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

29%

Rotational defensive role

lowfeatured

Impact Production

39

Developing production for a corner

lowelite

Reliability

33

Sporadic game-to-game production

lowhigh

Star Power

56

Useful peak profile

limitedstar

Career Arc

Value trend by season

Best season by Season Value: 2025 Postseason · USC

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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

2023 Regular Season role shape

impact-led usage with 19.5 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: LSU

Loss with 1 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet. It landed in the 90.9th 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.

2023 Regular Season · Mississippi State

Games

11

Havoc Plays / G

0.4

Efficiency

19.5

Usage

3.1

Consistency

9.1

Best Game by takeover score

LSU

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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.

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Chronological game order.

Game by game trend chart. Arizona: 2. LSU: 1. South Carolina: 0. Alabama: 0. Western Michigan: 1. Arkansas: 0. Auburn: 0. Kentucky: 0. Texas A&M: 0. Southern Miss: 0. Ole Miss: 0

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: 3 by 32.5. LSU: 10 by 51.7. South Carolina: 3 by 12.5. Alabama: 3 by 12.5. Western Michigan: 2 by 18.3. Arkansas: 1 by 4.2. Auburn: 3 by 12.5. Kentucky: 3 by 12.5. Texas A&M: 1 by 4.2. Southern Miss: 5 by 20.8. Ole Miss: 8 by 33.3

Split Comparison

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

Wins0.8 · Games = 4 · +0.6 vs Losses
Losses0.1 · Games = 7 · -0.6 vs Wins

Game Log

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

11 games

Featured metric

Havoc Plays

Top game by takeover score

LSU

Best efficiency game

51.7 vs LSU

Result
Fri 11/24vs Ole MissL 7-1782000
Sat 11/18vs Southern MissW 41-2050000
Sun 11/12@ Texas A&ML 10-5111000
Sat 11/4vs KentuckyL 3-2432000
Sat 10/28@ AuburnL 13-2733000
Sat 10/21@ ArkansasW 7-310000
Sat 10/7vs Western MichiganW 41-2821001
Sun 10/1vs AlabamaL 17-4030000
Sat 9/23@ South CarolinaL 30-3731000
Sat 9/16vs LSU10+ tacklesL 14-41105100
Sat 9/9vs ArizonaSplash gameW 31-2432101

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