Wisconsin hired former USC and Oklahoma defensive coordinator Alex Grinch to be its new safeties coach last week, and also gave him the tag of co-defensive coordinator. The move directly follows former safeties coach Colin Hitschler taking the same job under Kalen DeBoer’s new staff at Alabama.
Grinch has previously worked as defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach at Washington State (2015-2017), as co-DC and safeties coach at Ohio State (2018), as DC and safeties coach under Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma (2019-2021) and in the same position once Riley left for USC (2022-2023).
On one hand, the top assistant was recently fired from USC midway through the 2023 season as the Trojans were on pace to have one of the nation’s worst defenses. On the other hand, he is a four-time nominee for the Broyles Award for the nation’s top assistant coach.
Related: Wisconsin football social media is not happy about Alex Grinch being named Badgers’ co-DC
So, a necessary disclaimer: Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell hired Grinch to be an assistant coach and not the defensive coordinator, meaning he should be judged more for his solid track record of coaching players in the secondary.
In all, it’s a fine hire. It shouldn’t be significant enough to make or break the Fickell era at Wisconsin.
However, editorializing for a second, I still find it hard to look past Grinch being one of the sport’s worst defensive coordinators over the last half-decade — bad enough that the aftermath of his firing is making Lincoln Riley finally care about the defensive side of the football. It is a hire I would not have made, just given the recent history of his teams — plus giving him the co-DC tag puts him too close to the defense for my liking.
Want context? I’ve ranked Grinch’s last five defenses (three at Oklahoma, two at USC) from actually good, to pretty bad, to worst in the nation: