Talanoa Hufanga stopped by a USC football practice a couple weeks ago to watch his former teammates, as the 2020 Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year had a break from his impressive preseason with the San Francisco 49ers.

His presence back on Howard Jones Field was a reminder of just how much the Trojans have to replace defensively -- an instinctive playmaker, a respected leader, a versatile chess piece for the coaches and, as he's proven this last month up north, an NFL-caliber safety.

Given all that, it is perhaps odd that replacing Hufanga hasn't really been a dominant storyline leading up to this season for USC, and the main reason for that is his vacancy in the secondary has been mostly locked down since the start of the spring by redshirt junior Chase Williams.

That is not at all to say that the Trojans have replaced Hufanga and his production that easily, or that all questions are now answered -- not yet they aren't. It's only to say that despite bringing in a loaded freshman safety class and landing two high-profile transfers at the position, that the coaches sure seem sold that Williams is clearly the best option for this defense.

"He's just been outstanding. I mean, he knows this package as well as we do. He's running around, he's making calls," defensive coordinator Todd Orlando said. "He cares. We're working on the side with him. He just wants to do football. He's a sponge and he does an incredible job with the younger guys and trying to bring them over. Because he's an older vet, he's trying to teach the younger guys how to do things. He's just been outstanding. Nothing but high praise for him."

Said safeties coach Craig Naivar: "One reason why he's grown is our strength staff's done a tremendous job with him in the weight room. He's always a hard worker, but they've improved him top to bottom. He's a very smart football player and that's another step forward which he has. He's very Talanoa-like as far as understanding the game, seeing things, being instinctive and a student of the game and that translates on the field."

That last part is the hope for the Trojans -- that all the preseason buzz Williams has generated does indeed translate starting this Saturday against San Jose State -- because this defensive coaching staff has talked many times about how important the safeties are in this scheme and all the ways they are used.

Williams is not a new player in any regard. He's played in 20 games with 6 starts over the last three years, and that sample size to this point has shown Williams to be rather inconsistent and susceptible to his share of beats, whether in coverage or in tackle opportunities. Among USC defensive players last year, he ranked 11th on PFF's end-of-season grades with a 66.2 (on a 1-100 scale) in 124 defensive snaps.

"You know, there was mistakes and there was a lot of trials that went in and out of the season. There was a lot I just had to learn and grow from, there was a lot of studying myself and my own game," he said Wednesday after practice.

But players grow and mature and develop. The question in filtering the preseason praise for Williams is discerning in which specific ways he's grown, matured and developed as a safety.

In getting both his perspective and that of his position coach, there is a consistent answer.

"It's real simple, you take a 4.4 player and it's undisciplined and he plays 4.7. But you take a guy that doesn't run a 4.4 but you got tremendous eyes and tremendous discipline you're going to play fast. And that's what he does," Naivar said, conveying that Williams has gained the confidence in his football IQ to not overthink and trust his instincts now.

"I felt like a struggle that I had before was I would mentally know everything that was going on, but my body just needed to react a little bit faster," Williams said earlier this preseason. "And so this spring I kind of took that extra jump to where my mind and my body we're moving at the same time. So whenever I thought something, my body was moving. I was trying to make that an emphasis not to think but just to move and just to react."

We haven't tracked what Williams has done on every snap he's played this preseason, but as a general assessment, he does seem to be playing fast and does seem to be around the football a lot. The most notable sequence was back in the second scrimmage last month when the USC defense delivered a goal-line stand on the first-team offense over four plays from the 2-yard line. Two of those plays were pass breakups by Williams.

It's fair to take a wait-and-see approach to buying into the coaches' optimism. Williams has generated preseason praise before. In fact, the former defensive staff talked him up quite a bit entering the 2019 season when it looked like he would start at nickel, only to have Greg Johnson slide into that role just before the season, moving Williams to a reserve role.

There's no doubt about his place in the starting lineup now -- he's been a mainstay with the first-team, even with Texas transfer Xavion Alford and Auburn transfer Chris Thompson Jr. coming in to compete for roles.

Now the Trojans just need him to continue to be the guy they've seen on the practice field all spring and all preseason.

"We always have three safeties back there, sometimes four, and all those guys have to be tremendous communicators. They've got to be guys that are trusted by the people in front of them to make the right check, to put us in the right coverage, the right adjustment, because if the guys in front of you don't believe in you, they don't see your work, then this thing doesn't work," Naivar said.

"He's stacked good days on top of good days on top of good days. A big part of being a good football player is you can't be the stock market. I say it all the time, you can't be up and down and up and down and up and down. You got to be able to consistently -- there's going to be some bad days in there, there's going to be bad moments -- but you got to stack those days, those periods, those drills, those reps on top of each other to get better. He's done a really good job of that."

For his part, Williams said seeing that vacant starting spot within his reach after Hufanga announced he was leaving early for the NFL gave him an even greater motivation heading into this past offseason.

"I think it was just more fuel, more drive," he said Wednesday. "I think I was a lot more hungry this offseason, especially seeing what was out in front of me and becoming more of an older guy in this system. I think that was just really what it was. ...

"Honestly, I just want to prove to my teammates that I am what I want to be. And that's All-American on the field, that's being a leader, that's being a captain, that's making plays, being a playmaker. I just want to prove that to my teammates and to myself. It's not so much stat-wise I want to prove because that comes along with your play and doing what you're supposed to do, but just having that respect from my teammates, that's the main thing."

Keep reading for our detailed notes from USC's Wednesday practice ...

Reporters are only allowed to watch the first 45-50 minutes of practice on Wednesday, which is largely stretching, special teams and individual drills, so there are not a lot of observations to report.

It looked like freshman defensive end Korey Foreman tweaked his ankle at some point early in the session, as he was down on the ground having a trainer tape it up before going back into action. We only saw one more rep from him before being ushered out so it's hard to gauge how much it bothered him the rest of the way. But Orlando dismissed any concern.

"No, he's good. He's ready to go," he said.

Orlando was also asked what role he expected for Foreman in his first collegiate game ...

"He's going to be in the game. We're going to roll him in and he'll play quite a bit. Obviously, he's a dynamic guy, so he'll play," Orlando said.

Defensive line coach Vic So'oto furthered that sentiment, meanwhile.

"As much as he can take. As much as we see fit to throwing him out there, we’ll throw him out there," So'oto said. "Take Tuli [Tuipulotu] last year. I’m not one to hold guys because I don't think they’re ready. I trust practice. That’s a big thing for our defensive staff. We trust what we see in practice, then we expect to see that on Saturday. When he gets out there, he’s got full confidence.

"I told my guys, if you’re hot -- I love as a player if I was playing well, the coach would just leave me out there. I’m not afraid to do that. That’s what they’ve earned throughout the week is playing time and opportunity to perform in front of friends and family."

...