Joel Klatt reacts to USC, Lincoln Riley firing Alex Grinch

USC finally pulled the plug on what was Alex Grinch’s dreadful defense. In the end, Joel Klatt knows that, unfortunately for Grinch, he just didn’t give them any other choice in the matter.

Klatt discussed the Trojan’s decision to dismiss Grinch during his show on Monday. He started by providing an appropriate perspective on the matter considering it’s a decision that goes beyond the football field.

“USC fans? And I know a lot of them – I live around a lot of these people. They are thrilled about this. I’ll just say this: I’ve known Alex for a long time. Alex is a good man and I hate it when people lose their job,” said Klatt. “This is a sport that we all love and, yet, there are real things like livelihoods and families. That’s all on the line. So I feel bad for Alex.”

However, at that point, Klatt did dive into why this was the appropriate decision by USC. To him, he believes Grinch knew that to be the case too based on how he looked at points during the Trojan’s latest 52-42 loss to Washington.

“This had to be done. I think he even knows it. I think he knows it because I know him well enough, I’ve covered him enough times to know the body language on the sideline,” Klatt explained. “On Saturday night, when you saw the body language, when he put his hands on his knees and his head just slumped down late in that game? I could tell that, in his mind, he was like, ‘This is not good enough.'”

“Alex probably understood, at that point, like, ‘This needs to change. If I’m the one that has to go? Then I’m the one that has to go,'” said Klatt.

It’s one thing to really struggle on defense. It’s another thing to be as deficient as Grinch’s units have been in multiple areas over the span of several seasons. When you dive into the numbers, Klatt more than understands why this was the direction that the team had to go in.

“They are currently 123rd in total defense, 124th in scoring defense. Last year? They were 105th in total and 94th in scoring – so they’ve regressed, even after getting all of those transfers,” noted Klatt.

“Really, this came down to if Micheal Penix goes off? It’s kind of like, ‘Yeah, we get it,'” Klatt said. :But when Dillon Johnson goes off? It’s, like, c’mon? Like, why can’t we stop the run?”

This partnership between Lincoln Riley and Grinch reached its end because his program couldn’t carry this narrative around any further into their future. Now, moving forward, the massive question in Los Angeles is how the head coach will address the opening in order to field, at minimum, a competent defense for USC.

“This had to change,” said Klatt. “Lincoln Riley is going to have to answer for this. You cannot have this poor of defensive execution this often. It happened at OU, it’s now happening at USC.”

“This defense has to improve. And, at some point, Lincoln is going to have to look at the way that he operates his entire program and say, like, ‘How do we become a better defense?'” said Klatt. “They’re going to need to be that to move forward.