Matt Leinart shares his thoughts on the firing of Alex Grinch
USC has had enough of two straight seasons highlighted by woes on the defensive side of the ball, as the Trojans decided to fire defensive coordinator Alex Grinch on Sunday following the team’s 52-42 loss to Washington Saturday night.
The Trojans’ defense has definitely been a weakness of their team the last two seasons, giving up 34.5 points per game this season after giving up 27.9 points per game a season ago highlighted by opponents scoring over 40 points in each of their three 2022 losses.
Grinch has often been the target of criticism, even from former USC players like quarterback Matt Leinart who tweeted some frustrations during Saturday’s game versus the Huskies. But after Grinch’s firing, Leinart actually came to the defense of the recently fired coordinator.
“So first, a lot of thoughts about this,” Leinart said. “I know Coach Grinch well, he’s a great guy. He’s got a family, he’s got kids, he’s had success coaching, he’s been coaching a long time. So everybody’s gonna say he’s awful, he’s terrible, he’s this or that. Trust me, I have my frustrations too. Everyone’s human, everyone’s allowed an opinion.”
“I don’t think this all falls on Coach Grinch, I’ve been around football long enough, I watch enough film. There are more problems than just Coach Grinch even though everybody wants to point the finger at him. He is taking responsibility and I’m sure he knows he has to get better, I think we can all evaluate that and say he probably could have done maybe a better job. That’s okay.”
The Trojan’s defense has ranked poorly in two consecutive seasons under Grinch, tabbed as one of the worst defenses across all of college football in a multitude of statistical categories. But Leinart believes that not all of the responsibly should go on Grinch for the team’s defensive struggles.
“There players, everybody needs to hold themselves accountable, look yourself in the mirror, because there’s a lot of missed tackles out there okay? There’s a lot of things that don’t fall on a coach, it falls on player who’s playing in the game,” Leinart explained. “So everyone is quick to judgement and all of these things and I understand the frustration, but sometimes you gotta take a step back. All that being said, moving forward change happens, it takes a while to rebuild a program.”
Blame for failure in football and across all sports can almost always be distributed in a variety of ways. But it will definitely be intriguing moving forward to see if the Trojans’ defense can improve after criticism surrounding the complexity and scheme of their defense. As Leinart reminded USC fans about the big picture perspective regarding the state of their program as a whole.
“Coach Riley inherited a disaster, a disaster okay? So this is year two, we’re a three loss team, we might lose to Oregon, we might lose to UCLA, and that’s okay. We have to get better, USC has to get better, there has to be more changes probably ahead in the way this team is built and that’s okay. But everyone needs to be patient and understand this takes time,” Leinart said. “We need better personnel, lets face it okay? I wish Coach Grinch nothing but the best of luck, he’s gonna bounce on his feet, there’s no doubt about that and everybody needs to just take a deep breath and calm down.”