T-Rob liking what Keisean Nixon brings to Gamecocks

Keisean Nixon took a little extra time to make it to Columbia and join the South Carolina football team.

It didn’t take long for the junior college transfer to show his roots with an astute observation.

“He is a straight West Coast guy,” USC defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach Travaris Robinson said. “The first thing he told me was, ‘Coach, it’s very humid outside.’ ”

It was, and is, a change for a California-raised player who spent the past two years in western Arizona. He started camp a few days late after his admissions process dragged out, and only just got into shoulder pads Thursday.

At 5-foot-10, 192 pounds, he’ll have the chance to shore up the Gamecocks secondary at one of several spots. Head coach Will Muschamp said Nixon will start at nickel and safety, but could also get work at cornerback.

“The first couple days, he couldn’t do much,” Robinson said. “Today, he was putting on the shoulder pads a little bit, so we had a chance to see him run around a little bit. But Keisean is a really good player.”

He certainly showed that during his junior college stint. Lightly recruited in high school and injured as a senior, he landed at Arizona Western. He picked off five passes his first year for a 6-4 team, but then turned things up as a sophomore.

Nixon posted 30 tackles, six picks and three sacks. For good measure, he added a pair of kickoff return touchdowns to the two interceptions he took back for scores. The Matadors allowed only 166.5 yards a game as they went 11-1 and came three points short of a national title.

Now he’ll have to make up for lost time and catch up if he hopes to carve out a spot in USC’s suddenly crowded secondary.

“Obviously he doesn’t know what he’s doing,” Robinson said, “just running around, trying to get the ball off people. We’ll meet with him extra and all that kind of stuff to get him up to date on what we’re doing.

“Excited to have him here.”

This story was originally published August 3, 2017 at 7:15 PM with the headline "T-Rob liking what Keisean Nixon brings to Gamecocks."