By: JC Nevils
Alex Grinch has been with Lincoln Riley for years, but is his time
up? In this article, I detail the good, the bad, and the downright ugly of their time together.
Coach Riley has had quite a rise in the coaching ranks over his
career. He went from a walk-on QB at Texas Tech in 2002 to beginning
his coaching journey as a student assistant the very next year. Known for his IQ, he would soon get his first shot as an
offensive coordinator in 2010 at East Carolina.
After proving himself and putting up gaudy numbers there, he
would get his first gig in the big leagues, as he was chosen by Bob
Stoops to lead his offense at Oklahoma for the Sooners. That
decision turned out to be a great one as it didn’t take long for Riley
to show his offensive prowess. He led the Sooners to the seventh-ranked
offense in the country earning the Broyles Award, awarded to the
nation’s top assistant coach. He would get his first chance as head coach when Stoops retired after the 2016-2017 season.
All Riley has done since becoming a head coach is tally a 71-13
record, coach three Heisman trophy winners at quarterback (Baker
Mayfield, Kyler Murray, and Caleb Williams), and produce twenty-eight draft
picks, including five first-rounders.
Despite all of that success, Riley has been no good in postseason play, posting a record of 1-4 along
with going 0-3 in the College Football Playoff. Simply put he is missing something to
get him over the top, and that would be defense. After allowing forty or more points in six games in 2018, he hired
Alex Grinch away from Ohio State to fix that problem.
Grinch himself had quite the rise in the coaching ranks as
well. Starting at Missouri as a GA in 2002, he got his first big-time job in 2015, being tabbed as the defensive
coordinator for Washington State. He quickly made a name for
himself as he was a Broyles Award nominee in his first two seasons,
and was a semifinalist in his final season in 2017. That led
to Urban Meyer hiring him as Co-DC in Colombus, but Riley poached him to Norman one year later. In his first year, he was a semifinalist for the Broyles Award again.
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Grinch’s defenses are known to viciously attack offenses and rack up turnovers along with sacks. There is no question that he can dial it
up, but that also means giving up a lot of explosive plays. He has
never been great at stopping the run with his best season in 2020 finishing
ninth only giving up a very formidable 105.1 yards per game. While
that may be so, Riley hired him to compliment the offense and to get
over the hump to win a national championship. They have had
plenty of talented teams to get there over the years, but they simply
implode on the biggest stages. With Grinch at the helm and Riley
leading the charge, I’ll say once again that they have a pitiful
postseason record going 1-4 in bowl games, including 0-3 in the
College Football Playoff. In those games, they have given up an average of 45.6 points
per game.
No matter how good of an offense you have or Heisman trophy
winners you have under center, you simply cannot give up that
many points on defense and expect to realistically win a title. It just
doesn’t work that way. Now I will reiterate that Grinch can scheme
and make defenses better, but to get a natty you have to find
your weaknesses and step it up even more. We are only five games
into this season, and it seems that not much has changed
whatsoever. The Trojans are giving up over 400 yards a game
including almost 150 on the ground. While they are only giving up a decent 24.2 points per game, that still isn’t where you want to be. Just last
week against Colorado they gave up forty-one points in a near-historic
comeback win for the Buffs.
Caleb Williams will always be special and get you out of most
sticky situations, but not everything, and certainly not enough to get
you a ring himself. One man can’t do it all. While they have won a lot and
had tons of success, if this season ends up like all of the others I
don’t see Riley keeping Grinch around. As the old saying goes,
every good thing has to come to an end at some point right? Especially if it hasn’t really been good.
