Alex Grinch says USC defense's standards 'a lot higher' than performance so far
USC is 2-0. At the end of the day, that’s the part that matters to coaches.
But the opponents have been Rice and Stanford. USC will be challenged more later in the year than it has been early, and that makes the defensive performance through two weeks stand out for the wrong reasons. The Trojans’ defense ranks 109th nationally in yards per rushing attempt. The defense has been all-or-nothing, yardage yielded but drives halted by timely splash plays.
The Trojans have 20 tackles for loss in two games. Only five FBS teams have more, and one of them has played three games to USC’s two. The Trojans are also plus-8 in the turnover department — eight takeaways, no giveaways. Defensive coordinator Alex Grinch can’t bank on four takeaways every game.
“I’ve caught myself talking to Coach (Lincoln) Riley almost saying, ‘to our standard,'” Grinch said on Wednesday. “Well, what is our standard? We’re trying to establish that. The brand of USC determines, by and large, what that standard is. And it’s a lot higher than what we’ve done so far.”
Grinch said the defense doesn’t want to be in a position where they have to rely on the offense to keep putting points on the board. “We’re not fans,” he said. The Trojan offense slowed things down and execution dropped off in the second half against Stanford. The Cardinal then outscored USC 14-6 in the second half.
“Whether it’s points, yards… we’ve got to be better,” Grinch said. “We know that and we tackle the work week with that in mind as we try to establish what that standard is for us. We’ve got two outcomes up until this point and we’ve gotta to fight like heck to get a third one.”
Asked where the run defense has to get better, Grinch immediately pointed to the explosives allowed so far.
USC has given up 13 runs of at least 10 yards through its first two games. Only 17 of the 131 FBS teams have given up more.
“A couple of them, it’s a reverse. The first week it’s a power. We’ve got guys (wrong) from a fit standpoint. You look at it and is it a mental error? Is it a missed assignment? Is that a combination thereof? Is it a miscommunication? What all those things are — one, they’re excuses if you allow them to be, and they’re symptoms of what bad defenses do. … We’ve got to be cleaner than that.
So, what changes? Or, at least, what’s the starting point to evaluate what needs to change?
“First off, it’s coaching,” Grinch said. “Are we doing a good job of putting them in a position to be successful? If we can check that box, which I believe we can, can we fix it with just better effort? If that can correct the issue, then stop the evaluation. Beyond that, is it something that we’re making decisions in real-time as an athlete to not do what I’m coached to do? Then you’ve got to press the pause button and say, OK, where’s the conflict coming from? Are we seeing those things during the course of the week? Are we applying those same things on Saturday? Are we doing something different on Saturday than we did on Tuesday, and why would that be? It’s unacceptable. It’s not good enough. We know that.
“We’re not fans. We can’t be in a position where we’ll be fine as long as the offense scores. So we’ve got to be better, much better in the run game and in the pass game.”
Starts on Saturday. No. 7 USC looks to get to 3-0 when it hosts Fresno State at 7:30 p.m. PT on FOX.