LOS ANGELES — Football players treat the area of the country that they’re from as a badge of honor. Each region has a specific, predisposed personality type and style, whether it’s Southern California, Texas, the Midwest, Florida – the list goes on.
Cornerback Jontez Williams comes from Florida, and his USC teammates are well aware.
“Cali’s got its own swag for sure that triumphs it,” safety Prophet Brown told reporters with a laugh.
Beneath the friendly jabs, the Trojans know that Williams is one of the most important players to transfer to USC this season. He and Washington transfer linebacker Deven Bryant could have some of the biggest impacts on the defense this season.
The coaching staff is still settling on a depth chart as this week’s “mock game week” continues ahead of the Aug. 29 season opener against San Jose State. Williams and Bryant have a good chance of making it on the two-deep list.
Williams was the top-ranked cornerback in the transfer portal after a season of 15 total tackles and an interception at Iowa State. A knee injury ended his season after five games, but he’s not playing with fear now that he’s with the Trojans.
“I don’t have any regrets, no doubts when I’m out there,” Williams told reporters. “I’m just playing freely and getting that feeling back.”
He has an astounding ability to read the offense and react to plays that allows him to get to the ball quickly. Defensive coordinator Gary Patterson’s scheme could go in lockstep with Williams’ versatility that ranges from playing freely in coverage to zeroing in on run support.
At one point during his sophomore season, Williams had an interception in four straight games.
“You can tell this guy’s played a lot of ball,” head coach Lincoln Riley said. “You can just tell he’s made a lot of plays already at this level and his ability to adapt to our scheme pretty quickly has definitely been apparent.”
Deven Bryant returns home to Southern California, where he prepped at St. John Bosco and won a CIF Southern Section Division 1 championship as well as a CIF State Open Division championship during his senior year.
A USC offer never materialized by the time his high school career ended. His only Power Four conference offers came from Oregon, Louisville, Colorado and Washington – where he stayed for three years.
Bryant collected 62 total tackles (44 solo) with the Huskies last season and is now part of a deep linebacker room at USC.
“That’s honestly a group that out of spring, and in the fall, I was pretty interested to see where we were at,” Riley said, “but I feel like we’ve made some real progress there.”
Toughness, instincts and, above all, experience set Bryant apart from his counterparts. The coaching staff has not revealed who will wear the “green dot” that signifies an in-helmet headset that allows one defensive player to communicate with the sideline, but Bryant could contend for that responsibility.
Coach Mike Ekeler has rapidly unified and developed a linebacker room since joining the USC staff in February.
“We’re not into wasting time, and these guys know that,” Ekeler said on the USC-run Victory Podcast. “They come into meetings knowing they’re going to get better in that meeting. And so, then it transfers over on the field … it goes back to unbelievable talent in that room. Unbelievable chemistry in that room, and those guys love ball.”