USC Football Notes: Donte Williams on ITS, Josh Jackson and Jayden Williams

When the USC coaching staff decided it might be short on depth at cornerback and wanted to consider moving redshirt freshman wide receiver Joshua Jackson Jr. to defense, it required both Jackson and the offensive staff being fully on board with the move.

One man who needed no convincing, though, was Trojans cornerbacks coach Donte Williams.

"Josh is a guy that at a previous school I offered as a cornerback," said Williams, who was at Oregon during Jackson's recruitment from Narbonne HS here in the Los Angeles area. "So I already had, I guess, my eye on him, and once things opened up to where we had a spot open and he was open to the idea, he finally took it and ran with it and he wanted to stay there. We gave him the option of what he felt was best.

"That's a great assessment by Coach Helton. Most coaches wouldn't even allow that. He allowed that, and the offensive guys were open to him staying on defense, and he's ran with it and continued to make plays and continued to get better on a day-to-day basis."

Between starting corner Chris Steele missing the first week of spring practice, fellow junior Dorian Hewett also missing that time, Adonis Otey being injured, and USC cornerback signees Prophet Brown and Ceyair Wright not joining the program until this summer, there has been ample opportunity for Jackson.

RELATED: Cornerback Chris Steele sets the bar high for 2021, eyeing All-American status and a high draft slot | Watch Donte Williams and Steele talk about spring practice

He's mostly run as the second-team cornerback and has never looked out of place in his new position, even making one of the most impressive interceptions so far this month (see the photo at the top).

"Everybody naturally is able to go forward. So that's just a natural movement -- walking, running, everything. So for him everything is flipped to go backwards. But pretty much after the first like five yards you're no longer the DB no more; you're now a receiver when it comes to covering," Williams said. "It's a little different when it comes to tackling. Tackling is a bit different than blocking. But one thing I will say about him [is] I didn't know if he would come up and hit someone, I didn't know if he would come up and strike somebody, and he's definitely shown that he will do that over the course of practice.

"Because for spring ball right now, the majority of our practices have been live so he's definitely shown a physicality that I didn't know he had. But at the same time when the ball's in the air everybody knows that he's a receiver and he's gonna definitely make plays on the ball."

It will be interesting to see where Jackson ends up on the depth chart ultimately with Steele and redshirt junior Isaac Taylor-Stuart the presumptive starters, Hewett an experienced backup, junior Jayden Williams showing a lot this spring while working between the first-team and second-team, and then the highly-rated freshmen coming in this summer.

Speaking of Jayden Williams, though, he too has taken full advantage of his opportunities this spring, making at least a couple interceptions (when media have been present). His main contributions his first two years in the program came on special teams and a player who hasn't had a chance to make his mark at his position can easily get passed over on the depth chart by the incoming 4-star prospects, but Williams has impressed this spring.

"He's making plays on the ball. I mean, definitely making plays on the ball, and he's worked at his feet," Donte Williams said. "His feet and his eyes are two things that could get him in trouble just because he is extremely aggressive and he plays, just like Chris [Steele], he plays with a chip on his shoulder. So at times you gotta get him to get back into the technical aspect of the game, make sure he's playing mentally, not just physically. Because the game is 90% mental, 10% physical and sometimes him and Chris both get caught up when they're playing the game 50-50."

As for that depth chart, Donte Williams wouldn't acknowledge anything despite Taylor-Stuart working with the first unit all spring and Steele clearly entrenched as a returning starter. There's always competition, he emphasized.

"That's just how it's going to be. That's how guys like Chris continue to perform because the guys behind them are continuing to make plays. ... It's making sure we always have the two best players to help us win games on the field at a time. That's what we'll continue to make sure we assess and make sure we put the best guys on the field going forward," he said.

In regard to Taylor-Stuart, though, this would seem to be the opportunity he's been waiting for the last few years. After redshirting his first year, the former 5-star prospect was in a time share with Steele opposite Olaijah Griffin during the 2019 season. Last fall, Steele moved into an almost full-time role, relegating ITS to limited opportunities. (He was also coming back from knee surgery).

With Griffin vacating that field corner position, it would figure to be Taylor-Stuart's job to lose. But he may have some more convincing to do, by the sound of it.

"He's one of the guys that I feel is taking the next step every day. Every day he's getting a half percent better. He's starting to make plays on the ball," Williams said. "... But he's just making sure he's paying attention to the details. It's the little things for him. Whether at times he gets a little lazy with the technical aspect or at times he plays too high, at times his feet cross over. So the biggest thing for him is consistency. When it's consistency, like everybody saw when he was in high school, even at The Opening. He has all the attributes that you would want at that position. But it's the consistent basis that kind of throws him off a little bit.

"Two plays that are really, really great are, you know, that's not good enough. It has to be able to be for a whole game. So that's where we're working at right now with him."