by Kyle Golik
After No. 5 Washington won their shootout with Southern California 52-42 in the Coliseum, quarterback Caleb Williams, emotionally exhausted after passing for over 300 yards and accounting for four total touchdowns (3 pass 1 rush), located his family and emotionally broke down.
Caleb Williams shares an emotional moment with his family after the loss pic.twitter.com/76snRydsce
— PFF College (@PFF_College) November 5, 2023
Williams has given everything he possibly could and realizing he couldn’t give any more, his dreams of playing for a Pac-12 conference championship, and another New Year’s 6 bowl all dashed.
The effort he gave cannot be questioned, but as Williams wept with his family, the blame has to be owned by Alex Grinch‘s failed defenses and head coach Lincoln Riley for allowing poor defensive performances stack. Riley assumed ownership of the situation as he has officially terminated the beleaguered Grinch, who has served as Riley’s defensive coordinator since 2019 at Oklahoma.
In the press release issued by Southern California Director of Football Communications Katie Ryan:
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USC Head Football Coach Lincoln Riley announced today (Nov. 5) that Defensive Coordinator Alex Grinch has been relieved of his duties. Defensive Line Coach Shaun Nua and Inside Linebackers Coach/Associate Head Coach for Defense Brian Odom will serve as interim co-defensive coordinators for the remainder of the season. Additionally, Defensive Analyst Taylor Mays has been elevated to an on-field assistant coach and will work with the safeties.
Grinch’s defenses hit a new low after the Washington defeat, as for the first time in program history (since 1922,) the Trojans defense has allowed 30 or more points in six consecutive games.
Through Week 10 of the 2023 season, the Trojans defense has allowed 34.5 points per game, which is 124th in the nation. During Grinch’s tenure at Southern California, the Trojans defense gave up 28 or more points in 15 of 24 games.
Lincoln Riley had all 4 of these guys and combined for 0 Playoff Wins 🫠, Caleb Williams never even made the Playoffs or won the Pac-12… pic.twitter.com/lnBnXwfx5L
— College Football Report (@CFBRep) November 5, 2023
While Grinch will forever be the fall guy for the failure to capitalize on the talents of Caleb Williams, the true owner of the failure fully resides with Lincoln Riley.
Riley has been deemed the “Quarterback Whisperer” for all the elite quarterbacks he has coached and molded through the years.
For the embarrassment of riches that Riley has enjoyed at the quarterback position, that has translated to zero national championships, zero playoff wins, zero Pac-12 Championships, and the only New Year’s Six bowl win came against a Florida team that did not have their three top passing targets in Kadarius Toney, Trevon Grimes, and Kyle Pitts.
Back in August, I outlined in my “Lessons of Riley” article. Riley needed to make more of an emphasis in the portal for better defensive talent but the key thing I outlined was the disparity in defensive recruiting between four programs that made multiple College Football Playoff berths and the lack of emphasis Riley’s teams had in defensive recruiting.
Riley’s selfishness for building high-octane offenses with a complete lack of concern or regard for recruiting better defensive talent has led him to waste three Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks and another quarterback who very well could win the NFL MVP award in Jalen Hurts.
As Riley approached his Washington postgame press conference, he came across in denial refusing to accept he wasted Caleb Williams’ talent among many other Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks, “Just in the moment. Everybody wants to, again, you want to write the whole story of the whole thing and all that’s happened. These are, every week is its own season for us. We were in the moment right now to try go beat a top-5 team here, and we were agonizingly close — maybe one holding call from getting that done. So, you know, we’re just fighting like crazy every week to play as good as we can and not get too wrapped up in all the big-picture stuff right now. There’s too much left to play for, and so we’re going to go prepare hard, Caleb’s going to go prepare hard, all of us and obviously try to get past this one and get on to another big opportunity next week.”
With a visit to No. 6 Oregon at Autzen Stadium, Riley has to channel the frustration of the morale of his team. While Riley alluded to the feeling of being raw just following the difficult loss to Washington, the team has to be, as Riley put it, “pissed that we missed this opportunity.”
What had Oklahoma fans pissed, and now Southern California pissed is Riley’s continuing to waste talent and not maximize on having a talent like Caleb Williams.
While Riley wasn’t in the mood to talk about the failures of his defense, Riley has failed many people. Grinch is the sacrificial lamb for Riley’s inability to adjust and be a complete head coach. Even with all the high-end offensive talent, they couldn’t escape his own ignorance and outscore it.
The cost was Riley wasting another generational quarterback.
