USC Trojans Defense: Who Will Step Up At No. 2 Cornerback?

The Trojans' secondary was supposed to be one of the team's greatest strengths heading into the season.

Now it's a pretty big concern.

USC has allowed an average of 265 passing yards and a 63.5 percent completion rate through its first two games. Though the stats might not pop out at you, keep in mind the Trojans have faced Hawai'i and Syracuse.

At the time Isiah Wiley was ruled academically ineligible, coach Lane Kiffin certainly didn't think losing him would make that much of a difference.

"The blow is not as big, I think, because of the way we went about it," Kiffin said. "We had kind of moved forward, as you can tell, by not having him here in camp."

But the Warriors and the Orange both found success throwing the ball to anybody not named Robey. The other starting cornerback, Anthony Brown, has split time with Brian Baucham and Kevin Seymour. Torin Harris returned against Syracuse, too, but the didn't fare so well, either.

With Pac-12 play starting this weekend against Stanford, it will be interesting to see how this situation develops.

Arizona, Oregon and UCLA all rank in the top-10 nationally in total offense per game while Arizona State ranks 17th.

Coaches Rich Rodriguez of Arizona and Todd Graham of Arizona State have instilled their famed high-octane offenses and both schools are seeing results early in the season.

Arizona hung 59 points on then-No. 18 Oklahoma State last weekend, amassing 501 yards of total offense with 320 of those coming through the air.

Arizona State hung 63 points in its season opener against Northern Arizona, and still, Graham wanted his offense to play faster. The Sun Devils also put up 510 total yards and 45 points against Illinois last weekend, the most the Fighting Illini had given up to an opponent since a triple-overtime loss to Michigan in 2010.

Obviously it's still an early sample size, but someone at that other cornerback spot will have to step up in the coming weeks if the Trojans want to contend for a national title.

How much of a concern do you think the other cornerback spot is for USC entering Pac-12 play?

Moving on...

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