USC Football: Interim Co-Defensive Coordinator Rips His Own Defense

The USC defense was atrocious in 2023.

The USC Trojans 2023 season ended as badly as it could have. All off-season long, the issue was the defense, but everyone overlooked it like a nasty pimple. 

"Who needs a great defense when you have an elite offense?" "USC will outscore their opponent every game anyway." "USC's defense is nothing to worry about. They upgraded this offseason." 

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None of that happened to be true. Not only was the defense an issue, but you could argue it was a big reason this season turned into a nightmarish one. Everyone knew about their struggles from the start, and it bit them in the you-know-where come season's end. 

The finger was pointed at former defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, and rightfully so, but even after his firing, the defense was still bad. USC decided to go with co-interim defensive coordinators in defense lineman coach Shaun Nua and linebacker coach Brian Odom. They didn't fix things overnight, and Nua expressed frustration with his defense after their loss to UCLA. 

“I’m happy that we do have the depth that we have, but at the end of the day we’re not having the season defensively that we want,” said Nua, who was named co-interim defensive coordinator after

Alex Grinch was fired

. “So we can get all the best players here, but if we don’t help them get into a position to execute then it doesn’t do any of us any good.”

(Per Thuc Nhi Nguyen of The Los Angeles Times)

The defense was awful before the firing, and it was horrible after the firing. USC ends the regular season 118th in opponent points per game, 116th in opponent yards per game, 102nd in opponent yards per play, and 100th in opponent third down conversion percentage. From top to bottom, the defense was atrocious, and yes, a lot had to do with the coaching, but the players were also just as bad. 

One thing is for sure: the defense needs to improve, and that needs to start next year. The standard at USC is different, and if they want to get back to the elite status we all know they can get to, they need the defense to do their part. 

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