USC running back Stephen Carr officially entered the NCAA transfer portal on Tuesday after four seasons with the program.

Carr will seek to play his final year of eligibility elsewhere after going through spring practice with the Trojans last month.

USC running backs coach Mike Jinks has been resolute that the team will move away from its crowded running-back-by-committee approach and have clear 1A and 1B backs this season. With Texas transfer Keaontay Ingram standing out this spring, redshirt senior Vavae Malepeai seeming likely to claim one of those spots, blazing-fast junior Kenan Christon having a good case for playing time, Carr making his push and even freshman Brandon Campbell impressing in his spring debut, that was going to be a tough decision for the coaching staff.

And perhaps it's already been made to some degree -- it seems logical to presume that Carr is leaving based on what has been communicated to him about his standing on the depth chart.

Carr made an immediate splash in 2017 when he had at least 70 combined rushing/receiving yards in each of his first four games as a true freshman, including 119 yards on 11 carries vs. Stanford in his second game while playing behind Ronald Jones II at the time.

But injuries mounted for Carr over the years -- starting with offseason back surgery coming off that 2017 season -- and he never fully delivered on that upside he flashed in those early games. In fact, that would end up as his only 100-yard rushing game, although he had some other nice performances scattered along the way (including 94 yards on 7 carries vs. Washington in 2019).

Carr averaged a career-low 3.8 yards per carry during USC's shortened six-game 2020 season, totaling just 176 rushing yards along with 10 catches for 64 yards.

Overall in his time at USC, he rushed for 1,329 yards on 5.0 yards per carry with 12 touchdowns and caught 57 passes for 421 yards and a touchdown.

Carr seemed unlikely to emerge as one of the Trojans' top two running backs entering the spring, but then he was one of the stars of USC's spring showcase, again flashing the potential of his skill set with a team-high 53 rushing yards and a TD on 8 carries as well as a 13-yard reception on a third-down pickup that showed his speed and some power to fight for the final yards.

But if he is going to prove he has another peak yet to come in his college football, it now seems that will happen elsewhere.

Carr is the second USC running back to transfer out in the last six months, as Markese Stepp grew frustrated with his role in that aforementioned committee approach in the backfield and transferred to Nebraska after last season.

Ingram, who totaled 2,326 combined rushing/receiving yards while at Texas, and Malepeai, who led the Trojans with 238 rushing yards during that shortened 2020 season, will be viewed as the strong favorites to lead the Trojans in carries. The team used more two-RB sets in the spring, though, and that could be the way that the staff gets Christon and his elite speed on the field as a pass-catching weapon out of the backfield.