MORE: 9-5 Stanford practice notes

After signing with Stanford as a touted recruit in the 2012 class - he also received offers from the likes of Alabama, Florida and Georgia - Jordan Watkins struggled to break into the Cardinal's defensive line rotation.

He amassed a total of three tackles in the first four years of his career on The Farm, all in the 2015 season, while buried on the Cardinal's depth chart.

But now, in his fifth year on the program, Watkins is set to occupy a significant role along the Cardinal defensive front in a primetime rivalry matchup with USC on Sept. 17th and in the weeks to follow.

After four years of making the best of an undesirable situation, Watkins will find himself squarely in the national spotlight.

"It's always been there," Stanford coach David Shaw said of Watkins' seemingly newfound explosiveness. "Jordan has learned a lot in the last couple of years. He's one of those guys, he's a fifth year senior and he is pushing himself really hard. He wants to play, he wants to contribute. It was that way in the spring, it was that way all through training camp, and I'm so happy for him that he had a chance to go out there and make some big plays on the stage that he wants to. Now we got him - we've seen him do it at a high level. He's still improving, he's still pushing himself. But I'm excited. There's a reason why he was as highly recruited as he was. He's long, he's athletic, he's physical. It was great to see it all kind of come to fruition for him."

Watkins did face challenges in his first four years on The Farm. He was a willing worker and teammate but did have to contend with a lack of playing time.

"It's like what a lot of people told me beforehand - once you get to college the offers and everything else that happened in high school, that's out of the way, you start over again," Watkins said. "But still, even to that extent, just being used to playing a lot and then not for a while, it is a little difficult. But at that point it was still just coming out every day figuring out how I can get better, and then in practice maybe I can make my teammates better. That was always still my focus."

In Stanford's season opening victory over Kansas State, Stanford certainly benefited from Watkins' presence. He recorded two sacks, including a safety, and at least one other quarterback pressure.

"I was mad at myself at first because I missed (a sack) earlier in the game, but just being able to be out there with everyone and being able to help our team get a win, it was the best feeling," Watkins said.

Watkins' emergence as a rotation player along Stanford's defensive line can be credited to multiple factors. This spring, he moved to defensive tackle full time. The new position along with some pointers from new Cardinal defensive line coach Diron Reynolds paid dividends.

"The only time I ever really did nose before (spring ball) was if I was giving scout team looks or something like that," Watkins said. "But it was an opportunity where I saw I could help my team out and my teammates, especially with Harrison still coming back form his ACL at the time, so it was really just me and Wes (Annan) during spring ball. The more and more I did it and worked on the techniques, the more I got a feel for it and really started to like it."

"I would say one thing I think I've really done, and not even physically, I think it's more mental - but just with my hands in general. I know Coach Reynolds has come in and he really emphasized hand placement with us staring back in spring. I think you could probably see that with everyone who played - our hands were just so much better at the point of attack and even pass rush. It's paying off so far."

Watkins played numerous snaps throughout Stanford's victory over Kansas State on Friday. With starter Harrison Phillips likely out for the Cardinal's matchup with USC, Watkins will likely receive the starting nod and an even larger workload.