USC football continues to plunder Colorado, Oklahoma rosters and upgrades at corner

On Wednesday, USC football brought in two impact transfers in graduate transfer Mekhi Blackmon (Colorado) and Latrell McCutchin (Oklahoma).

Both are corners, and as for Blackmon, he's already shown that he's one of the better corners in the Pac-12. Blackmon has four years of experience after being a JUCO transfer (College of San Mateo). These past two years were his best.

In 2020, he played in all six games, collecting six PD's, a pick and a tackle for loss. In 2021, he racked up 41 tackles with another pick, four more PDs and a fumble recovery in eight games. Starting 19 games at Colorado, he was a team captain over there.

As for McCutchin, he follows his Head Coach and D-Coordinator, Lincoln Riley and Alex Grinch to the Trojans. He was a four-star out of high school and the No. 17 corner in the nation. He was encouraging in his freshman season for OU, forcing two fumbles and recording a PD, a QB hurry, and nine tackles in nine games for the Sooners.

As Shotgun Spratling of 247Sports brings up, he did have a tough game against Texas. Spratling does also point out, however, that he gave up just six receptions for only 86 yards and no TDs in the rest of the season (13 targets). Averaging over 20 snaps per game, he already has a good amount of experience under Grinch for an incoming 2022 sophomore.

Latrell McCutchin and Mekhi Blackmon have a chance to start for USC football this year.

USC football was thin at corner before they landed Latrell McCutchin and Mekhi Blackmon in the transfer portal. That's because our two starting corners in Chris Steele and Isaac Taylor-Stuart both have declared for the NFL Draft, as has nickel corner Greg Johnson.

Returner Jayden Williams, who has three years of corner experience, is no longer a returner. He has entered the transfer portal, leaving the Trojans with just three returning corners in Joshua Jackson Jr., Prophet Brown, and Ceyair Wright.

Brown and Wright were great talents out of high school, but haven't been able to play much at the college level. Jackson showed plenty of flashes this season, posting nine tackles and a pick in three games. That being said, that's not a lot of experience and he's only been a defensive player for one year.

I believe in all three of these guys, but Blackmon is already a bit more proven, and McCutchin has shown a bit more promise than any of them. This makes for great depth in the SC corner room, which was an area that many thought we'd struggle with coming into the season.

Keep in mind that we also are bringing in two massive recruits in four-star Fabian Ross (top 30 cornerback recruit in the nation according to 247Sports) and five-star Domani Jackson (No. 7 overall recruit in the nation according to 247Sports). Suddenly, SC has a corner back depth chart that is exponentially better than what we started with. Suddenly, SC has an entire football roster that is exponentially better than what we started with.