USC lost the Cotton Bowl because of its defense but it still rankles me that Jordan Addison sat out the game.
He basically spent a semester at USC wearing a retired number and couldn’t be bothered to play in the bowl game.
- While Lincoln Riley ponders staff changes, what cornerbacks developed this year? Mekhi Blackmon was a sixth-year transfer, who was ready made when he arrived.
Who developed? Ceyair Wright, who was benched at the end of the season? Jacobe Covington, who barely played until the end of the season? Domani Jackson? Prophet Brown?
It’s a fair question to evaulate the cornerback coaching.
- You can also evaulate the safeties. Calen Bullock seemed to get worse. Jaylin Smith? Latrell McCutchin? You know who coaches the safeties? Alex Grinch.
- Now would be a good time to hear from Coach Bohn about the football program/staff. Of course we won’t.
- Wide receiver CJ Williams has entered the transfer portal, per On3 Sports.
- USC had a 99.8 percent chance to win the Cotton Bowl with 4:30 left.
- Well, it looks like the father of USC linebacker Raesjon Davis has reached a breaking point.
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsI’ll just sit this here!!!! Not going to be quiet anymore shit is getting old!!!! https://t.co/FXXp1zFs7x
— Rashad Davis Sr. (@RashadDaviSr_) January 3, 2023
InsideUSC with Scott Wolf 
I would hate to see Davis leave. He has a great shot at becoming the future. Grinch took everything from last year, got rid of the dead wood, added new players, and came up with a worse defense. Failure in every sense of the word. Get rid of Grinch and keep the players from leaving.
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One question: Grinch is drowning. Why would an obviously smart guy like Riley want to go down with him? It doesn’t make sense.
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Grinch has pictures of Riley and a sheep, I’ll let you take it from there.
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As David Carradine said in Kill Bill, Volume 2, “That would do it.”
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I agree that Jordan Addison should have played. Grinch must be replaced. The co-ordinators are everything. When they first hired LR I was thrilled. We finally had a brilliant O-Coordinator. I waited to see who they would pick as their D-Coordinator. The minute they picked Grinch and I researched his background I was unimpressed. It was the wrong guy. The coordinators are everything.
In 2019 LSU had one of the greatest teams ever. Why? Because they had a great HC…..Ed O?…….NO!!! Orgeron has never convinced me that he was a great coach or even a great coordinator. He’s a great D-Line coach. Then why did they have such a great team in 2019? Because they had the best O-coordinator in college football at that time(Joe Brady) and one of the best D-Coordinators in college football(Dave Aranda) and the best QB(Joe Burrow) in college football.
After that season they all left and about a year and a half later(after winning the NC in one of the greatest teams ever), Coach O was gone. WHY? Because without those 3 guys he was 11-12.
SC needs a great defensive coordinator. The loss to Tulane may be a blessing in disguise. All I am hearing from one end of the internet to the other is how LR could not care less about defense. I listened to one Oklahoma website where they said “we warned you SC fans….LR is not interested in defense”. He’s getting nothing but bad press across the country for that loss and everyone is blaming it on the defense. It seems to me that he will have to give in. I don’t think that he can just stand alone against the world. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Grinch get fired or resign soon.
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Parcelman—can you imagine what would have been the result in the Cotton Bowl if we had Jordan Addison in the game instead of Mario Williams?
#AddisonIsABeast…
#MarioIsn’t….
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Really, I’m not sure that it would have mattered. We gained 600 yards without him. Their defense couldn’t stop us. The real problem in this game is that we couldn’t stop them.
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Remember parcelman — if Addison were playing that would have been him back there on the kickoff….not Mario.
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Listen to Joel Klatt. The one thing that he said is that next year is a one in a lifetime opportunity. You can’t waste next year
https://www.foxsports.com/watch/play-6211e7a130007ec
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MG, Addison does not return kicks when he is about to go 1st round. He could have played, at least some, but I doubt anyone would have put him in to return a kick off. Why they even changed is a mystery.
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The most damning issue about the defense is that the performance deteriorated over time.
Average points allowed through Oct 8 ( 6 games) is 19 points per game
Average points allowed since October 8 (including Colorado and Cal) is 38 points per game.
It is understandable the D would be a work-in-progress. But the last 8 games shows the defense significantly regressed.
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100% How can you keep the guy who led the defense in the Utah and Tulane games?
As I mentioned earlier, Grinch actually said the Hawk Tackle involved “wrapping up the runner”…AND… he expected his players to “wrap people up” in the Cotton Bowl. Wrapping up is only half of the Hawk Tackle. Our guys NEVER execute the roll that goes after the wrap up. It’s like they never heard of it….
#…OrTheyDon’tWantToGetDirty
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@torjan1967 and that’s exactly why Grinch needs to be gone and the program, re-evaluated by Bohn and Riley from every aspect of the team. How bad do they want to win it all? Or just pretend, by winning games to make money but never getting over the top.
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Amen. I couldn’t have said it better.
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If LR doesn’t replace the D-Coordinator in the next week or so, I would question whether he will ever win a NC. He’ll have 2 loss seasons year after year but he will never win the big one. Hopefully, all the criticism he is getting right now will brake down all his stubbornness and convince him that Grinch must go.
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We’re already questioning him now in my family? Why LR, bringing Grinch with him from OU.
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Maybe this will bring him down to earth and he realized he caused all of this. Now he can learn from it and take some accountability. Some one at USC needs to pull him to the side and let him know what USC is all about and been about before the sanctions and. Clown shows showed up, what the expectations are. No excuses!
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Usc is now ranked 106 out of 130 schools in total defense.
The cringe to think usc bought out grinch’s ou contract for 1.08 million.
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106th with that kind of talent(he has 2 five stars and 16 four stars on that defense). That is unforgiveable. LR needs to get a D-Coordinator who will get the most out of that talent(if for no other reason, for the sake of the athletes themselves).
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Let’s wait and see but I wouldn’t be surprised to hear an announcement(in the next week or two) that Grinch will not be back next year for whatever reasons.
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USC was so excited to get a new Lincoln, nobody cared it was towing a Rambler Hornet. Now the Hornet is parked out front and everyone can see it for what it is.
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It’s the players that are out there, not the whiny adults or wannabe Trojans. God bless y’all for the passion.
Riley is truly feeling the pressure and ESPN is not doing him any favors! Most losses after leading by 15 or more points in FBS as a coach! That’s what we call a double-tap media shot.
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I have been asking about Raesjon this whole year. Putting Shane Lee on the field all year long was plain wrong. And players like Nomura are a liability. When we finally see Raesjon he was making plays. Think how good he could have been if he had played all year long.
Stick around Raesjon!
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Look its a ridiculous defense of course . The kick off muffwas of the worst special teams play I have seen when you are winning . He had no business touching the kick off, it was either in the end-zone or out of bounds.It shows a lack of maturity, discipline, and concentration which is directly linked to the coaching staff. I highly recommend hiring Jim Leonard who is now free. He has created a defensive monster with much less talent than USC has. It’s a golden opportunity to upgrade the team.
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Davis is going to play and even start some games next year. I can see Gentry in the middle with Lee being forced to strongside to share time with Davis. the faster, smaller linebackers will play the weakside and cover the wideouts and tight ends depending on matchups. The key is having linemen who can disrupt and destroy blockers to slow down and keep the backers clean. If Pili stay then that solves a HUGE problem, pun intended. A more aggressive scheme with better zone coverage needs to be run. It all starts with pressure up the middle.
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