FOOTBALL

USC Morning Buzz: How Many Voices Are Enough?

I hope new defensive coordinator Alex Grinch runs a tight ship in the meeting rooms.

Grinch is the defensive coordinator and safeties coach. Roy Manning coaches nickel backs. Donte Williams coaches cornerbacks.

Here are my concerns:

  • Who’s going to run the secondary meetings?
  • Grinch because he is the coordinator? Will they meet separate with the corners, safeties and nickels in different rooms?
  • Which coach is doing the work? How are are they breaking it down?
  • Will Manning and Williams teach man-to-man coverages while Grinch coaches the safeties?
  • Won’t some players have to play alternate between the corner and nickel positions? So does that mean Manning and Williams are coaching both? Manning will also be coaching the outside linebackers.

It’s also a lot of voices for the players to listen to.

41 thoughts on “USC Morning Buzz: How Many Voices Are Enough?”

    1. Something tells me this group knows how to run meetings….
      #…&It’sNotOnlyAboutWhoISPresent…It’sAboutWhoISN’T…..
      #…i.e,AManNamedToddForInstance….

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  2. Scott, aside from your trips down memory lane on Friday’s, you’ve lost your way.

    You have no inside info anymore, if you ever did. You REFUSE to blog about any other USC sports unless it’s a swipe at them for losing, can’t believe you haven’t or didn’t post about the BB game yesterday.

    Maybe you’re ill, maybe you don’t care like you did, age does that to people, but you’re mailing it in these days.

    Good luck to USC with Riley, I do not think he’s the answer, he’s not defense guy and defense wins in every sport, period. Will USC be better ? Absolutely. Will they win NC’s with Riley, I don’t think so.

    Good luck to you all, some of you guys are witty as hell, some are smart as shit, that would be you MG in Maui, but this is not the place to get USC info anymore and frankly, with the portal and NIL, I’ve lost my enthusiasm for college football and I’m going to spend my remaining years with my grandkids, children and wife, life is short and I’m going to spend all of the time I can from here on out.

    Sometimes the light’s all shinin’ on me
    Other times, I can barely see
    Lately, it occurs to me
    What a long, strange trip it’s been

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    2. To karma:
      “They say breaking up is hard to do
      Now I know that it’s true
      Instead of breaking up again
      I wish we were making up again….”
      —The Immortal Neil Sedaka [speaking for Scott]

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    3. I agree. When I washed the national championship game, I saw 2 great defenses with great front sevens. I hope Lincoln Riley will not become another Chip Kelly(“let’s just win every game by outscoring them”). If Grench doesn’t do well after the first year, I hope they’ll fire him and go out and get a really top notch defensive coordinator. I think that they should have done that already. The great managers fire people like crazy until they get the right people. Just look at Trump. Or how about Elon Musk? Skip Holtz used to fire people right and left. Brian Kelly fired his whole staff one year. Riley has the clout to do what CH couldn’t do…..bring in a great DC. I hope he will. Otherwise, he will end up getting the same success that Chip Kelly has gotten.

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      1. Riley probably brought Grench along because he wanted a friendly face at meetings in 2022. Even if we’re scoring 40 points a game next season —if we’re allowing 35, Riley will feel comfy enough to tell Grench goodbye before the start of 2023.

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    4. Sorry buddhakarma, I don’t buy your whiny swan song. You’re just a disgruntled, bandwagon SUCC FB swallow that will return, no doubt, under a new name.

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    5. Vaya con Dios! It’s been a long time since I started that 500+ page thread on Topix about 13-14 years ago.

      Gone are the days of going at it with Rob (aka Bruin Rob, aka Bruin Ghost). That dumbass got banned so many times I can’t remember all the names he had to create, in creating a new log ons.

      I hope Chosen Traveler is doing well.

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  3. Hey wolfman(bark at the moon)….. your pathetic shtick is beyond stale. It’s never too late for a career change. Donuts For Less is looking for a full-time donut maker. Heard the job offers a dozen free donuts every shift….sounds like a win win!

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  4. Well Snarky One, most times when somebody works as hard as you do at trying to be funny/clever, a response such as “don’t give up your day job” seems appropriate.
    However, in your case I wish you would at least consider it!

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  5. It appears Chip Kelly is getting squeezed out at UCLA. All his assistant coaches are leaving including all 3 coordinators which is a sign Chip is next. Apparently, the 9 million dollar buyout expires on January the 15th, and if UCLA fires him on that date they pay 0 to the Chipster.

    Chip on top of all this wants a raise , and UCLA is not giving in so it looks like UCLA has a new coach in mind. Let’s hope it is not Dave Aranda from Baylor.

    Why QB Darian Thompson Robinson elected to return for 1 final year is hard to figure out with what’s going on at UCLA at the moment. Seems ike he has been at UCLA forever so it might be wise to enter the transfer portal for his last season. I would not be surprised if Jed Fish, the predator at Arizona does not call him, and try to get him to transfer to Arizona which is becoming the new Escape to Alcatraz for kids electing to transfer to another school. Karl Dorrell, at Colorado could be in last season next year if he does not turn things around so in desperation he may try to grab Thompson Robinson.

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    1. Personally I hope Chip negotiates his 8 win season into the biggest contract in coaching history…..and then, safe from harm, goes to sleep….dreaming of Vienna Sausage …..

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    2. I’d be surprised if he is not there for another year but we’ll see. It seems to me that it is too late to hire another coach. What do we have?…..6 weeks before spring practice starts.

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      1. ….Love it if, thinking Dave Aranda is waiting in the wings, UCLA refuses Chip his raise, refuses to even give him some kind of b. s. public relations cover like a .0003% cost of living increase and he walks out…..and then Aranda tells UCLA that, after his reading the comments of UCLA fans on social media, he’s decided not to come for health & safety reasons ….
        #…AndUCLA’sA.D.HasToMakeEmergencyCallToGeorgiaSouthern…
        #”PraiseTheLord,It’sAGreatDayToBeABruin!”

        Liked by 1 person

  7. We all must understand the bar is quite low at UCLA for football so Chip feels he has exceeded expectations with an 8 win season. UCLA is trying to get as cheap a deal as possible from him, and if he does not accept they will cut him loose. Perhaps, Rick Neuheisel “The Weasel” would take the job, but I hear Westwood is in a panic mode since the arrival of Lincoln.

    I hope he stays ……..and so does IN AND OUT BURGERS because he is a great customer obviously

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    1. …only if you consider a guy who orders 280 orders of fries, “a great customer”…
      #”ThereAreOtherPeopleInLine,Sir!”

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      3. Yeah, at least we scored….. in the legendary 50-0 wipeout the bruins just kept getting mad at themselves the whole game…on the field… on the sidelines…. in the stands… it was funny but sad. Their players were actually hitting each other in the end zone after blown assignments. Like all bruins nobody could just accept responsibility –every fuckup was somebody else’s fault.
        #LikeWatchingThe3StoogesWith22Guys

        Liked by 1 person

  8. For everybody who’s super pissed off with Scott for not being an ‘insider” —think about what it would REALLY be like if he HAD sat down with Mike Bohn …or Carol….or Former Head Coach [now #1 Recruiter] Donte Williams himself…. and they talked for 3 hours and he reported everything they had to say about football today ….. yeah, I feel the same way.
    Maybe see his ‘snarky -ness’ as an invitation to join the conversation rather than a mean spirited, pointless personal insult… [like the kind me and my pal Smackyd like to throw at each other]…..

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  9. Let’s leave Scott alone!! He’s on the inside on what’s going on at SC probably even more so than Bohn, and Folt who have no clue what’s happenning.! Scott, has turned down an offer to run for Mayor of Whittier just so he can keep us informed of What USC was, currently is, and What it is going to be in the future.

    Let’s be professional and pleasant, and remember Scott welcomes your comments for “free” the other Fight On, and We Are USC are charging money, and providing less up close information than Scott.

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      1. As Carol would say, “nothing separates us…. we are all part of the same universal love force.”

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    2. Whether you like him or not, the Wolfman is very professional. He’s head and shoulders above that other forum(Reign of Troy). They were a Mickey Mouse outfit who ran a USC forum that a lot of people followed and then all of a sudden they decided that they didn’t want to do this anymore……no announcement that the forum was closed down….they just walked away from it and didn’t tell their fans a thing. The Wolfman is a professional. ROT were a bunch of amateurs.

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    3. Tommy D and MG: Echoing you, I prefer optimism over pessimism but here, we can post mostly uncensored and that is becoming increasingly rare unfortunately.

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    4. tommyd,

      Scooter knows what is going on. Reminder, he has information that he can’t release due to confidentiality iwht the source. He works around it so he can inform us and still keep the trust of the source.

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  10. I recall John Robinson and John Madden saying they always had great discussions about whether great defense starts with the safeties or the D line. Of course, each is important. But a great line backing corps can plug a lot of gaps and I can’t think of a great defense that didn’t have great coverage and run support from the D backs.
    I for one am glad that they have several coaches focused on the defensive backfield. I think it’s the area where they need to improve the most. I’ve watched hundreds of SC games over the last 5 plus decades and I’ve never felt uncomfortable watching the D backs as this year. Hopefully, it’s going to be better and the techniques and recognition will be taught so that the unit improves.

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    1. A big improvement from last year would be getting our d-backs in the picture frame when opposing receivers catch balls. Last year guys were catching TD’s against us without USC defenders getting on television. [Afterwards ESPN announcers would say, “wow –that was too easy —there musta been some kind of mix up”…. ]
      #NotGoodWhenYou’reHearingThat3xPerGame

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    2. As a DC, Grinch’s units have been “up and down,” with an average score of about #30 or so. I’ll take the #30th ranked defense right now at USC after the shambles over the past decade.

      With a top 5 offense and a decent D, a Rose Bowl trip should be expected.

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  12. My only concern is that Riley isn’t a pushover like Helton and there are 4 guys wearing #7 or un-retiring number to give to some entitled child.

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