USC football decided to say goodbye to defensive coordinator Alex Grinch following their 52-42 loss to Washington. Grinch came into the season on the hot seat, and was unable to improve the defense which inevitably resulted in his firing. Following his departure, coach Lincoln Riley reflected on the decision.

“Yeah, watched the game Saturday night, slept on it and thought about it a lot throughout the night. Didn’t sleep much. Thought about it a little bit more Sunday morning and just felt like it was the best interest of our program, both for both for this year — because we still have a lot to play for, we still have a really cool opportunity in front of us — and for the future that we needed to make the change,” Lincoln Riley said. “We simply weren't making the progress I think that we that we all expected that we would make. It's tough because these decisions when you make them there's no guarantees in this game. We’re two football snaps away from being undefeated in this conference, right now. You never know exactly how these things are gonna go,” via Cory Nagel of 247 Sports.

The Trojans defense has given up 40 points five different times this season and at least 30 points in each of their past six games. Not only have they made average offenses look like The Greatest Show on Turf, but they've wasted their own star quarterback in Caleb Williams who's leading an offense that averages 45.5 points per game. In all, their defense ranks 119th out of 130th and they give up 34.5 points per game, per USA Today.

With Alex Grinch out, defensive line coach Shaun Nua and associate head coach/inside linebackers coach Brian Odom will take over the defense for the Trojans.