Alex Grinch and the USC Trojans are looking to rebound after back-to-back losses. While the team’s College Football Playoff hopes have faded fast, the team is still alive in the Pac-12 but must figure some things out in a hurry.

Unfortunately, the start of Week 9 has been a bit unusual with head coach Lincoln Riley missing 2 practices with an illness. Riley’s absence was ordered by his doctors with the Trojans plugging ahead.

Asked about the situation on Tuesday, Grinch said the Trojans are moving forward with “business as usual. It feels like a normal game week,” the DC explained.

Grinch was asked for a follow-up, but he reiterated the normalcy of practice so far. He pointed to Kliff Kingsbury filling Riley’s specific role in practices and the rest of the staff having their designed roles on either side of the ball.

“I think from the staff standpoint, everything — like I said — not to be redundant, but the head coach has a specific role there, an opportunity to get Coach Kingsbury with the quarterbacks,” said Grinch. “That’s fortunate that way. And then from a staff standpoint, we can communicate with him as normal and we got our roles on defense, roles on offense and crank this thing up. You’d be surprised how normal (it is).”

We’ll see how everything plays out on Saturday, but there’s no denying the urgency brought on by a 2-game losing streak.