Alex Grinch talks philosophy, and where USC’s 2023 defense looks different so far

Every bit of national talk surrounding the USC Trojans heading into the 2023 season made sure to include mention of the defensive performance that cost the Trojans an opportunity to make the College Football Playoff in 2022. It wasn’t just that the unit performed poorly to USC standards. It performed poorly at a national level last year. The only question that mattered in 2023 for the Trojans was whether the defense could pull its weight, or at least not drag the USC offense down in multiple losses.

So far, things appear to be trending in the right direction on that side of the ball. It hasn’t been perfect. Opponents have produced 50-yard plays in each game and the 2008 USC defense can rest easy knowing this group won’t approach what they did. But it’s hard to find a spot where there hasn’t been some improvement from 2022.

Defensive cooridinator Alex Grinch is not a rose-colored-glasses type of critic when he looks at his and his group’s performance. But Grinch appeared faily upbeat when discussing the first three games during his appearance on the Trojans Live radio show Monday evening.

Grinch spoke about his philosophy on defense and dished out some praise for each level of the USC defense.

The Trojans under Grinch run a single-gap defense up front, which means each player is responsible for shooting a specific gap, rather than trying to read and react to where the ball is going.

“Watching video with a guy, it’s real simple,” Grinch said. “If you’re running into guys, that’s not our defense.”

Shooting those gaps is about creating havoc in the backfield, generating sacks and tackles for loss. USC recorded 10 tackles for loss against Stanford and is on pace to shoot far behind the tackle-for-loss number the Trojans posted in 2022.”

“We say run game should look like pressure, should look like blitz,” Grinch said. “It’s not your opinion as a linebacker, for instance, that you stutter your feet in the hold and kind of wait to see where the ball is. You have a gap. The D-line has one, you have one, and you have to fire the gun.”

Grinch said he likes the secondary to be “more match principles” and that group is looking to eliminate two things: space and speed. Grinch conceded that’s very difficult to do without dropping at least eight players, but the Trojans philosophically want to rush four.

One of the biggest differences between this 2023 defense and the 2022 version has come in the way Grinch sees this group’s ability to attack vs. defend.

“There’s defending and there’s attacking,” Grinch said of defensive thought and play. “Defending is formation recognition. Defending is making sure you’ve got a checker (defensive player) where you need a checker. And defending is making sure that you limit some of the exposure of certain guys in certain spots. For instance, we want to play man coverage. That’s fine. But you can’t put that guy in man every single snap.”

The attacking side is the flip side.

“The attacking piece is putting guys in position that you can attack the opponent and look to exploit any weaknesses they may have, and put guys in a position they can play downhill and then attack,” Grinch said. “And from a playcalling standpoint, you’ve got to make sure that you’re not doing too much of one or the other. You attack too much and you’re not defending enough, then you run the risk of putting youself in some real blind spots.”

Grinch said the 2022 defense probably fell far more on the side of defending vs. attacking.

“You’re so conscious of making sure that checker’s where it needs to be and making sure that you don’t put a guy in a situation that can’t be successful and you’re looking at it through the lens of, you get through a Saturday game day, how much of the conversation the previous week was about attacking the opponent?” Grinch said. “That’s something that’s really appropriate for us as we’ve gone through the offseason and gotten in the second year is we have to make sure that USC football, our job is not toprotect guys. Our job is to attack the opponent.”

Grinch gives position breakdowns

It became obvious as the 2022 season went along that if defensive end Tuli Tuipulotu wasn’t getting the job done up front, it was unlikely to get done. Much of the talk this offseason from coaches and players centered around getting more production from more players in that defensive front.

“It’s immensely different,” Grinch said in that regard. “A little bit more maybe by committee, which is a good thing, as we’re rolling guys through the defensive front. I don’t know if it’s the trump card yet, but we’re working towards that. Making sure that those guys in the front can disrupt. And the next piece, where Tuli was so special, was the production piece.”

At linebacker, Grinch has been able to get a long look at true freshman Tackett Curtis and veteran but relatively inexperienced Raesjon Davis. Grinch spoke highly of Davis’ ability to step in and produce as the Trojans have played without Mason Cobb the past two games, Eric Gentry for the Nevada game and Shane Lee for much of the San Jose State game. Grinch said Davis did “a nice job” as a starter each of the past two games. Both he and Curtis could be extremely valuable late in the season either as depth or continuing on as starters depending on the overall health of the unit.

“There’s not a team in the country that doesn’t want Tackett Curtis on their roster,” Grinch said. “He’s one of those guys, probably similar to a quarterback, where you’re learning on the fly and you’re getting some fastballs and you can’t press the pause button in the middle of a play. But all those things he’s learning from. Cannot be more excited about him. It’s going to flip for him fast in terms of getting the production in there.”

The safety position, the one Grinch personally coaches, has been one of the most improved groups between last year and this year. Jaylin Smith leads the team with 20 tackles from his nickel position. Grinch said he’s “playing at a different level” this year. Max Williams recorded the first interception for the Trojans against Stanford. Both he and Bryson Shaw were hitting anything that moved against the Cardinal. And Calen Bullock has been playing at his All-American level early in the year.

“I think you’re seeing an experienced unit,” Grinch said of his safeties. “Seeing some physical play and some confident — there’s tackling, and there’s confident tackling. It doesn’t take a trained eye to see the difference between them…The untrained eye at home should see the different level of strain and physicality. They can recognize it.

“To see that on display — and some of that is the offseason playing its part, which it should,” Grinch said. “When you’re bigger, faster and stronger, you should be able to attack other humans in a different way. Been pleased, certainly, with that group.”

Grinch said the diversity of formations, shifts and adjustments from the first three opponents will serve the Trojans well as they get deeper into the schedule. Coaches and players are trying their best to take this one game at a time and focus solely on San Jose State, then Nevada, then Stanford and now Arizona State. But it’s clear they all understand what awaits this USC team in the back half of the season.

“If you can script it and you can survive it, it really can lend itself to some real positive,” Grinch said of the different looks and challenges his defense has faced so far. “Because all those things, you’re going to see over the course of the season. So, needle is pointing up.”

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