USC Football: Lincoln Riley Maintains Optimism Despite Trojans Blowout Loss
After a cataclysmic 48-20 defeat at the hands of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Saturday, your USC Trojans look to head back to Southern California with at least a sliver of confidence regarding the rest of the season.
And, when asked, Head Coach Lincoln Riley displayed quite a bit:
The first half of Riley's comment was to be expected, as it's important for a Head Coach to rally behind his players no matter the circumstances.
The second half, however, was pretty surprising to see, and frankly, could reflect a broader issue with Riley as a HC.
"The good that you see in this football team is good enough to beat anybody," is a comment that can easily be interpreted as that the team is already capable enough of winning any game, and they just didn't reach their potential today.
USC Head Coach Lincoln Riley (left) and Notre Dame Head Coach Marcus Freeman (right) ahead of the Trojans' 48-20 defeat at the hands of Notre Dame.
We all know, however, that a conclusion like that would be false. Instead, the Trojans clearly have a number of major issues, especially on the defensive side of the ball, that have, and will continue to pose major concern down the stretch of the season.
Evident in their ceding of 41 points to Arizona, 41 to Colorado, 28 to Arizona State, 28 to San Jose State, and, of course, a jaw-dropping 48 points to Notre Dame, the Trojans may have one of the worst defenses in the FBS, and most definitely one of the bottom units among any high-major program.
The offense, at its best, can certainly compete with anyone. But as we saw today, and in the Pac-12 title game last December, that offense is not always going to be enough. Instead, it's the defense that provides a reliable floor from elite opposing game-planning that creates issues for your offense.
Defensive Coordinator Alex Grinch
Despite numerous poor defensive performances, cyclical errors, and embarrassing moments on national television, Defensive Coordinator Alex Grinch remains employed.
And, to make matters worse (and this is the broader issue I was referring to), for some bizarre reason, Riley not only wants to retain Grinch, but believes is doing his job well.
Cameron Salerno of CSB Sports reported after USC's 43-41 win against Arizona that could best be described as "ugly," Lincoln Riley remained defensive with regards to the club's coaching.
"I like the job we are doing there," Riley said. "I think we are set up to play really well in the second half of the season."
The above quote, candidly, is one of the most irrational statements I've heard from a head coach, as he functionally condones the engineering of one of the worst defenses in the United States.
Riley's broader issue may be that he is, simply put, just extremely stubborn. Not necessarily as a person, but in his coaching philosophy. He brought Grinch over with him from Oklahoma, where the defense was also, unsurprisingly, awful.
Despite ceding over 40 points in a loss in the Cotton Bowl to Tulane in January, as well as 40+ to Utah twice in the 2022 season (once in October, once in December, both in losses), 48 to UCLA, 37 to unranked Arizona, and 35 to unranked California, Grinch managed to retain his job entering this season.
Low and behold, as one would probably expect, bad coordinators stay bad coordinators. To find the problem with this Trojan squad, and more exhaustively, the USC program as a whole, we may have to look no further than the people (or person) right in front of us.
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