The USC Trojans’ defense was not very good in the 2022 season — that’s no secret.
Down the stretch of the season, they collapsed time and time again, including a devastating loss to Tulane in the Cotton Bowl.
However, head coach Lincoln Riley decided to bring back Alex Grinch as the team’s defensive coordinator, which was a surprising move by many.
Riley knows Grinch from their days at Oklahoma, and while the defense had its issues, he still has faith in him (h/t Ryan Kartje of The Los Angeles Times).
“I know what he’s made of,” Riley said. “I just do. I know what’s getting ready to happen defensively.”
As soon as Riley got the job at USC, Grinch was one of the assistants on the plane with him that was headed to Southern California.
After just one year, it seemed unlikely that they would move on from him, and Riley is obviously firm in his belief of what Grinch will do.
There are a lot of reasons why the Trojans lost the Pac-12 title game and the Cotton Bowl, but the defense failed to live up to expectations time and time again.
If changes arrn’t made defensively in 2023, Riley might have no choice but to move on from Grinch. We will see where we are one year from now.
[mm-video type=video id=01gphsx31sxc4tg63912 playlist_id=none player_id=01f5k5y2jb3twsvdg4 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01gphsx31sxc4tg63912/01gphsx31sxc4tg63912-60c009444554ba9e9f2729bb91bde462.jpg]
[listicle id=55595]