LOS ANGELES – It has become a regular sight at USC practices. Correction: after USC practices.

Freshman cornerback Iman “Biggie” Marshall almost always stays late to work on his craft. Footwork. Hand placement. Whatever he can think of that might make him better.

“It’s just the sign of a guy who wants to be great,” said USC coach Steve Sarkisian, whose team plays host to Washington on Thursday night. “He’s not satisfied with where he’s at yet. He’s a heck of a player for a true freshman. But he wants to be special.”

No one has to tell Marshall to put in extra work; he does it of his own volition. The five-star recruit from Long Beach Poly hasn’t slacked off since becoming a starter in USC’s third game. If anything, he has spent more time in the deepest corners of the practice field since moving up the depth chart.

“Him staying after, that’s just something that’s in him,” USC defensive backs coach Keith Heyward said. “He’s done that since he’s gotten here.”

Marshall did it before he got to USC. But he wasn’t born that way. He learned the value of hard work, preparation and paying attention to details from the most influential person in his life.

FATHER KNOWS BEST

Tony Marshall’s father was not part of his life. Tony was determined to provide his oldest child, Iman, with a different experience.

“I wanted to make sure to give my son every chance,” Tony Marshall said by phone this week. “Kids need discipline, structure. Because I didn’t have that – just my mom – there was a lot of unmet potential. I didn’t want him to have the crutch.”

Tony played running back and defensive back at Poly. He continued his football career at Long Beach City College and Texas A&M-Kingsville. (He had an offer from Texas Tech but didn’t qualify academically.) Then he had Iman.

From the time he was 6 years old, Iman wanted to play football. Tony planned to wait until Iman was 11. But by the time he turned 9, it was clear that Iman was ready. He already knew the sport from playing the “Madden” video game with his dad.

Tony considered “Madden” a “great learning tool.” When they played, Tony would have Iman study the responsibilities of every position and how different defensive coverages worked.

“I made sure he understood the game of football before he played the game of football,” Tony Marshall said.

Iman took to it right away. Playing fullback in his first youth football practice, he scored a long touchdown. The defensive coordinator wanted to know what happened. Iman explained that the center blocked down, the guard peeled and sealed off the linebacker and the rookie fullback cut off the guard’s butt.

“For him to be able to see that and recite that instantly, it just blew my mind,” Tony Marshall said. “He wasn’t just reacting. He was processing it.”

Tony says Iman always has had an analytical mind. He views the receivers he has to cover as problems that need to be solved. Sometimes he’ll ask Tee Martin – USC’s receivers coach – questions during one-on-one drills.

But even the sharpest kids can’t take shortcuts. When Iman was in elementary school, he sometimes would forget to dot his i’s, cross his t’s or put periods at the end of paragraphs.

“I used to hate that,” his father said. “It was a lack of attention to detail. I used to get on him real bad about that. I would tear up his paper and make him rewrite it. With that, he became real anal.”

That trait has served Iman well.

THE QUEST TO BE ‘LEGENDARY’

Iman Marshall is listed at 6-foot-2, 200 pounds – excellent size for a cornerback. He is known for his physical play, chucking and rerouting receivers at the line of scrimmage.

However, in his first varsity game as a sophomore at Poly, he didn’t play that way. Marshall missed several open-field tackles.

“His first game was horrible,” Tony Marshall said.

The father, recognizing his son’s potential to play Division I football, let him know he couldn’t make those types of mistakes again. So Iman spent the better part of his sophomore season working on his tackling until he got better at it.

Flash forward to September 2015. After playing a prominent reserve role in USC’s first two games, Marshall made his first career start against Stanford. On two separate occasions, he had tight coverage on Cardinal receivers but failed to knock the ball away. Stanford scored on both drives en route to a 41-31 upset victory.

A week and a half later, Marshall, sweaty and out of breath, stopped to speak with reporters – 35 minutes after the conclusion of a shorter-than-usual bye-week practice. What did he learn that night against Stanford?

“I didn’t finish,” said Marshall, who played much better the next game against Arizona State. “That’s the thing that’s going to separate the good from the great, and the great from legendary. And what I’m trying to do is be legendary. That’s why I try to do extra work.”

Contact the writer: mlev@ocregister.com