Filling Talanoa Hufanga's void at safety figured to be one of the few position battles on the defensive side this spring with real intrigue and open competition.

But it has seemed pretty clear throughout the first three-plus weeks of spring practice that redshirt junior Chase Williams is the strong favorite to slide into that starting role, as he has been a fixture with the first-team defense while Texas transfer Xavion Alford was working with the second unit early in camp before safety Isaiah Pola-Mao slid over to nickel, allowing room for Alford to also get first-team reps.

So safeties coach Craig Naivar was asked Thursday morning if it's fair to say the job is Williams' to lose.

"Nothing's solidified, obviously, but Chase has done a really good job of understanding that there was a void placed by Talanoa. And Chase is very much analytical like Talanoa, very smart football player," Naivar said. "I've had countless calls from NFL people calling me and raving about how well Talanoa's done in the interviews, of he's learning this defense, teach me this defense, give me feedback on this. Chase is very smart in the exact same way. Chase has done a great job of coming out and being a leader, helping Zay and doing that and being a vocal leader at practice. And then he's also done a great, great job in the weight room getting his body ready to do the things he does.

"He's done a really great job of throwing his body around all spring and that was a trademark of Talanoa and he's continued to do that as well. So yes, I'm extremely pleased with how he's doing."

RELATED: Watch the full video interview with Craig Naivar and Isaiah Pola-Mao

Just as one can glean some affirmation from those comments, it was also telling what Naivar said when asked about Alford's development and what he still needs to show the coaches.

"He's gotta play when the lights are on. Gotta show up and play when the lights are on," Naivar said. "Had some positive and some negative plays in Saturday's spring game and that's just part of youth and working through those. But that's something in progress."

Alford was recruited by Naivar to Texas initially and then again to USC once he landed in the transfer portal this winter, so it figured their connection and trust would make Alford a strong candidate for that position. But Williams has asserted himself and is the only safety aside from Pola-Mao with any true college experience, having played in 20 games with six starts over the last few years.

Williams' best play of spring so far was a great ranging interception on the sideline a couple weeks ago as he read the route perfectly and made a play on an underthrown pass while getting his foot down in bounds.

He's had opportunities before and has had his inconsistencies, but it seems he's making a steadily strong impression on the staff this spring. The mental side of the game has always been the facet coaches have raved about with him, but replacing Hufanga -- the reigning Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year -- is a tall order.

That said, the Trojans don't necessarily have to ask Williams -- or anyone else -- to be Hufanga.

"[Todd] Orlando's system is very multiple and it can play to your strengths. That's one of the unique things about it. We do a lot and in doing that, you can put guys in position to be successful so we've got different pieces and a different team and that's the great thing about what he does is we can build to our guys' strengths and we're still trying to figure out what those are as this process evolves through spring ball and fall camp and this summer.

"We have a pretty good idea, obviously, but that's what's unique about his system rather than somebody else who has a cookie-cutter system -- like, this guy can't really do that. Well, don't ask a young man to do something he's not able to do and able to do well."

USC was thrust into a dilemma a couple weeks ago when Max Williams tore the ACL in his left knee for the second time. With fellow primary nickel Greg Johnson also out this spring, still rehabbing his own injury, the Trojans needed to make a move just to piece together a two-deep at that position.

So they moved Pola-Mao to nickel for the remainder of spring, having him work with the first unit while Briton Allen works with the second team.

Johnson should be all clear in time for the season, but it remains to be seen if he went down with injury again whether it would indeed be Pola-Mao filling that spot or if the spring was just an optimal time to experiment with this a little.

"We're always going to put the guys in the best position to help our defense be successful, so if that needs to happen for whatever reason we have got that. And by going through the spring and getting this time we can put guys in different positions to plan for if a bomb goes off, this guy has to do this, he has experience doing it," Naivar said. "Frankly, if we had more depth in our room we could move guys around even more. That's typically something we would do the last two weeks of spring ball."

Said Pola-Mao: "We preach versatility in our room and we're all kind of the same position, I think, at the end of the day. So for me, I accept the challenge because I needed to work on my man [coverage] anyway so everything sort of works out."

In addition to Alford arriving as a redshirt freshman from Texas, USC has also has a trio of 4-star freshmen safeties -- Calen Bullock, Xamarion Gordon and Anthony Beavers -- making their Trojans debuts this spring.

Here's what Naivar said about all four of those guys ...

Alford: "Recruited him at the University of Texas from Shadow Creek High School in Houston, so had a background on him. ... Very instinctive football player, very smart football player and a tough, hard-nosed young man and we welcome that."

Gordon: "He doesn't shy from contact -- I love that. We saw that on tape in high school. And he, like the other three, are wired the right way. I think part of recruiting is not just is the tape good or was there stars. I'm really into how is a young man wired as far as football smarts and then are you going to throw your body around play after play, and he's done a good job of that. If you were to say who has picked the system up the fastest of the young guys, it was him. I think coach mentioned that before, so that's been really impressive."

The freshmen as a collective: "The areas of strength is they've not shied away from contact. We've asked them to run and hit and they've done that every day. There usually comes a point where they're kind of like [hesitant] -- we've kind of butted up against that a little bit, but they've been very receptive to that. The older guys have done a great job. One thing that in the entire winter workouts all three of those younger guys were with an older guy. So Calen worked out with Isaiah exclusively. That was his workout partner, and on down the way. So those guys really did a good job of showing them what's expected, the accountability that's expected of them and they really worked upon that. The aspect as I said of not playing a senior year and then jumping into a complex defensive scheme and being able to master it and execute it has been very impressive. That's what's impressed me the most is the fact that those guys can come out here and Coach Orlando doesn't have to water his calls down when they're in there. That's been very impressive."

Even with that influx of talent, Naivar reiterated that the depth at safety isn't near where it needs to be in terms of numbers. That position remains a top priority in this 2022 recruiting class, and for the time being, it will limit some of what USC does defensively, he said.

"If you saw the spring game, we're one body away from not having a full two-deep [as Bullock moved over to cornerback to fill a need there]," Naivar said. "... There's some concepts that we don't run and won't run this next year that we don't have the bodies to do it yet, but we're working towards that direction."

Pola-Mao was asked which offensive players have stood out to him so far this spring.

"Starting off with Keaontay Ingram, for sure. His running style is pretty different from what we have -- just a hard-nosed football player. [Wide receiver] Michael Jackson III, I believe, he's going to be a beast. It's only a matter of time," Pola-Mao said. "There's a lot of guys out there that are just continually getting better. Drake [London], of course, he's going to get us better every day. The whole offense I think is starting to come together and you can see that."

Pola-Mao also weighed in on USC's decision to postpone its Tuesday practice a day so that the team could continue discussions in the wake of the Derek Chauvin verdict. The Trojans made up the practice on Wednesday.

"It came from Coach Helton. He gave us the opportunity to just talk about what was going on. I think we really took a step forward as a team because, you know, there was people in there that didn't really know what was going on so it was a whole lot of learning and just people with empathy and just talking and talking things out. I think we just came together as a team more," Pola-Mao said.