The circle of blame linking Lincoln Riley and Alex Grinch and not just at USC

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Fun might not be the perfect word for this situation, but it captures some of the mixed emotions at USC after the Trojans defense stepped on a rake and lost a 15-point Cotton Bowl lead. against Tulane.

It’s not something to be happy about, but it’s not something to be mad at either, and there’s a humorous (if perhaps dark) angle to it all.

In the wake of another USC implosion on defense, a lot of people (fans and analysts) are saying Alex Grinch really isn’t the problem here. It’s actually Lincoln Riley for employing Alex Grinch and being okay with having him as your defensive coordinator, instead of someone much better. That’s a fair point. That’s not the whole story, but it’s certainly part of it.

Riley didn’t have to bring Grinch with him from Oklahoma to USC, but he did.

Now let’s flip this conversation to the other side of the coin: Alex Grinch didn’t have to follow Lincoln Riley to USC. You could say there was immense pressure to do so, and not embarrass Lincoln Riley, but Grinch if he privately didn’t want to make the move certainly had no moral or ethical obligation to follow Riley. He’s not a sheepdog. He is an adult who can make his own choices. He could have sought a lower-level coordinator position or perhaps a Five-Eyes head coaching position.

Let’s not take away Grinch agency and autonomy here. He made that choice.

So when we discuss the idea of ​​Lincoln Riley constantly asking Alex Grinch to clean up a mess on defense (at Oklahoma in 2019 and USC in 2022), let’s be clear: Grinch said yes to those requests. He didn’t have to! He wanted to, or at least he wasn’t willing to choose anything else. Grinch chose to participate in these cleanup efforts in which he knew he inherited a poor defense and was being asked to do something awful a little less awful.

Riley gets blamed for not picking the best defensive coordinator, but Grinch gets blamed for taking those jobs, too.

The story continues

He didn’t have to. He chose these professions. Let’s remember that.

It’s kind of funny to see people say or imply that Lincoln Riley and Alex Grinch had no other choice when, of course, they did. They could have chosen differently, but that’s the path both men wanted. In the absence of other choices, we have no other conclusion.

List

Lincoln Riley’s loyalty to Alex Grinch can’t exceed his loyalty to Caleb Williams and the USC offense

The story originally appeared on Trojans Wire

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