Covington Becomes Second Husky This Offseason to Transfer to USC
After leaving the University of Washington football team somewhat abruptly and entering the transfer portal, Jacobe Covington needed 13 days to find a landing spot.
On Sunday, the 6-foot-1, 198-pound sophomore cornerback from Chandler, Arizona, decided his next stop would be USC and announced his commitment on social media.
A one-time 4-star recruit, Covington will try to convince a third college coaching staff that he deserves a prominent role after failing to make a significant breakthrough with the Husky secondary coaches for Jimmy Lake and Kalen DeBoer.
Covington becomes the second UW player to join the Trojans this offseason, joining wide receiver Terrell Bynum, who left shortly after last season ended.
The defensive back's departure was somewhat curious after he told Seattle media members near the end of spring ball that he never considered transferring during the Husky coaching change and, in fact, he should be more of a team leader.
"I think I could be in more of a leader role in the cornerback room," he said at the time. "I talked to my group about that today. I apologized and said I'm ready to take the next step. I don't think I've been a great leader in the room. Now I'm ready to take that step."
Covington, who played in all 12 games as a reserve last season and collected 5 tackles, was gone a week later. He reportedly didn't take part in the final two UW spring practices and his departure was made public on May 2.
A year ago, Lake's staff tried Covington at safety and cornerback during spring practice and he couldn't dislodge any of the starters in either position area. During the season, the UW used seven different players as first-team safeties and Covington wasn't one of them.
This spring, both starting cornerback jobs needed replacements and Covington still found himself behind a host of players. He couldn't move past former walk-on sophomore Mishael Powell, UC Davis transfer Jordan Perryman and even redshirt freshman Davon Banks who came to the UW without any other scholarship offers.
The guy with the higher pedigree got impatient and left.
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