USC's cornerback competition already figured to be tightly-contested, with transfer addition John Humphrey having started for defensive coordinator D'Anton Lynn at UCLA, DeCarlos Nicholson transferring in as a starter from Mississippi State, fellow veteran Jacobe Covington in a prove-it fifth season of college football, Prophet Brown coming off a strong bowl game performance, etc.

It would have been easy to look at that situation and presume a true freshman like Marcelles Williams would be in for a development year behind all those older, more experience options.

But that's clearly not how Williams, the four-star Rivals250 prospect from local St. John Bosco HS, saw the situation.

Williams has generated more buzz than any freshman on the roster this spring and, for that matter, as much if not more praise than any of the cornerbacks.

Such that the question had to be asked to head coach Lincoln Riley on Saturday -- does the true freshman Williams have a legitimate chance to win one of the two starting jobs?

"For sure, he does, yeah. I think everybody does. We don’t limit that to just upperclassmen or anything like that -- it’s just the best players," Riley said. "It’s been a combination of he’s been unusually consistent for a true freshman, very steady. His bad plays are not very bad, and then on top of that, he’s made some like outstanding plays. He had a really nice interception [Thursday] in a team period, he ended up with a nice interception today in our scrimmage so he’s making some explosive plays as well. Just been really impressed with how quickly he’s picked up our system."