As the editor of Trojans Wire, I appear on a lot of YouTube shows, mostly through my partnership with Mark Rogers and Tim Prangley at The Voice of College Football. I also have done media hits with Salt Lake City radio stations, with Tampa-based podcasts, with a radio show based in the Deep South, and elsewhere. When people talk to me about USC football, they often ask me if Lincoln Riley is serious about defense. The reality that he kept Alex Grinch as long as he did makes that question a legitimate one. It’s a good question. To be clear, I don’t mind that line of inquiry. Any good radio/YouTube host or podcast producer would ask that question.
What I got tired of this year was the drumbeat from some fans who said Lincoln Riley will never, ever be serious about defense. He won’t ever win championships. To be sure, Riley still has a lot to prove. However, the idea that he would never field a good defense depended on the idea that he would never fire Alex Grinch, as though the two men were married for eternity.
That marriage was going to end at some point, and it did. Riley had to hire a new defensive coordinator.
If he had hired a mediocre coordinator, then we could all sit here and bury Lincoln Riley, but what about the possibility that he might actually hire a good defensive coordinator? We all had to wait to see whom Riley would choose.
He chose well.
He learned his Alex Grinch lesson. Let’s dive into this discussion and get some opinions from others in the college football world: