how a lot of the stuff needs to look, he had a really strong spring," Riley said.

Ramsey will be stepping into the starting position left empty by Bullock, who was one of the best players on the USC roster for the past three seasons. Ramsey and Bullock profile rather similarly as long, lean defensive backs best suited for manning the free safety position. In particular, both players show fluid movement skills, good anticipatory abilities and a natural tendency for managing space efficiently in coverage. Neither player is best suited for working through blocks near the line of scrimmage, leaving them better suited to working in deeper alignments.

The similarities between Ramsey and Bullock make them both a natural fit to primarily handle deep safety responsibilities. As a result, Ramsey should be able to step right in and provide a similar presence to what Bullock provided on the back end of the defense. With that said, there are significant differences in the respective playstyles of the two safeties.

Broadly speaking, Bullock was the more aggressive and “ball-hawk-y” of the two, willing to take chances and frequently shoot for big plays. Ramsey on the other hand plays the position with more control and patience, working carefully and steadily to mitigate negative outcomes. As a result, you’ll see more big-time plays on Bullock’s film and significantly fewer mistakes on Ramsey’s.

That lack of errors might be the best trait Ramsey brings to the table. He’s almost always in the right position to prevent an explosive play from forming, showing patience to read the play, taking great angles to the football and tackling with assured consistency. That’s a highly coveted skill set for a free safety, particularly in a defense that expects to be as aggressive with the front seven as D’Anton Lynn’s does.

The consistency as a tackler in particular is a special trait, rare to see from a player at Ramsey’s position. Ramsey’s missed tackle rate of 8.2% was 15th-best among all Power 5 safeties with more than 450 snaps played. Whereas Bullock would often go for the big hit -- sometimes successfully and sometimes not -- Ramsey rarely thinks about laying the wood. Instead, you’ll see almost nothing but clean, secure form tackling through the lower half of the ball-carrier’s body on Ramsey’s film.

Though the UCLA transfer has a notably denser frame than his predecessor, he’s significantly less physical at the point of contact. Ramsey plays to his strengths by seldom going for the big hit and instead maximizing on his execution of perfect form tackles down low. In doing so, he’s able to routinely bring down bigger ball carriers on his own, rarely letting up the broken tackles that then lead to explosive gains.

In coverage, Ramsey’s understanding of route concepts and how they try to manipulate the defense’s spacing is clear to see. He manages space with skill on the back end, gathering the appropriate depth and leverage in response to the patterns run by the receivers around him. Though he’s not quite as explosive as Bullock was in the open field, Ramsey is still a fluid mover, able to redirect and cover ground as necessary from a deep alignment. His ball skills aren’t particularly impressive yet, but he’s regularly able to get himself in position to make a completion difficult on the rare occasion that the offense chooses to test him.

Ramsey’s overall understanding of the defense and his role in it stands out all over the film, not only through his own play but in his communication with his teammates. You’ll frequently see him shouting and gesturing to them before the snap and after the whistle, issuing directions and pointing out potential threats to be aware of. He seems to be a “quarterback of the defense” type of player, capable of seeing the big picture before everyone else does and knowing how the coach wants it addressed.

Having a player with such vision and grasp of the system is invaluable to any defense -- but especially when a new DC gets to bring someone like that with him as he installs his scheme on a different roster. Ramsey’s cerebral nature as a player and his ability to serve as a conduit between the coach and his teammates from the back of the defense make him a natural fit to be one of the leaders on that side of the ball for the Trojans this year.

With helmet communication being introduced to college football for the first time, don’t be surprised if Ramsey ends up as the Trojans’ first-ever wearer of the green dot this year, tasked with the responsibility of being the one player on defense with helmet communication to the sideline. He’ll likely be featured as the glue that holds this defense together, maintaining a lid on the offense down the field, cleaning up everybody else’s mistakes and keeping his teammates on the same page.

Let's take a look at his film ...

In putting together this breakdown, I went through five full games of UCLA defensive film from last year: Arizona, Colorado, Washington State, Oregon State and USC. I’ve compiled the noteworthy plays, positive and negative, from across those games for the purposes of this film study.

(As always, don’t mind the yellow markers in the clips pointing to other players. Ramsey is wearing No. 27, and most of the time you’ll see the cursor point to him before the snap.)