USC Football Officially Fires DC Alex Grinch, Per Head Coach Lincoln Riley

Lincoln Riley has relieved Alex Grinch of his duties as defensive coordinator.

The day after allowing a season-high 52 points to the Washington Huskies in a brutal 52-42 defeat, USC Trojans head football coach Lincoln Riley announced Sunday that defensive coordinator Alex Grinch has been relieved of his duties.

Grinch had spent the last season-and-a-half as the Trojans' defensive coordinator and had garnered much criticism from the USC fanbase for how the defense had performed. 

In 2023, the Trojans have allowed 34.5 points per game, the second-worst among all Power 5 conference programs. With Caleb Williams and the USC offense among the best in the league, the Trojan defense couldn't keep opposing offenses out of the end zone enough for the Trojans to fully take advantage of their offensive weapons.

USC's loss to Washington was their third in four games after entering the season among the favorites to make the College Football Playoff. After the game, Riley was asked if he was frustrated that the USC program wasn't able to capitalize off of Williams' generational talent.

"Just in the moment. Everybody wants to again write the whole story of the whole thing and all that's happened," Riley said. "Every week is its own season for us. In the moment right now to try to go beat a top-five team here and we were agonizingly close."

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The Washington passing attack received much attention over the course of the week as quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and receivers Rome Odunze and Ja'Lynn Polk have been dominating defenses all season. However, it was the rushing attack that burned USC, with running back Dillon Johnson exploding for 256 yards and four touchdowns.

Ryan Kartje of the Los Angeles Times asked Riley about the defense's inability to contain explosive plays, pointing out that the Trojans allowed 17 plays of 10+ yards or more.

"I mean it's a good offense, it's a really good offense and you know that you're going to have to be able to make some of your plays," Riley said. "They're going to make plays, they've made plays against just about every body — you have to make yours. We had a couple, obviously the pick and a couple of stops but not as much as we should have."

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USC Athletics

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Safety Callen Bullock was asked if he thought that USC's struggles against the run occurred because they were not lined up properly before the snap. 

"All of the big runs, I would say. When somebody's not in their gap or not lined up, that's what happens, you see big runs," Bullock said.

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USC Athletics

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It would seem that the defense lined up incorrectly consistently this season, perhaps indicating that whatever mistakes were being made in games were not effectively addressed in practice.

Defensive line coach Shaun Nua and inside linebackers coach/associate head coach for defense Brian Odom will serve as interim co-defensive coordinators until the conclusion of the 2023 season. 

In addition, defensive analyst Taylor Mays has been elevated to an on-field assistant coach role and will focus on working with the safeties.

Riley and Grinch have worked together since 2019 at Oklahoma.

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