Slept-on USC Football Safety proves he's ready for huge season in dazzling highlight

Incoming sophomore USC Football Safety Calen Bullock had a nice 'welcome to college football' season last year. He not only showed flashes of greatness despite delusional coaching around him, but he showed PROMISE. There's a difference, and it's clear that he's already an impact player at this level.

He puts on a show when he's on the football field and is fun to watch. SC fans saw him really blossom down the stretch of his true freshman season in 2021, and were surprised when he wasn't even an honorable mention for the All-Pac-12 preseason roster. The overall numbers were 40 tackles in 11 games for Bullock, with three PD's and a couple of picks.

It was a nice preview of what is to come from Bullock in his career. After all, he's set to pick off many passes QB's dare throw in his area of the field. Don't believe that? Well, his ball skills on the field certainly agree with it. He put those on display before a fall camp practice recently. Check that out here:

Calen Bullock's hands will be important for this USC football defense.

USC football has quite a bit to prove this year on defense, but Calen Bullock's hands are not in question. He corralled that ball like a wide receiver. And practice hadn't even really started yet. Again, this was during WARMUPS. Call it how it is: Safeties aren't supposed to be able to do that. He has a level of athleticism that transcends position roles.

Heck, this is the same guy who was coined a position-less "Athlete" by 247Sports in his recruitment, as opposed to a traditional Safety. He was the No. 9 Athlete in America for the 2021 recruiting class, and the No. 203 overall player as a four-star prospect.

SC invested heavily into the DB room for the '21 class, and the returns from Bullock have been nice. The No. 17 recruit in the state (California) certainly didn't do anything to hurt his stock in his first year last season.

Based off of what he's apparently up to before practice even starts, he may be in store for another leap in development in 2022. Hey--if he can develop under Todd Orlando, he'll develop just fine under Alex Grinch.