USC fires DC

SCHawkeye2

SCHawkeye2

Well-Known Member
www.espn.com

USC, Riley fire DC Grinch after 52-42 loss to UW

Southern California coach Lincoln Riley fired defensive coordinator Alex Grinch on Sunday, with two games left in the Trojans' disappointing regular season and fresh off a 52-42 loss to No. 5 Washington on Saturday night.
www.espn.com www.espn.com

"As a coach, you don't deflect," Grinch, who took responsibility for the defense's shortcomings on a weekly basis, said at practice last week. "I couldn't be more disappointed in myself and the inability to get the guys to be more sound."
 
Watching USC's defense Sat night, I can understand this move. I literally said out loud, "this may be the worst P-5 defense I've ever seen." And I'm 65 yrs old! They had players literally MOVING OUT OF THE WAY of offensive blockers, seemingly because they simply wanted to avoid contact. Not sure I've ever seen anything quite like it...defensive players practically running away from contact.
 
It is a Lincoln Riley problem. His teams are always bad defensively. That is why I always made the Fran comp with him. You wonder how a coach can see the game so brilliantly on one side of the ball and never really figure it out on the other end.
 
trj said:
It is a Lincoln Riley problem. His teams are always bad defensively. That is why I always made the Fran comp with him. You wonder how a coach can see the game so brilliantly on one side of the ball and never really figure it out on the other end.
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Indeed. My other thought watching the USC defense was wondering how much $$ they'd lay out for a proven BTen Defensive coach like Phil Parker? Mega, I'm guessing.
 
trj said:
It is a Lincoln Riley problem. His teams are always bad defensively. That is why I always made the Fran comp with him. You wonder how a coach can see the game so brilliantly on one side of the ball and never really figure it out on the other end.
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Same is true for guys like KF. Its a blind spot.
 
SCHawkeye2 said:
www.espn.com

USC, Riley fire DC Grinch after 52-42 loss to UW

Southern California coach Lincoln Riley fired defensive coordinator Alex Grinch on Sunday, with two games left in the Trojans' disappointing regular season and fresh off a 52-42 loss to No. 5 Washington on Saturday night.
www.espn.com www.espn.com

"As a coach, you don't deflect," Grinch, who took responsibility for the defense's shortcomings on a weekly basis, said at practice last week. "I couldn't be more disappointed in myself and the inability to get the guys to be more sound."
Click to expand...
Compare Grinch’s mea culpa to Brian’s:
 
Grady said:
Indeed. My other thought watching the USC defense was wondering how much $$ they'd lay out for a proven BTen Defensive coach like Phil Parker? Mega, I'm guessing.
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The secret sauce isn't just the coach, though. The secret sauce on defense and with the offensive line is for guys to get reps together so that they can anticipate each other's moves. You can't just roll out 3 five star freshmen and 8 transfer portal guys who grade highly and expect to have a good defense. It takes years to build a defense and you need one absolute alpha male who the young guys circle around. If you try to build a defense with mercenary transfers it simply won't work. You can use up to three transfers to plug obvious holes, but teams like Colorado or USC who think you can create a defense full of transfers out of whole cloth in 20 practices are insane. It simply won't work.

Iowa's defense (and Jim Leonhard's) is a team effort. Every single guy knows his role and knows his assignment. Sure, lapses happen and guys get beat sometimes, but this stuff takes years of guys working together and building trust to work. Firing a coordinator does nothing to address the root problem and if anything it will make the problem worse.
 
After USC loses 5 of their last 6 and gets spanked by their cross-town rival, Lincoln Riley talks about how hard it has been to play so many close games. From the ESPN recap:

Riley reiterated his disappointment in the way the season transpired, but also said the team was "worn down emotionally" from its past nine games -- all of which were won or lost by fewer than 20 points.

Man, must be rough for those guys. Sounds like they deserve a mental health break week.
 
CP87 said:
After USC loses 5 of their last 6 and gets spanked by their cross-town rival, Lincoln Riley talks about how hard it has been to play so many close games. From the ESPN recap:

Riley reiterated his disappointment in the way the season transpired, but also said the team was "worn down emotionally" from its past nine games -- all of which were won or lost by fewer than 20 points.

Man, must be rough for those guys. Sounds like they deserve a mental health break week.
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Little Lincoln can’t blow everyone out and it’s making him sad. He’s going to love the Big Ten.
 
Hawkfnntn said:
Imagine if a team had BF and this Grinch guy as their coordinators. Just how bad could they be? That'd be wild.
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I actually think BF would be a great Defensive coordinator. Tell him to run the defense like an offense! No one would score on him!
 
Who defines a close game as "under 20 points"? Maybe 1 score, maybe even 2 scores, but who considers a 3-score lead to be a close game? That is a blowout in our world.
 
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