Player Dossier

2022-2025

USC

DeCarlos Nicholson

CB • 6'3" • 200 lbs • Petal, MS, USA

Ball-hunting defenderSplash play profile

DeCarlos Nicholson shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 18.9 disruption score.

Usage / Role

5%

Rotational defensive role

lowfeatured

Impact Production

22

Developing production for a corner

lowelite

Reliability

22

Sporadic game-to-game production

lowhigh

Star Power

27

Limited ceiling signals so far

limitedstar

Career Arc

Value trend by season

Best season by Season Value: 2025 Postseason · USC

222324242525

Snapshot

Career Teams
2
Unique Seasons
4
Program Path
Mississippi State • USC
Peak Game
Peak game by takeover score: Illinois

Player Story

DeCarlos Nicholson built his college career from 2022 through 2025 as a cornerback from Petal, MS wearing No. 17, spending time with Mississippi State and USC. The clearest part of DeCarlos Nicholson's career was his...

Read the story

DeCarlos Nicholson, CB. Best season Best season by Season Value: 2025 Postseason · USC. DeCarlos Nicholson shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 18.9 disruption score.

Stat Footprint

Career production snapshot

Tackles
116
TFL
3
Sacks
1
Passes defended
12

Quick Answers

DeCarlos Nicholson quick answers

Latest team and position
USC · CB
Career Tackles
116
Tracked sample
4 unique seasons · 6 entries · 38 games
Best season
2025 Postseason · USC
Top game
Illinois
Latest roster
No. 17 · Senior
2025 Tackles rank
42 tackles · CB 51st (top 11%) · Big Ten 104th (top 14%) · National 848th (top 14%)

Season Ledger

Crawlable season-by-season stats

SeasonTeamGamesTacklesTFLSacksQB HurPDTDOverall
2022 Regular SeasonMississippi State35-0-1011.4
2023 Regular SeasonMississippi State114220-2027.8
2024 PostseasonUSC114-0--027.9
2024 Regular SeasonUSC1123-0-5027.9
2025 PostseasonUSC134-0-1044.9
2025 Regular SeasonUSC133811-3044.9

Related Context

DeCarlos Nicholson played CB for Mississippi State and USC. Across 4 tracked seasons, DeCarlos Nicholson recorded 116 tackles. His top tracked season came in 2023 with Mississippi State.

Player insights

Lead takeaway

Best season by value score: 2025 Postseason

USC paired 7 primary output with 18.9 efficiency.

Supporting note

2022 Regular Season role shape

impact-led usage with 10.3 efficiency.

Supporting note

Career value stayed steady

2025 Regular Season tracked close to the prior stop by season value score.

Supporting note

Multi-stop career journey

Production spans 2 team stops, with role shifts visible across Mississippi State, USC.

Supporting note

Peak game by takeover score: East Tennessee State

Win with 1 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet. It landed in the 100th percentile of the selected season.

Analysis workspace

Season Workbench

Filter the strongest season sample, inspect game-level shape, and then drop into the full log without losing the story of the year.

Season Explorer

Understand the selected season before dropping into the full game log.

2022 Regular Season · Mississippi State

Games

3

Havoc Plays / G

0.3

Efficiency

10.3

Usage

1.2

Consistency

11.1

Best Game by takeover score

East Tennessee State

Hover a point or expand a game row to keep the active game context visible here.

Active game

Hover over a point

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Game-by-Game Trend

Follow how the selected stat changes from one game to the next. Spikes mark standout outings, while dips show quieter weeks.

123

Chronological game order.

Game by game trend chart. Arizona: 0. Bowling Green: 0. East Tennessee State: 1

Volume vs Efficiency

Each dot is a game. Farther right means the player carried more of the workload, and higher means they were more efficient with those chances.

Low volumeHigh quality

High volumeHigh quality

Low volumeLower quality

High volumeLower quality

Volume on the x-axis, quality on the y-axis.

Volume versus efficiency scatter chart. Arizona: 1 by 4.2. Bowling Green: 2 by 8.3. East Tennessee State: 2 by 18.3

Split Comparison

Compare how this player performed across different situations. "Games" shows how many matchups are included in each split.

First Half0 · Games = 2 · -1 vs Second Half
Second Half1 · Games = 1 · +1 vs First Half

Game Log

Dense stat lines with inline explanations and season-linked highlights.

3 games

Featured metric

Havoc Plays

Top game by takeover score

East Tennessee State

Best efficiency game

18.3 vs East Tennessee State

Result
Sat 11/19vs East Tennessee StateW 56-720001
Sat 9/24vs Bowling GreenW 45-1420000
Sun 9/11@ ArizonaW 39-1711000

Player Story

DeCarlos Nicholson story

DeCarlos Nicholson built his college career from 2022 through 2025 as a cornerback from Petal, MS wearing No. 17, spending time with Mississippi State and USC. The clearest part of DeCarlos Nicholson's career was his defensive production: 116 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, 1 sack, and 1 interception across 38 career games in the available record. That gives DeCarlos Nicholson's career enough real context without stretching the story beyond the available production.

Career Arc

Track team changes, role shifts, and season-to-season movement.

  1. 1

    Mississippi State

    2022-2023

    Opening stop

  2. 2

    USC

    2024-2025

    Final stop

Season Value Progression

202220232024202420252025
SeasonTeamPrimaryEfficiencyUsageDelta
2022 Regular SeasonMississippi State110.31.2
2023 Regular SeasonMississippi State419.53.13
2024 PostseasonUSC514.81.91
2024 Regular SeasonUSC514.81.90
2025 PostseasonUSC718.95.82
2025 Regular SeasonUSC718.95.80

Signature Performances

Top Games

#1 Featured game

@ No. 24 Illinois

Week 5 · L 32-34 · Conference game · Ranked opponent

Loss with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.

2

Havoc Plays

77.5 takeover

2 disruption/tackle impact with 77.5 takeover score.

#2

vs LSU

Week 3 · L 14-41 · Conference game

1

Havoc Plays

61.7 takeover

Loss with 1 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.

1 disruption/tackle impact with 61.7 takeover score.

#3

vs No. 51 Northwestern

Week 11 · W 38-17 · Conference game

2

Havoc Plays

60.8 takeover

Win with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.

2 disruption/tackle impact with 60.8 takeover score.

#4

vs Arizona

Week 2 · W 31-24

2

Havoc Plays

60.3 takeover

Win with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.

2 disruption/tackle impact with 60.3 takeover score.

#5

vs Rutgers

Week 9 · W 42-20 · Conference game

2

Havoc Plays

56.4 takeover

Win with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.

2 disruption/tackle impact with 56.4 takeover score.

Top Seasons

#1 Season by Season Value

2025 Postseason · USC

7 primary output · 18.9 efficiency · 5.8 usage

44.9

#2

2025 Regular Season · USC

44.9

7 primary · 18.9 efficiency · 5.8 usage

#3

2024 Postseason · USC

27.9

5 primary · 14.8 efficiency · 1.9 usage

Milestones

4

Impact games

5

Splash games

1

10+ tackle games