Grinch fired

[Utesbyfive]

USC has dismissed defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, sources tell @YahooSports.

— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) November 5, 2023

[ProudUte]

Shocking!!!

[The Miami Ute]

USC is currently #119 in Total Defense in the FBS. It’ll be interesting to see if Grinch lands on his feet and where that is.

[MFury]

I wonder how big of a bag they put in front of Scalley

[jamarcus24]

If I were calling shots at USC I’d go after Jim Leonard, former Wisconsin DC. His defenses were consistent top 10 in the nation and when he didn’t get the head job last year he left the program and is an analyst at Illinois right now. Leonard is a guy who knows the B1G and would probably completely turn SC’s soft defensive culture around. If Scalley were to some reason take off after this season Leonard is a guy I hope Whitt would go all out for.

[The Miami Ute]

I’ve been monitoring this issue via USC blogs and YouTube channels and Jim Leonhard is the name that comes up most often in their wish list for a future USC DC. He’s currently a senior football analyst at Illinois, so he’s available. I guess the real question is if he wants to A. Move to LA to be a DC. or B. Would he rather hold out for an HC position during the next hiring cycle.

[The Miami Ute]

Probably not big enough for Scalley to essentially kiss goodbye to the Utah HC position when Whitt retires.

[Utah]

Honestly…we know it’s going to be Scalley 99% or Jay Hill 1%. Knowing this, I’d 100% be ok with Scalley going to USC. I think it would do him a lot of good to see how a completely different type of coach coaches. To see how to battle with an offensive mind and how to navigate a game plan that might put your defense in a bad position.

Then we could hire Jay Hill and have Hill/Shah be our co-DC’s and see how they do. Then when Whitt retires, we’d potentially have our pick between Hill, Scalley, or Shah. That’s a good problem to have.

[2008 National Champ]

It’s hard to know how big Scalley’s rolodex is. I think everyone assumes that Ludwig will leave when Whitt does so Scalley is going to need at minimum a new OC. Those options get pretty small when you’ve only ever worked at one school with a staff that doesn’t experience much turnover.

Most 1st time HC’s have worked at multiple schools before and have guys they bring with them to fill key slots. Scalley doesn’t have that luxury and also has only been a defensive coach so he’s going to have to turn the offense over to someone he most likely hasn’t worked with before.

[Utah]

Man, now I really hope he goes to USC. He could make some connections with some coaches from Riley’s tree, really expose him to some new ideas. He’s a great coach and a great mind, let’s expand that thing as much as we can before his shortcomings cost us games (not saying they will, but the more you know the better).

[Charlie]

That assumes he needs to work with someone to hire them. There are other ways to develop relationships. He won’t be surprised, I expect Whitt will work with him in a positive way. I also think he will have his own ideas about what he wants from an offense with plenty of experience opposing different schemes.

[2008 National Champ]

I don’t think we are disagreeing.

I look at the staff Urban put together at Utah with only two years of HC experience. That staff has pretty much all gone on to HC positions since, with varying success, and the only coach retained from McBride’s staff was Whitt.

Continuity isn’t always a good thing when you make an HC change. You don’t need to look any farther than Washington. Lake had worked almost exclusively for Petersen and kept the entire staff other than the OC. Lake didn’t last two years. Scalley will be in roughly the same situation if he takes over with an existing staff but new ideas.

The next Utah HC, whether Scalley or not, needs the freedom to bring in people that are comfortable with him leading and he believes are capable of executing his vision and not the last coach’s vision. A big part of being successful is the ability to bring in people who you have been through the grinder with. I did a lot of project work for about 20 years and so I always had a list of people who I knew their abilities and also how they would handle taking direction from me. That’s invaluable when the other option is soliciting resumes and hoping that I could suss out in a couple of phone calls whether the new hire would be a good fit.

[CityCreekUte]

I’ll take things that surprise nobody for $100000000000000000000

[lgt4141]

Wonder who finally got to LR to let Grinch go?

[Central Coast Ute]

It was the boosters plain and simple. They and they alone call the shots at $C.

[Extra Medium]

I’m assuming the AD told Riley you fire him or I’ll fire you and your whole staff.

He was oddly loyal to a guy who has never had a good defense.

[The Miami Ute]

I don’t think that Riley’s job was ever at risk. This primarily because if USC fired him, they’d be on the hook to him to the tune of $88M. I know USC is rich, but they’re not that rich that they can swallow such a massive buyout. Just conjecture on my part, but what I think happened is that Riley finally saw with his own eyes that he was never going to get anywhere with Grinch and it was negatively impacting his brand. It took that much to fire him because it’s obvious that he and Grinch are close friends.

[2008 National Champ]

SC’s athletic department has been devastated financially over the last decade with all of their hirings/firings. That was supposed to be part of the reasoning for heading to the B1G.

UCLA is in bad shape because of bad management. SC had bad management but they also had a mini-Nassar scandal that they have to pay off and multiple buyouts. There was plenty of talk that the only reason they kept Helton as long as they did was because they couldn’t afford the buyout.

[The Miami Ute]

the only reason they kept Helton as long as they did was because they couldn’t afford the buyout.

Sounds like Utah during the last few years of the Coach K regime.

[22Ute22]

Look, Grinch is certainly not a good DC, but I think it’s a more fundamental problem with Lincoln Riley’s philosophy, in the same way that Whitt has a fundamental problem developing QB’s. They could hire a better DC, but unless Riley looks inward and decides that defense is just as big of a priority, it won’t make a huge difference. They might go from the hundreds to the 60-80 range in defense. That might be good in the minds of USC fans, but that will never win them a playoff game.

[PlainsUte]

Grinch has had some decent years and some real clunkers. Remains to be seen if its him or the overall culture at U$C, where there are a lot of marquee athletes who are coddled. For example, reportedly Lincoln Reilly doesn’t want to have any tackling in practice. Is that a DC issue or a Head Coach/CEO issue?

[Author]

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