O/NSO: Lincoln’s defensive honeymoon is over edition

The Obvious: After USC’s devastating 46-45 defensive meltdown to victorious Tulane in the Cotton Bowl Classic, it’s fair to say in the aftermath that Lincoln Riley’s Trojans honeymoon – certainly the defensive part of it - is over. The Not So Obvious: Riley and his beleaguered defensive coordinator Alex Grinch have been welcomed back to Los Angeles from Dallas with a barrage of questions pointing at defensive leadership, defensive talent, and defensive scheme, all of it raining down on Riley and Grinch like this week’s Southland winter storm. What’s not so obvious is the direction the Trojans’ head coach is going to take to dramatically improve his defense in 2023, knowing full well his past defensive inadequacies at Oklahoma are now a topic of discussion in Los Angeles and being scrutinized under the bright sporting lights of Tinseltown.