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Welcome back to our series in which we’re grading each position group based on how it performed in spring practice, and ranking the respective units within the team. We continue with cornerbacks.

It was a long spring for the secondary. No group on the team went into the offseason with more questions. Five weeks of practice provided few answers. USC didn’t have enough scholarship corners most days, enabling its strongest position to feast on its weakest. The silver lining is that cornerback is the most individually focused position on defense, so a lot can be accomplished through hard drilling and competitive reps. We just won’t know who got what out of it until fall.

Isaac Taylor-Stuart looked improved. There was a confidence in his game that was missing in Year 1. He knows, as most everyone does, he has elite athleticism. But he’s needed to prove that he’s a college cornerback. He practiced like one this spring, making some of USC’s best receivers work on his best days. ITS is still raw fundamentally, still learning the position conceptually, and still fighting to crack the two-deep. But he at least could be a contributor after a lost season in 2018.