Joel Klatt dismisses notion of Lincoln Riley can't coach, cites Alex Grinch loyalty

Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt heard the noise regarding Lincoln Riley all of a sudden can’t coach in the midst of a 7-5 regular season that went into a tailspin.

The USC head coach was brought in to win titles, not barely make bowl games. But defensive struggles were the height of the problems in 2023, which led to the firing of defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, Riley’s trusted assistant going back to Oklahoma.

Klatt told Colin Cowherd that Riley was essentially, loyal to fault and gave Grinch every opportunity to snap out of the skid.

“Remember Alex got on the plane coming from Oklahoma to USC,” Klatt said on The Herd. “And then Lincoln was taking major heat. You remember how toxic that was his exit from Oklahoma? So I think he remained loyal to him from that perspective. This take that Lincoln Riley is a terrible coach, it’s so patently absurd, it’s like dumb.” 

Cowherd pointed out the loyalty between Riley and Grinch, perhaps to a fault. Klatt also saw something he never saw from Grinch, which caused Riley to make the decision.

“I know their wives were close,” Klatt said. “And again, like he was gonna give him a chance to make it right. And here’s the thing in the end, guess who knew more than anybody, Alex knew … You can tell one of the plays late in the game (against Washington). I had never seen this … I’d never seen this reaction on the sideline out of him ever, ever, not one time.

“He put his hands on his knees and his head just sunk down. And you could tell like he knew he knew what Lincoln was going to have to do. He knew that he had been fortunate that Lincoln was, I think, just stand up, in the regard that he kept him for that second year.” 

There’s a notion that Riley should’ve seen this coming and should’ve not brought Grinch along. It’s pretty hard to do that in Riley’s position, according to Klatt.

“You can tell me like well, who cares if he got on the plane, that’s a big deal,” Klatt said. “It didn’t help him stop anybody. But he got on the plane.”

Riley had to play it down the middle when he elected to part ways with Grinch. The next DC hire will pivotal for the future of USC football.

“Watched the game Saturday night, slept on it, and thought about it a lot throughout the night,” Riley said. “Didn’t sleep much. Thought about it a little bit more Sunday morning and just felt like it was in the best interest of our program, both for this year — because we still have a lot to play for, we still have a really cool opportunity in front of us — and for the future that we needed to make the change.”