USC football coach Lincoln Riley fired defensive coordinator Alex Grinch after another poor performance against Washington.
THE USC football the program has would have been fired defensive coordinator Alex Grinch after a 52-42 loss to the Washington Huskies on Saturday dropped the Trojans to 7-3, according to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports.
The game of U.S.C. defense has been an important topic this season for Lincoln Riley‘s football program, and the unit is considered the Achilles heel of a team that has arguably the best quarterback in college football in Caleb Williams.
Caleb Williams and U.S.C. The offense has scored 30 or more points in all but one game this season, which was the road loss to Notre Dame in which Williams committed several turnovers. Defensive play was undoubtedly responsible for losses to Utah and Washington this season, and even gave up 49 points to a weak Cal team the week before.
Alex Grinch has been with Lincoln Riley since their days together in the Oklahoma football program, then he accompanied him to USC. The defensive play wasn’t good enough and many fans feel the two years the program had with Williams will have been a waste.
The Trojans are 5-2 in the Pac-12 with two games remaining against Oregon and UCLA. There’s a chance the program can still make the Pac-12 championship, but it will need a big upset against Oregon next week. College Football Playoff hopes are all but over after the loss to Washington.
It will be interesting to see how USC’s defense performs over the next few weeks and who the long-term replacement Riley ultimately chooses will be.
