TrojanSports - Ceyair Wright reasserting himself in USC's intriguing CB competition
USC coach Lincoln Riley had strong praise for redshirt sophomore cornerback Ceyair Wright.
USC.rivals.com
Perhaps it's because his role diminished down the stretch last season. Or because former five-star prospect Domani Jackson is now healthy, Christian Roland-Wallace joined the team after starting four years at Arizona and Jacobe Covington looks like he took full advantage of the offseason strength program.
Whatever the reason, redshirt sophomore cornerback Ceyair Wright had flown a bit under the radar entering spring practice despite starting the majority of games last season while playing by far the most snaps (623) of any returning cornerback on the roster.
Well, Wright has reasserted himself in a big way through six practices.
Head coach Lincoln Riley made that clear Saturday in spotlighting him as one of the standouts of the spring so far.
"Ceyair Wright's been, I would say, one of the -- it's not a surprise -- he's been one of the, to me, breakout players," Riley said. "It sounds weird to say 'breakout player' for a guy I think started nine games for us last year. You don't typically say those things together, but his improvement and some of the playmaking he's had, the difference has been as substantial as anybody on our roster through six practices. He had another interception today and he's had multiple here early on, lots of great plays.
"Playing more confident. He's gotten stronger. It's what you hope would happen for a guy who got some phenomenal experience and game reps last year -- have really been pleased with him."
To Riley's point, it's not as if Wright was an unknown commodity. Among returning players, only safety Calen Bullock and nickel Max Williams logged more defensive snaps last season.
But Wright had his growing pains in the role and had seemingly been leapfrogged by Covington by the end of last season, going from playing 67 snaps vs. UCLA to just 13 the next week vs. Notre Dame, only 4 in the Pac-12 championship game and just 1 defensive snap in the Cotton Bowl.
"You know, competition certainly [helps], and I think just for Ceyair, he started a lot early and then he didn't play as much at the end of the season. Jacobe kind of came on. Ceyair had his ups and downs throughout the year, which a lot of first-year guys do. He's like a lot of guys on this team right now were there's a little bit the realization that whatever I did last year is probably not going to be good enough to get me on the field this year. Like, if I'm going to go do this, I've got to go," Riley said.
Per PFF, Wright allowed receptions on 27 of 43 targets into his coverage last season, for 303 yards and touchdown. He was flagged for four penalties. Statistically, he totaled 28 tackles, 2 pass breakups and had his first career interception against Oregon State.
Covington, who came over as a transfer from Washington, got off to a slow start but eventually took over that job -- opposite senior stalwart Mekhi Blackmon -- down the stretch. For comparison, he allowed 12 catches on 21 targets for 162 yards and a touchdown, per PFF. He managed 4 pass breakups and 14 tackles and committed 1 penalty.
Those two were competing for playing time last season, and even with Blackmon now heading off to the NFL, that seems likely to still be the case.
Roland-Wallace was one of the Trojans' big offseason transfer additions and made 37 starts in his four years at Arizona. It's expected he'll fill Blackmon's void and man one of those corner spots this season, but he has been sidelined by a minor ankle injury so far this spring.
"Christian had a great offseason. He twisted an ankle the first day of practice -- nothing serious but hasn't been able to get back into competitive drills for us yet. Excited to see him," Riley said. "He's a hard worker. He was really impressive in all the offseason drills that we did, the conditioning drills, the strength testing, some of the competitive stuff, some of the on the field work. I mean, you notice him. I noticed him even from the opposite sideline during the game last year. So, excited to see him."
In the meantime, though, there have been even more reps available on the practice field for the rest of the group.
"The corner competition has been good. We've got more bodies, more talent there," Riley said. "... Domani's been back, been able to take a lot of reps. He's done well. Jacobe Covington, another guy that really came on at the end of last year and has practiced very, very well for us here so far. Fabian Ross has really taken some nice strides, I've been excited to see him. I think he's done some pretty nice things here early on as well. So, it's a good group.
"Obviously, I'll be excited to get Christian back and get him into the mix, but it would kind of be the theme defensively -- there's more talent, there's more size, there's more strength, there's more competition on the field at every position right now, and corner is no different."
To Riley's earlier point, it seems Wright approached the offseason with that realization in mind.
But work ethic has never been in question for the four-star talent. He received similar praise entering last season, when he went from hardly seeing the field as a true freshman to suddenly playing all those snaps last fall.
It seems more likely the Trojans will end up with a rotation of some sort at cornerback in 2023, if Jackson -- the No. 17-ranked overall national prospect from the 2022 recruiting class -- can avoid the injury setbacks that largely took him out of the picture a year ago, and if Covington continues to impress the coaches as well.
But Wright's doing his part so far -- Riley made that emphatically clear.
"I give him credit. He's had a really good offseason. The word I would use just watching him practice through six practices, he's just practicing more confident," Riley said. "I think Donte [Williams] and Alex [Grinch] have done a really good job with him. I see that kind of across the board defensively right now. I think the group is, you've got a lot of guys like Ceyair in that same category that are playing more confident. It's amazing, you can take the same player, the same call, the same scheme, the same techniques, everything, and if he does all those things with confidence the product can be two completely different things. ...
"It's six practices in. You've got to keep it going, but he's certainly been one of the most improved players, and I think confidence has a lot to do with it."
