FOOTBALL

USC Saturday Buzz: Looks Like A Crutch Is Being Brought In

USC is hiring Greg Brown as a defensive analyst.

The good part is Brown is a veteran coach and was Colorado’s defensive coordinator from 2011-12.

The flip side is Brown has been like a pinball with nine jobs in the past 13 seasons. That’s never a good sign. I doubt he’s going to have much influence with Alex Grinch.

But . . . here is the important tidbit: Brown’s specialty is coaching defensive backs. So maybe he was brought in to hold Donte Williams’ hand. Now I can’t argue with that. It might not make Williams happy but it might be better for the program.

  • It would be nice on a weekend like this to watch USC in the Pac-12 Tournament but those plans went awry Thursday night. Luckily for USC, there’s almost no backlash to getting eliminated in its first game.

The diehard fans simply make excuses: Vincent Iwuchukwu didn’t play. Drew Peterson was hurt. USC overachieved all season. It still made the NCAA Tournament.

Here’s the thing: There’s only one more season in the friendly confines of the Pac-12. Then it’s off to the cold, hostile enviroments in the Midwest and Chicago for the Big Ten Tournament. The idea of winning silverware in the Big Ten seems a lot tougher than the Pac-12. And USC hasn’t done that recently in the Pac-12. So it’s next year or bust.

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52 thoughts on “USC Saturday Buzz: Looks Like A Crutch Is Being Brought In”

    1. Pinball wizard meets the Grinch? Or. ..
      As my mom used to say, “Christ on a crutch?”
      Here’s how the meeting went. “He’s available. “What else is new?” “Maybe we should get him before some else does, should we ask Donte?” ” F@$k Donte! ” ” Hired. “

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    3. Buzz: Looks Like A Crutch Is Being Brought In

      USC is hiring Greg Brown as a defensive analyst.

      That right there is a vote of no confidence in Alex Grinch. But ‘Ol Mule Shoe doesn’t have the balls to admit outright that Grinch, Nua and the other idiot Donte Williams aren’t worth a shit.

      ‘Ol Mule Shoe needs to grow a pair and fire those three idiots.

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    4. USC fanboys would get excited if Lincoln Riley hired a Chimpanzee as an analyst… lol 😂. As they do when Riley signs a player from the transfer portal, who was a bench warmer at his previous school 😂.

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  2. Getting a defensive analyst is OK. I don’t see how it can hurt. But this guy was the DC at Colorado in 2011 and 2012 and last year at Charlotte and each of those years they were between 125 and 130 in the nation on defense. But that’s OK. He’s only an analyst.

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    1. Grinch: “I will never ask for advice…and if you give it to me I won’t accept it.”
      #”AllINeedToDoIsFixAllTheBadThingsHappeningOnMyWatch”

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      1. USC is going to improve this year. Whenever a really great coach who takes over a program that has been down recently and he is trying to bring them back to the glory days, quite often the first year has mediocre success as he is trying to change the culture. But there is usually a big jump in success between the first year and 2nd year. Nick Saban was 2-6 in 2007 and then 12-2 in 2008. Bob Stoops was 7-5 in 1999 and 13-0 in 2000. Pete Carrol was 6-7 in 2001 and 10-2 in 2002.
        The same will be true of LR. I expect him to have a much better year in 2023. I like what he is doing. He understands that today(with all the rule changes favoring the offense) you win with offense not necessarily with defense. So he is building the offense first.
        Now he is starting to build the defense. Can he win with just offense by out scoring the defense every game? You could make an argument that he could. Last year they had a horrendous defense. Yet they were 2 points away from going 13-1. And had Caleb Williams no pulled a hamstring in the Pac-12 championship game, they would have won that game too. They were about to go up 24-3 when Caleb got hurt. Would Utah have come back and scored 40 points? Probably!! But with a healthy Caleb, USC would have scored 50 points.
        But the best plan is to build a defense, now that you have the offense going. With the guys that they are bringing is, they have a good chance to do that even with
        Alex Grinch. They had better do that because the last 6-8 games of the 2023 schedule will be brutal. Thank you King George.

        Liked by 2 people

  6. I disagree that Big 10 basketball is any sort of significant step up from the Pac12 in talent and competition. But what will make things hard on USC is the travel.

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  7. I can imagine Donte walking up to the athletic building, looking through a window and seeing a meeting going on between Reilly, Grinch, and Brown where they are looking at film on the defensive backs. He opens the door and says “what’s going on.” “Oh nothing Donte, I didn’t know you were coming in today. This is Greg Brown, he is going to be helping us out. “

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    1. HI PLOW HORSE

      I STILL REMEMBER YOU TALKING ABOUT YOUR DAD

      NOT SURE WHY I REMEMBER

      MAYBE RE POSTING ON CELL PHONE AND THAT DISCUSSION

      TAKE CARE MY FRIEND

      Liked by 1 person

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      1. Good to hear from you George. Scott mentioned Virginia Mayo yesterday and it reminded me of the movie “Best Years of Our Lives” that also featured Teresa Wright. So who do you like Teresa or “spread a little Mayo.

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Plowhorse—It would go more like this:
      #Lincoln: “Oh! Ha Ha Ha! We were laughing about a DIFFERENT Donte Williams, Donte”…..

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      1. Well MG, not a bad loss with 40% on your normal starting 5 sitting on the bench injured. We hung in there, but Will McClendon shouldn’t be launching three point prayers.

        When all is said and done, no excuses for the Bruins 2 point loss.

        Thanks for the AZ/UCLA game kudos.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. I don’t know if UCLA will win the NC this year but if they get Bona back, they could definitely make the final 4 even without possibly the best defender in the nation (Jalen Clark)

        Liked by 1 person

  9. First, it being March, basketball is king to spring ‘football practice but barely-
    Arizona, Gonzaga and occasionally sucla (last championship 30-years ago!)
    are the best in the West, and why?- Well, talent but also a built-in aptitude for winning on their home-court because they get more than 10,000 fans screaming, screaming their support in Arizona, sometimes sucla, and every time SC plays sucla at Galen 5-years running now

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      1. No excuses necessary. Bruins played well against a good Arizona team. I thought the UCLA player was going to hit the 3 pointer for the win. A great game.

        Liked by 3 people

  11. Cronin can’t coach. You lose your big guys, tell the others to run and beat the defense before it gets set.

    Brown will coach safeties with Grinch. If Donte leaves then Brown slides in and Roy Williams will not take over cornerbacks. Look for more quarters and cover 3, Brown’s specialty from his time with the Niners.

    A 65 year old vagabond coach will immediately bond with 18/19 year old players? Seriously? It doesn’t work like that.

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    1. Really good point. 19 year olds have a hard time getting pumped up by senior citizen position coaches.
      Riley, for all his offensive brilliance, is having a helluva time piecing together a first rate defensive staff.

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      1. His defense decisions are helton-like. He is not looking at the TEAM, he is being loyal to his friend. I understand “fairness” to give Grinch a full year to prove himself, BUT there are clear markers revealing the problems are more than time to install new schemes. Again helton-like, ” in game” adjustments are not being done. If he says I have to look at the film, I’m going to throw something at my TV.

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      2. The fact there isn’t ONE big name position coach on defense tells you all there is to know. [This isn’t all Lincoln’s fault, btw — Helton left the defense in such tatters big time players and big time coaches are afraid to come near it]…..

        Liked by 1 person

      3. btw, the funniest comment ever given in a sports interview was when Donte said he’d need to look at the film to know exactly what went wrong after UCLA scored in the 60’s….
        #I’llSaveYouTheTrouble,Coach:YouGotYourAssKicked

        Liked by 1 person

  12. “Then it’s off to the cold, hostile environments in the Midwest and Chicago for the Big Ten Tournament.”
    I wasn’t aware that Big Ten basketball was played outdoors.

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    1. well…. it could be cold when we land at the airport….and…. it could be hostile when we get to the court…..
      #…..BringSweaters,Boys

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  13. Michael your “Helton left the defense in such tatters big time players and big time coaches are afraid to come near it]…..” raises the issue of whether SC can hire big time defensive coaches when they see the coddling of Grinch and Donte. Who wants to be second to someone not their equal. I would not take a job that could ruin my reputation because of the incompetence of my boss could taint me.

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    1. High -schoolers who played on the d-line or as backers or defensive backs known damn well there are better places to get coached up than USC [just as QB’s and Receivers know they’re getting the best]…..
      #That’sWhyWe’reGettingTheLatter&LosingTheFormer

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      1. As always you focus on the root cause. I agree. It’s why I am concerned about hiring a well-known top defensive coordinator. The NIL deals are too competitive to favor SC and SC has been weak in their approach. Maybe now with the great former players, some success will occur. Even with that however, money seems to be flowing everywhere. It’s really where can the player get trained, playing time and exposure on media to be picked for the best draft position.

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      2. True, Carra, a Big Name Defensive Coordinator would make all the difference in recruiting……but… I’m not sure Coach Riley has the complete and unqualified support of either President Folt or Mike Bohn …
        #…AndIThinkHeKnowsItAllTooWell

        Liked by 1 person

  14. I’ve generally swore this place off though I miss some of the folks here… My question in perusing Wolf’s recent posts: he’s right about going into the far reaches of the Rust Belt and cornfields, but he’s covered little of it and none with accuracy. The recent claim that UGLY and SC pull over $200 mil from the future PAC deal, and that the deal without the LA schools should be roughly the same, likely more than the Big 12 now should be of interest to him as a journalist. (Don’t laugh.)

    That would mean that with the last ditch unequal revenue sharing offer from the PAC commissioner, SC and UGLY could have taken almost half that money, been up there or even in excess of the big boys in the SEC in payouts, not had to travel and costs associated, and delivered an extra $10-20 mil of the other 10 schools over what they’ll likely get now.

    I’m coached fb and been an admin and I get that institutional leaders often despise sports secretly, and that there are lots of interests and agendas, but shouldn’t independent journalists especially discuss these things?

    We had our choice of the religious schools, BYU, TCU, Baylor… But the Wicked Witch of the West aka Carol Folt didn’t want them, (nor any expansion into Texas, nor a ACC/PAC partnership). Now the rest of the PAC without the WWotW to stand in the way will take the lesser of the religious schools in SMU (no disrespect to SMU, we’re just talking revenue athletics here). Why is it at USC more than even Cal or Stanford or Oregon, etc. is “wokeness” more important than anything else?

    At the very least journalists should take our university’s president to task. Even if you don’t care about the effects of wins/losses with the premature move, and the problems with travel for students/families/alum/fans, the associations especially with the other California schools, the smashing of history and culture, there is at least the concerns about an irresponsible decision regarding the economics. Oh well. I’m going to enjoy the tourney and spring PAC sports, and the next season especially do some weekenders I’ve been meaning to for a while. And who knows what twists and turns could happen?

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  15. Scott shut up, your constant looking for the negative is getting old. Time for you to go find your true calling …writing the help wanted ads

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