Alex Grinch likes the effort from the USC defense early this spring

Much like head coach Lincoln Riley had a few positive things to say about the USC offense earlier this week, USC defense coordinator Alex Grinch likes the effort of the USC defense after Thursday’s practice, the fifth of the Trojans’ spring ball.

He was sure to couch it with the now-ubiquitous “long, long ways to go” comment, but the positives are there.

“The one thing I give these guys a lot of credit, from an effort standpoint I’ve been fairly pleased,” Grinch said following Thursday’s spring ball practice. “I really have. If you can walk off the practice field each day and say we’re fighting to get better and the effort shows up on video, then we’re giving us a shot. We got a long, long ways to go. But there’s some physical plays in practice and some other ones where we’re getting out-physicaled. Back to the drawing board tomorrow. But [I’ve] been pleased with the effort.”

Grinch mentioned defensive linebacker Tuli Tuipulotu, inside linebacker Shane Lee and cornerback Mekhi Blackmon as three players standing out so far. Tuipulotu made a quick impression on this new staff, which comes as no surprise from the third-year standout. USC coaches from Riley to Grinch to inside linebackers coach Brian Odom have raved about Lee from the moment he stepped on campus as a transfer from Alabama. Blackmon is one of a small handful of players who went through Thursday’s practice with the gold USC Trojan logo on the side of his helmet worn during games, a new achievement players can earn instead of progressing through spring with the solid cardinal practice helmet as has been the case in the past.

Talk this offseason from players and coaches centered around a change in culture throughout the program. Increased effort on the practice field and all aspects is certainly part of that. Riley spoke Tuesday about seeing more and more players putting in more than the required 20 hours per week of time with the coaches. Grinch speaks often of wanting to see “strain” from his defensive players. That means putting that much more effort into each week, each day and each play.

“If I could highlight effort, this has been a group that hasn’t given us a lot of pushback,” Grinch said. “I think it’s a group that is attempting to give us what we’re asking of them, specific from an effort and physicality standpoint. It’s by no means where it needs to be to be a truly competitive team in the Pac 12 at this point. I’m glad we don’t play a game today. That’s honest. But…if our practices match, from a tempo standpoint, effort standpoint, we combine it from the learnings, doing the right job over and over again and this thing turns into live work. I think we can progress in the right way.

Mixing and Matching

The starting defense has been fairly consistent in how it lines up this spring. But the USC coaches don’t want to lock everybody into a position or spot on the depth chart at this point.

One example is Latrell McCutchin lining up at safety. The second-year player spent his freshman season playing cornerback for Grinch and Roy Manning at Oklahoma. After making the move to USC, he’s running with the safeties. Some former inside linebackers are working with outside linebackers and defensive linemen are moving across the front.

Grinch said the spring is a good time to cross-train players.

“We’re really trying to throw a lot at the guys in terms of not allowing them to get comfortable at one spot on defense and say ‘That’s my position.’ We’re not good enough, and number two, we haven’t been around each other long enough from an evaluation standpoint to determine who those individuals are at each one of those spots.”

Grinch did say he’s been pleased with the way McCutchin has performed to this point. He added some praise for Max Williams, who returns to the field this spring after missing all last season due to a torn ACL.

“If you wouldn’t have told me he had any injuries, I wouldn’t have guessed it at all,” Grinch said. “I’ve not seen any deficiencies from an athletic standpoint. He’s smart. He’s tough. He can run. He’s been a pleasure to coach thus far. We need more Max Williamses.”

Trojans are Starting to Tackle

Tackling will be an important point of order for this defense, just as it is across the country. The Trojans are in full pads now and that meant some live tackling work on Thursday. There is plenty of technique that goes into tackling. But once again, it’s a spot where effort rules the day.

“One of the things we talk to the guys about all the time is if we’re doing our job from a strain standpoint, running to the ball, playing with speed, playing with great effort, there shouldn’t be a lot of solo tackles,” Grinch said. “There should be a convergence of a lot of bodies on the ball. We saw a little bit of that today.”

There won’t be enough tackling done this spring for a defensive coach’s liking. Most would like to see full tackling every second of every practice. But safety protocols and NCAA rules have drastically cut into what teams are able to do in that regard.

“We did some live work today,” Grinch said of tackling. “There’s some good clips of it.”