Tag: Christian Roland-Wallace

USC’s Christian Roland-Wallace signs UDFA deal with Chiefs

Christian Roland-Wallace gets an NFL opportunity with the reigning Super Bowl champions.

The USC Trojans are watching 2023 Men of Troy latch onto NFL teams. On Saturday evening, after the 2024 NFL draft ended, multiple Trojans signed on as undrafted free agents. Austin Jones found an NFL home with the Washington Commanders. Shortly thereafter, Christian Roland-Wallace signed a UDFA deal with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Roland-Wallace came to USC from the University of Arizona. Fans were excited about what he could contribute to the Men of Troy. Unfortunately, Roland-Wallace couldn’t make a big impact. Some might blame the player, but the fault primarily lies with Alex Grinch and Donte Williams, whose ineptitude as coaches has been magnified by the successes of Doug Belk and Taylor Mays under the new USC regime.

Roland-Wallace now gets to play for Steve Spagnuolo, the best defensive coordinator in the NFL. That is an exciting opportunity, even though CRW wasn’t able to land on the NFL draft board. Roland-Wallace gets a chance to start fresh and pursue his NFL dream with the league’s best team.

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USC football roster decisions questioned by NFL pundits and scouts

Two USC NFL draft prospects might change positions in the pros. It’s as though Alex Grinch had no clue.

If you have been paying close attention to the NFL combine and the analysis and chatter from NFL teams and scouts, you might have noticed that a few USC football prospects might change positions in the pros.

For instance, several NFL teams are interested in working out USC safety Calen Bullock at cornerback. NFL draft analysts are also saying that cornerback Christian Roland-Wallace might actually have a better chance of sticking on an NFL roster as a safety.

Doesn’t that raise a lot of questions about how Alex Grinch and USC managed personnel and made various roster decisions during the 2023 college football season?

It’s bad enough that USC couldn’t tackle well and was often confused before the snap. It’s bad enough that the Trojans were thin on the defensive line and were utterly ineffective in the secondary. Technique was not taught well. Players were not tough and were not developed well by the strength and conditioning program. Yet, in addition to all those problems, Grinch couldn’t put players at the right positions. He also didn’t put the best 11 players on the field.

Other than that, nothing was wrong with USC football in 2023.

Christian Roland-Wallace and Calen Bullock can only hope that after being wrongly assigned by Grinch, they will find a good home with NFL teams whose coaches know how to use their talents.

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Tahj Washington and Christian Roland-Wallace will enter the 2024 NFL draft

Two USC players accepted an invitation to the East-West Shrine Bowl.

The USC Trojans are losing two players to the NFL draft. Christian Roland-Wallace was part of a disappointing secondary in 2023. He will try to boost his NFL draft stock in the coming weeks and months. The bigger loss is Tahj Washington, the reliable and overperforming wide receiver who was one of the more consistent members of the wide receiver room over the past two seasons.

While Mario Williams and Dorian Singer struggled, Washington was able to get open more regularly and give the Trojans relatively consistent production at wide receiver. While one could legitimately call Williams and Singer busts in 2023, Washington remained a positive force on the roster and earned the respect and trust not only of Caleb Williams and Lincoln Riley, but the larger USC fan base. Everyone who follows USC football will view Tahj Washington’s USC career as a good one. Everyone will look back fondly on his years in Los Angeles and his contributions to the program.

Both Washington and Roland-Wallace have accepted invitations to the January East-West Shrine Bowl, one of the college all-star showcases which will be widely attended and studied by NFL scouts and executives. We wish the best to these two Trojans as they pursue their NFL dreams.

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USC statistical leaders through six games

You probably can name one of these guys offhand.

USC nearly lost its perfect season against Arizona but survived. Notre Dame’s College Football Playoff chances ended with a loss at Louisville. Neither team is coming into their annual meeting with the best momentum. That means talent could be the game’s determining factor.

This is a perfect opportunity for the Trojans to make a statement. They’re catching the Irish when they’re fatigued and struggling. The only thing that could slow them down is the wet conditions forecast for the game, but they’re preparing for that by using water in rather interesting ways in practice. While there’s no way to tell if that will affect anything, it shows they’re not leaving anything up to chance.

As you’re about to see, there are several players responsible for the Trojans’ offense being the country’s highest scoring, not the least of whom is the reigning Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback. Here he is among the top Trojans players on both sides of the ball:

Ducks Wire evaluates USC cornerback Christian Roland-Wallace

Roland-Wallace’s ultimate role is a point of intrigue, but what matters most is that he fortifies the USC secondary.

If you have been following USC preseason camp, Trojan head coach Lincoln Riley made news last week when he said that a lot of positions weren’t yet spoken for in terms of who would start and be listed atop the depth chart. One position group with a lot of fluidity and uncertainty is the secondary, where some players are specializing in one role but others are being coached to play multiple positions. If the coaching staff needs guys to rotate between positions in the secondary, some will try to give the Trojans flexibility. One of those guys is Arizona transfer Christian Roland-Wallace. The former Wildcat is one reason USC has a little more depth to call upon this year on defense.

Don Smalley of Ducks Wire wrote about Christian Rolland-Wallace:

“As if getting Arizona’s best receiver Dorian Singer wasn’t enough, the Trojans also signed the Wildcats’ best corner for the double whammy. Opposing quarterbacks generally threw away from Roland-Wallace, but in Los Angeles, they shouldn’t have that luxury. It’s just an embarrassment of riches for USC and it’s why they are the overwhelming favorite to win the Pac-12 in its last season in the conference.”

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Christian Roland-Wallace tries to make up for lost time

The Arizona transfer missed most of spring camp, so he’s trying to absorb information and ensure he’s ready for Pac-12 play.

Christian Roland-Wallace is one of several incoming transfers from the University of Arizona. Kyon Barrs and Dorian Singer have accompanied him in the Tucson-to-Los Angeles pipeline, but one could make the case that he is the most important of the three.

One aspect of Roland-Wallace’s identity which is impossible to ignore is that he, like Mekhi Blackmon, played at another Pac-12 school but wanted to finish his career at USC. If Roland-Wallace can have a Blackmon-like impact on the Trojans this season, that would be a good result for USC.

Shotgun Spratling of 247Sports wrote:

“Blackmon was a stalwart in the Trojans’ secondary last season, helping him move up draft boards and become a third-round pick of the Minnesota Vikings despite it being one of the deepest drafts for cornerbacks in recent memory. 

“Can Roland-Wallace follow a similar trajectory? He’s already a step behind Blackmon, who proved himself as the alpha in the cornerback room during spring camp. Roland-Wallace missed most of USC’s spring camp, so while he has more experience than the rest of the cornerbacks competing for a starting spot, they all, even Domani Jackson, have more experience under (Donte) Williams and in Alex Grinch’s defense.”

Roland-Wallace needs to catch up and be sure he’ll be ready for the heart of the Pac-12 season. USC won’t need him to be great in the first few games of the season against markedly inferior opposition, but he’ll need to be better when USC gets into late September and prepares for the big October 14 game at Notre Dame.

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The most important cornerbacks to know in the 2023 Pac-12 season

The Pac-12 is littered with some talented corners and they will be heavily tested in 2023 as the conference has elite QB play.

As we continue our preview of the 2023 college football season in the Pac-12 conference, we are going to shift our focus from individual teams to individual positions. The last several weeks have been spent picking apart each school out west, finding where they improved the most over the offseason, and identifying what realistic expectations should be for them going forward.

You can see them all here: Arizona Wildcats — Arizona State Sun Devils — California Golden Bears — Colorado Buffaloes — Oregon State Beavers — Stanford Cardinal — UCLA Bruins — USC Trojans — Utah Utes — Washington Huskies — Washington State Cougars

Now, we’re going to look at position groups as a whole in the conference. Whether it’s a quarterback or a linebacker, a punter or a safety, there are dozens of highly talented players out west. We want to go through them all, position group by position group, and highlight some of the most important names that fans should know at each spot.

Quarterbacks — Wide Receivers — Running Backs — Tight Ends — Offensive Line — Defensive Line

It may not be the best season to be a corner in the Pac-12. The conference will display some of the elite quarterback play college football has to offer. The receivers in this league are also pretty good, so the cornerbacks are going to be put to the test week after week after week.

Why a corner would want to transfer into the Pac-12 in 2023 is a legitimate question. But for those players who want to make a name for themselves and want to be noticed as the guy who stifled a quarterback like Bo Nix or Caleb Williams, this league will provide the perfect opportunity for just that.

We profile those corners in the Pac-12 that will have their meddle tested in 2023.

Veteran Pac-12 CB and potential Oregon target enters transfer portal

The Ducks need an instant-impact player in the secondary to help replace Christian Gonzalez. A prime candidate just became available.

If the Oregon Ducks are looking for a veteran cornerback who can come to Eugene through the transfer portal and help fill the void left by Christian Gonzalez, then a new candidate has popped up who certainly fits the mold.

On Tuesday it was announced that former Arizona Wildcats cornerback Christian Roland-Wallace would enter the portal as a graduate transfer, looking for a new team with which to play his final collegiate season and potentially boost his NFL draft stock.

In his four years at Arizona, Roland-Wallace has played in 41 total games, racking up 169 tackles with 2 INT and 15 passes defended.

Wallace is expected to be one of the more coveted veteran defenders in the portal, and it would be smart for the Ducks to reach out to him quickly. He is obviously familiar with the level of play in the Pac-12 and has done well against that competition in the past.

With Gonzalez making the leap to the NFL, this could be a perfect answer for the Ducks to add an instant-impact player to the defense.

Christian Roland-Wallace’s Transfer Portal Profile

Know the Opponent: Arizona’s athletic defense is still a work in progress

Arizona will throw out athletic defenders on the field, but the results aren’t quite there as of yet.

Oregon has the kind of offense that the 2022 Arizona Wildcats dread. The Ducks are far from one-dimensional. The Ducks can run the ball just as well as they can throw it.

Arizona has shown the ability to limit the passing game, but the Wildcats haven’t been able to stop anyone’s run game, something Oregon will look to exploit on Saturday night.

As a team, Arizona is giving up 213 yards on the ground. One reason is that their front seven is a talented, but young group. The Ducks will need to look out for defensive end Hunter Echols, a fifth-year senior that leads the Wildcats with 3.5 sacks and 6.5 tackles for loss.

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According to Oregon head coach Dan Lanning, the Ducks expect Arizona to mix up formations up front in order to cause confusion.

“Their front, that’s built a little bit off their front. I know their defensive coordinator (Johnny Nansen) has a front background as well,” he said. “But I think they’ll play a variety of fronts; they’ll be three down, they’ll be four down, they change their blitz packages a good amount. And obviously, they try to play to his (Echols) skill sets and use his talents. He’s a good player. He’s disruptive and it shows up.”

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The Wildcat secondary is pretty good and it’s led by safety Christian Young, a senior from Houston. He was second on the team last season with 68 tackles. So far this season, Young has 29 tackles through five games.

Junior Christian Roland-Wallace is Arizona’s most experienced and best corner and he’ll surely get himself acquainted with Duck receiver Troy Franklin. It’ll be a good test for Oregon’s receivers and tight ends. Arizona hasn’t allowed a receiver to go for over 100 yards as of yet.

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Blitz-happy Wildcats could cause some problems for Oregon offense

Arizona blitzes most of the time when on defense, and that will create a unique challenge for the Ducks.

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For a team that’s rebuilding, the most difficult part is trying to figure out what kind of defense, or offense for that matter is best to run according to the personnel that is on the roster right now.

Arizona has decided the way to go is to blitz the quarterback. And if that doesn’t work, then blitz again.

After three games, quite literally, it’s been a hit-and-miss strategy for the Wildcats under first-year head coach Jedd Fisch and defensive coordinator Don Brown. Arizona knew exactly what it was getting in Brown as the long-time assistant coach has the moniker of “Dr. Blitz.”

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But the Wildcats are prone to giving up the big play. BYU scored a touchdown of 67 yards in the first game and then San Diego State found the end zone on plays of 55, 25, and 40 yards, all in the first half. All three opponents, including Northern Arizona, had their fair share of plays of 20 yards that were not scoring plays.

That’s the bad.

The good comes from ranking second in the Pac-12 with 21 tackles for loss, only behind Oregon State. Nose tackle Kyon Barrs, who leads the team with 3.5 tackles for loss, and cornerback Christian Roland-Wallace, who is considered to be a premier shutdown corner.

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The stats don’t bear it out (just one interception thus far) because opponents tend to throw on the other side of the field. In Arizona’s five games in 2020, he ranked third on the team in tackles and tied for the team lead in pass break-ups.

Oregon offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead says Roland-Wallace can cause havoc for an offense in multiple ways.

“His length and his physicality in the run game and at the line of scrimmage (make him a challenge),” he said. “He has very good short-distance quickness and the ability to redirect and the scheme that Coach Brown utilizes gives him a lot of opportunities to press at the line of scrimmage and challenge the receivers.”

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While opponents know the Wildcats will be blitzing, the difficult part, according to Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal is figuring out where it’s coming from and prepare for every possible scenario.

“The challenge this week is two personnel groupings that are very different in what they do out of them,” he said. “We have to be at our very best, got to study them thoroughly and got to have a good plan because they do affect the quarterback. They get a lot of penetration and create negative plays in the run game as well.”

As long as the Ducks get more explosion plays than negative ones, they should be just fine when the final horn sounds on this contest.

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