Promising USC Football Safety not expected to be back at all this year

USC Football Safety Xavion Alford showed some promise last season for the Trojans. He picked up three PD's, and picked off three passes as well in his second season of college football. He was a transfer from the University of Texas, and after showing some flashes last season, he was expected to make an impact on the team this season.

He was not listed as a starter coming into the season, though, and Head Coach Lincoln Riley has now just made it known that Alford had a medical procedure done. That explains his absence, as while SC has other options at safety, it was not expected that he would just not play at all this year. Riley also has unfortunately stated that Alford is not expected to play for the rest of the season:

Of course, since Alford hasn't been playing this year, not much changes as far as how the depth chart looks from now on. It will still be Calen Bullock as the starting strong safety and Anthony Beavers as the backup. The silver lining of this is that Bullock being there makes this loss not too imapctful.

Bullock is having a good season, and had actually already posted three picks and four PD's at the time that Riley made this announcement. The issue, of course, is just that SC continues to have little depth on defense.

Xavion Alford would have been exceptional depth for USC Football's defense.

That's because having Xavion Alford, a former four-star recruit (all recruiting ratings and rankings in article are as of 247Sports), as the No. 3 strong safety would be amazing for USC Football. Luckily, that is still on the table for next year. Alford was the No. 8 safety in the entire 2020 recruiting class, highlighting just how much potential he has. He was the No. 139 overall player in that class.

As long as he's healthy, he'll be in the mix for snaps next year with the Trojans. That's because he'll most certainly be here, and has played well in the Cardinal and Gold before.

He'll definitely be here because it's unlikely he'll hit the transfer portal again, or at least unlikely he'll enter the portal this year, after a season where he hasn't had a chance to prove himself to Alex Grinch yet. He'll likely want to stay around another year at least, before he enters the portal a second time and has to sit out at his next new program for a year.