The USC football team came into this season with sky-high expectations after narrowly missing out on a Pac-12 title and College Football Playoff berth last year. This is the second season of the Lincoln Riley era, and the Trojans returned Heisman winner Caleb Williams to this year's team. It seemed like USC was destined for a conference championship and playoff appearance, but those hopes have been derailed after two recent losses. Williams and the offense have been great, which is what everyone was expecting. However, last year's issue was the defense, and it needed to improve for USC to achieve their goals this season. Unfortunately for USC, it seems to have gotten worse.

Many fans of the USC football team are upset with the work of defensive coordinator Alex Grinch. The Trojans haven't been able to stop anybody this year, and Grinch is disappointed with himself.

“You’re constantly looking at calls,” Alex Grinch said, according to a tweet from Ryan Kartje. “You’re looking at personnel. We gotta get it fixed, and we gotta get it fixed fast.”

USC does need to get it fixed fast. They need it fixed by Saturday, because that is when Michael Penix Jr. and Washington football come to town. Penix. Jr. is the favorite to win the Heisman this season, and the Huskies have one of the best offenses in the entire country. This USC defense just gave up 49 points against Cal, and if they play like that against Washington, things are going to get ugly in a hurry.

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The Huskies are currently undefeated and ranked #5 in the country while USC is 7-2 and ranked #20. The Trojans do only have one loss in Pac-12 play, so if they can find a way to win out, they will be in the Pac-12 conference championship game. However, with Oregon and UCLA looming after this difficult test against Washington, that seems very unlikely. With the way that this USC defense has looked this season, they will be lucky to win any of these remaining games.

If Grinch doesn't figure out the issues with this defense in the coming weeks, it would be surprising to see him keep his job after this season. This weekend's game is a major test for him.

USC vs. Washington will kick off at 7:30 ET on Saturday and it will be airing on ABC. The Huskies are coming into this one favored by 3.5. It should be an exciting battle.