USC Trojans Safety Christian Pierce Sends Message Amid Defensive Struggles

The mindset in the locker room hasn’t changed.  

“We didn’t get the win last week but we still got to stay consistent,” Pierce said. “We have attack every day like we did win.”

Struggles at Cornerback

Redshirt freshman Marcelles Williams and Braylon Conley are still going through growing pains in their first month of significant playing time at the collegiate level and left a weakness in the backend of the defense. 

However, the defense hasn’t lost faith in it’s two young cornerbacks or it’s ability to rebound from it’s disappointing showing last weekend. 

“One game don't doesn't define them as a player, doesn't define us as a defense,” Pierce said. 

Williams and Conley drew rave reviews coming out of the spring and fall camp. So far, that hasn’t translated to success on the field, but it doesn’t mean those two guys can’t improve. The only question is how quickly they can start to flash the ability coaches and players were excited about heading into the season.

Redshirt senior DeCarlos Nicholson has started each of the Trojans five games this season at cornerback. He was in and out of lineup in the second half versus Illinois because of an injury, but even his performance this season has been up-and-down. 

Reinforcements in the Secondary 

DJ Harvey was one of two additions the Trojans made at the cornerback position via the transfer portal. The other was Chasen Johnson, who is out for the season with a knee injury. 

Harvey started the first game of the season, but then saw his playing time significantly decrease over the next four games. He only played five snaps against Illinois. 

With the struggles at the position, the Trojans could turn to the redshirt senior again. Riley said to reporters on Thursday they “need his experience to show up” coming out of the bye. 

“His emergence in this next phase of the season will be important for us,” Riley said. 

We could also see five-star freshman cornerback RJ Sermons start getting some playing time as Southern Cal enters the toughest part of its schedule. 

The Rancho Cucamonga (Calif.) product was originally the No. 1 ranked cornerback in the 2026 class, before reclassifying to the 2025 class in May and then officially enrolling in July, so he is still only 17 years old. Sermons battled an injury the first couple of weeks this season but has been dressed as of late.

“He’s going to be a really good player here, but he’s also battling not just the injury, but he wasn’t here until mid-July,” Riley said.

Alex Graham Update 

Freshman defensive back Alex Graham was dressed in full pads for the second week in a row. The Detroit native has yet to make his Trojans debut since suffering an injury just before the start of the season. 

Graham had been running with the ones at the nickel position after Prophet Brown went down a significant lower body injury in the second week of camp. There was a strong belief that when Graham flipped his commitment from Colorado to USC on the first day of the early signing period that the four-star recruit could contribute immediately and now that time is fast approaching.

Whether Graham’s return means Kamari Ramsey will go back to playing safety remains to be seen. 

And asking two true freshmen in Sermons and Graham to transform the Trojans secondary is a lot to ask, but some new bodies in the backend could be what they need to turn things around.