Swanson: USC’s D’Anton Lynn already making an impact, just ask Ronnie Lott
After the new USC defensive coordinator speaks at the Lott IMPACT Trophy Watch List luncheon, the Trojan great applauds the hire
New USC DC D’Anton Lynn speaks with journalist Bruce Feldman during the 2024 Lott IMPACT Trophy Watch List Luncheon on Thursday at The Pacific Club in Newport Beach. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, OCR/SCNG)
Mirjam Swanson (OC Register) — NEWPORT BEACH — You know who’s really happy about D’Anton Lynn taking over the defensive coordinator duties at USC?
Only the greatest defensive player in Trojans history.
On Thursday, Ronnie Lott expressed his delight at Lynn’s arrival after one head-turning season at UCLA.
At a luncheon where 42 nominees for this year’s Lott IMPACT Trophy were announced, Lott said he was pleased that USC found a coordinator with the chops to fix the Trojans’ beleaguered defense and to lead it into battle in the Big Ten.
That they hired someone to replace Alex Grinch who could give USC a shot at returning to the sort of glory that Lott knew during his Trojans tenure, when they claimed a share of the 1978 national championship and the next season went 11-0-1 and finished No. 2 in the polls.
“The reason we all show up is that there is something inside our souls that’s asking us to be a little bit better today,” Lott told a well-heeled crowd of about 100 people, board members and supporters, at the Pacific Club. “And for me, just being around the coach, I got a little bit better today.
“I think we all got a little bit better today,” Lott went on, with a chuckle. “Because we’re relieved that he really can coach.”
He really can; Lynn proved so last season.
The former Penn State cornerback, NFL assistant for nine seasons and son of former NFL player and head coach Anthony Lynn, D’Anton – pronounced, by the way, Danton (“ignore the apostrophe”) – took a UCLA defense that previously ranked No. 87 in the nation and turned it into the 11th-ranked unit.
The Bruins finished the season ranked first in rushing defense (69.6 yards per game), second in yards allowed per rush (2.33), and third in sacks per game (3.42), plus Lynn helped hone the skills of UCLA’s star defensive end Laiatu Latu, who wound up being a Lott IMPACT Trophy finalist.
They’re expecting more of the same this season at USC, though the message most often delivered from guests who swarmed Lynn on Thursday for handshakes and a few words was this: “Just don’t leave us.”
The man’s rise feels that meteoric.
To try to assuage these people, Lynn told them his wife, Courtney, a Long Beach native and Long Beach Wilson High graduate, is quite happy with the current set up: “She’s gonna make it hard to leave, trust me.”
For all of Lynn’s attributes – his NFL experience is big, scheme-wise; preparation-wise; and, definitely, navigating-college-football’s-de-facto-free-agency-wisdom-wise – Lott told me after lunch that what he really likes about Lynn has more to do with his potential, well, IMPACT.
Think in line with the defensive award’s acronym – integrity, maturity, performance, academics, community and tenacity.
“There are so many coaches who do more than teach you how to play the game of football, and that’s what he’s about,” said Lott, a four-time Super Bowl champion and Pro Football Hall of Famer turned successful entrepreneur and venture capitalist.
“And the reason he’s like that is because his dad’s all about that. So we’re very fortunate, not just to have him, but to get all the other characteristics, because … we’re trying to make sure guys graduate and they have a chance to be productive and that they have a chance to be able to see there’s a lot out there they can accomplish.”
You know what helps getting that message across?
The greatest defensive player in Trojans history stopping by.
Lott, an eight-time Pro Bowler, attended a Trojans practice this spring and offered advice and encouragement, talked about sacrifice and passed around his championship rings – possibly the world’s most glittering rendition of show-and-tell.
Lynn, wise beyond his 34 years, is of course going to leverage USC’s long legacy to try and help him put his own stamp on the program: “When Ronnie Lott comes to practice, it makes you not want to disappoint him.”
How well that goes, though, will depend on more than illustrious history and well-laid plans.
It’s going to come down to USC’s players.
Guys like Kamari Ramsey, a 6-foot sophomore safety who followed Lynn from UCLA to USC, where he’s been helping flatten the learning curve by imparting his knowledge of Lynn’s system – and where he’s already garnering preseason plaudits in the form of – yep – a place on the 2024 Lott IMPACT Trophy watch list.
(Some other candidates with Southern California connections: Santa Ana Mater Dei’s David Bailey, a junior linebacker at Stanford; Long Beach’s Tacairo Davis, a junior defensive back at Arizona; Anaheim Servite’s Mason Graham, a junior defensive tackle at Michigan; Servite’s Jacob Manu, a junior linebacker at Arizona.)
“Kamari is one of the smartest football players I’ve been able to coach, and that’s saying a lot,” Lynn told me, game to stick around and chat. “Just the way he thinks, and how fast he picked up the defense … he’s going to be a very good player.”
He’s just got to get a little better every day. And if you ask Lott, he and his teammates have the coach to help them do it.
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What a bummer, CB, Chuck McDonald, Mater Dei HS was a fairly good lean to USC a long time. He visits Bama and right after gave them his verbal. Dam you C.Deboer. C.Deboer has a strong hand on Calif. HS FB; he recruits Calif well.
Recruiting can be joyful and a downer at the same time. Dang, wanted CM badly, he is an A+ FB player. Heck I’ll calm down, it’s long ways to December early signing period..
B1G Coaches Briefly Dish On USC 1) “Lincoln [Riley] screwed up and held on to a bad situation with his DC a season too long, but hiring [D’Anton] Lynn from across town was a smart move. Kind of a can’t beat him, hire him situation.” 2) “Expect improvement schematically overall with the new system, and they’ve upgraded in the secondary. They’ll be better than under [Alex] Grinch.” 3) “Obviously they’re replacing Caleb [Williams], but the bigger question is if they can get both lines playing better. They can ease the new QB in if they’re protecting him, and if… Read more »
Widespread reports indicate that Georgia prep QB JuJu Lewis (6.05, 180, just visited USC last weekend) will end any speculation that the nation’s #1 signal-caller prospect isn’t completely committed to USC sometime in July.
Should Lewis actually publicly shut down these “commitment flip” rumors, it would definitely help USC’s immediate recruiting profile going forward.
Were USC to somehow eventually lose Lewis’ commitment, as speculated by some, especially in the South, the 2025 Trojan class would have a huge hole to fill.
Trojans Add 4-Star Edge Rusher Hayden Lowe To 2025 Class Antonio Morales (The Athletic) — Four-star edge rusher Hayden Lowe (Westlake Village Oaks Christian, 6-3 or 4, 227-245) announced his commitment to childhood fave USC on Sunday, adding badly needed talent on the LOS to the Trojans’ 2025 class. USC is now ranked fourth nationally in the 247Sports Composite. Lowe is No. 242 overall and the No. 19 edge rusher in the class. He recently took an official visit to MIA and was slated to visit ORE before committing to USC. TEXAS, GA, UCLA, OHIO ST and ND also offered, to name… Read more »
We’re not gonna look like the Keystone Cops like last season and in the Cotton Bowl loss to the Green Wave. I think LR and staff will hold onto the vast majority of our important commits and sign ’em early in December. We may even cut loose some along the way to make room for later deciders. While I don’t think 2024 is our year (2025 could be though), we should see a lot of improvement justifying recruits having the confidence to stick with the new and much better-coached Trojans. June could just turn out to be a very nice… Read more »
247 Sports has USC ranked overall (portal+recruits), ’22-6th, ’23-7th, ’24-20th, ’25-4th, and (way to early) ’26th- 1st. Chalk up this year to the effect of Grinch and the wild west of NIL. This season will be the best coached USC team since PC. There are a lot of slow lumbering teams in the Big10 so we should get 8 wins year after year. Coaching may beat another couple others as well. We should be consistently in the top 10 for recruits+portal from now on with LR. I am waiting to see if Josh Henson has developed his young OL. It… Read more »
Oh for sure, Grinch and NIL efforts are the reason for the subpar 2024 recruiting. The blame is squarely on LR. He has a lot to prove this coming season, including will his team play tough physical football.
If LR hadn’t brought over Caleb Williams, he’d be viewed as a complete bust at USC so far. Since he’s never been viewed as a very strong recruiter because he’s not that personable and really doesn’t like to mingle or schmooze very much, his new superior coaching replacements are now shouldering the burden he could not handle in his first two years. The more LR delegates, the better off he’ll be. Hopefully, LR completely stays out of D’Anton Lynn’s wheelhouse. It always scared me when LR would say things like he was going to spend more time with the defense,… Read more »
I wonder what his first two years would have been like without Caleb. Would he have been forced to really coach up Moss? Would the whole team including defense been so exposed early on? That’s why as much fun as it was to watch Caleb play, I wonder if the program would be better off today without Caleb.
The only reason to watch USC the last two years was because of Caleb Williams.
Without Caleb, no-defense, bad-in-the-trenches USC would have a losing record under Lincoln Riley.
I laugh when I hear speculation that Moss could have been somehow immediately “coached-up” to do anything remotely as good as Caleb in 2022.
I’ve never before heard the theory that a team might have actually been better off without a Heisman-winning, #1 Draft pick, all-time generational talent at QB before. 😂 😂
In the short term Caleb was fantastic and made the ’22 season. Miller Moss is by no means in the next galaxy as Caleb. Just saying a disastrous 22 may have forced LR to make changes sooner that he didn’t do till now. Maybe Cohen and Folt would have been more aggressive with NIL. Just some summer what ifs. 😉
“Woulda, coulda, shoulda” applies to millions of failed enterprises, experiments and people.
I’m sure Lincoln Riley wishes he could have severalbig-time do-overs during his USC tenure so far. He’s made a boatload of mistakes that were unexpected from such a huge name in the business.
I’ll comfortably stand by my original statement that Lincoln Riley’s been a complete bust at USC without Caleb Williams.
Carol Folt and Jen Cohen have nothing whatsoever to do with LR’s deficiencies and poor judgment.
Bruddah Allen, Rumor, the 3 commits are DL/DE players. There were only 5 DL/DE boys visiting yesterday. We have a pretty good idea who the 3 players might be. Looks like a good group. Xlent, C.LR and C.DA Lynn are focusing on the D side. Hayde Lowe, 6-3, 230 lbs,DE, 4*, Calif, Malik Autry, 6-5, 325 lbs,DL, 4*, Alabama Randy Adirika, 6-5, 250 lbs, DL, 4*, Florida Floyd Boucard, 6-3, 315 lbs, DL, 3*, Canada Justin Hill, 6-3, 220 lbs, DE, 4*, Ohio
Eh Bruddah Allen, I’m no recruiting insider. I got the rumor from reading stuff on an open social media site. Some of them are paid members at recruiting sites. Nice they post free inside info. Heck, I just now read all 5 supposedly gave their full or silent commitments to C.LR? Big Kaboom! Also,they said JuJu Lewis is solid to C.LR & USC after being courted by schools throwing around mucho moola at him. Hope dat’s true, JuJu is our future. Hele on. Seems JuJu most of all just wants to learn da QB kraft from C.LR over money. Are… Read more »
Most xlent dat C.LR and C.DA Lynn are shoring up the DL unit. But, they must address the LB unit as well. 4 top LB’s visited this weekend, but so far there are no commitment rumors. Somehow, we must get 3 more top LB’s to go along with committed Matai Tagoia, 4*, San Clemente HS, making 2024 a 4 LB class. These boys are leaning to other schools but has interest in USC. There’s still time to flip them… Noah Mikhail, 6-2, 210, 4*, local, La Verne HS Madden Faraimo, 6-3, 225, 4*, local, J.Serra HS Marco Jones, 6-4, 240,… Read more »
We all know after these recruiting weekends, many players are high from the fun, good food, sight seeing and neat things da coaches showed them. I think they feel obligated giving the coaches a full verbal or silent verbal. I think silent verbal’s are given when players are on record committed to another school/coach do not want to hurt relationships. Months after these visit wear out, their silent verbal many times die and they will stick with the original school. Shoot 5/5 DL, DE committed, man dat’s a shocker and so hard to believe. 4/5 were committed or heavily leaning to other schools:… Read more »
Jasmine ran smart following and staying close at a safe distance back of the Michigan and Arkansas runners for 300 yds. She made her closing kick at the last 90 m, using her 100 m hurdles speed & skills. She ran a perfect & tactical race.
Congrats to the men’s team. USC men’s team had a very good meet, taking 3rd place = 33 pts. They should have won the NC, but did not score the estimated pts in 4 events. This was a close race for the NC. Women’s finals are today, 6-8-24. 4 x 400 relay placed 8th = 1 pt. According to prelims times, est. finish/place was 5th = 4 pts. 4 x 100 relay, DQ = 0 pts. According to prelim times, est. finish/place was 4th = 5 pts. John Brackins, 110 hurdles, 9th place = 0 pts. According to prelim times, est. finish/place 5th… Read more »
Bruddah GT, for 30 years Knight, Inc were buying athletes for both the men and women track teams. Looks like he pulled da plug on the T & F teams and primarily funding da football & basketball teams. Heck, there are limits to his check book, lol… Oregon’s buying for players will end one day, it won’t last forever. P.Knight is 86 years old. Heck when his funding stops, Oregon FB will go back to mediocrity. He wants a NC badly, he knows his time is coming up…
NCAA Track & Field NC. 6-8-24, Women Finals USC placed 10th with 25 pts. It could have been better, their 4 x 400 m relay team DQ in the prelims. They most likely would have had a 5th place finish = 4 pts. With a small team da girls did good. The star was Jasmine Jones, Sr, Atlanta, Ga. J.Jones won the 400 hurdles in 53.15, meet record = 10 pts, placed 4th in 100 m hurdles = 5pts. Jasmine is tall 5-11. Arkansas won da NC with 63 pts. They have been dominating T & F for the last 12 yrs along with… Read more »
Funny thing was that all Grinch had to do was simplify the defense, just enough so that the players knew what to do on each alignment. But Riley let him do his thing. Riley is for the most part a young head coach. He never needed a defense in the Big12. It took a few years and some lumps, but perhaps he has his head screwed on straight now, building as best he can an entire team. It has to be better than 2023.
What I saw with the D last year were player issues. Players playing with bad fundamentals and technique, very bad tacklers, in poor condition, not physical and strong enough, they got pushed around, very bad reaction, could not locate da ball (RB) on run play options. The 2023 D players sucked. The DB’s played with horrible technique. The CB man to man coverage was a bad scheme. Our CB’s was not suited to play man coverage, Grinch should have made them play zone with a nickel DB. CB’s got burned all season long. DL could not penetrate, plug da… Read more »
I agree. Grinch was a total trainwreck across the board.
It’s a shame that he was allowed to have such a horrible impact on USC football for so long, but hopefully LR learned some huge lessons going forward, because Trojan football deserves a lot better.
LR owes it to the program to the fans/supporters and actually to himself to get this football program humming on all cylinders and not waste anymore seasons doing so. Whatever his master plan was for the first 3-years has underwhelmed the expectations and set it back at least one if not two years and all because he ignored portions of a standard football philosophy most other coaches would have not dared to do: the defense, special teams and short sighted recruiting. What shape he thought this program would be today even if the 2023 season had been more of a… Read more »
What was really weird was with just a few weeks to work with the players, the remaining defensive coaches got the team to work together better, tackle better, and overall simply play defense better in the bowl game.
Bruddah Steveg not weird. Good reason, CB’s Wright and Jackson were not da starters. P.Brown, J.Smith, J.Covington & A.Beavers played most of da minutes at CB. USC played zone with a nickel DB. Yep, these guys tackled well and blanket Louisville WR all night. But, da freaken run D was still awful. Louisville rushed for 220+ yds, RB Guerendo had 161 yds & 3 TD’s. What makes me apprehensive for the 2024 season is dat the D front 7 will be pretty much da same players. Good news: DL got bigger (put on a lot of good weight and got… Read more »
Tommy Trojan Sculpted by Roger Noble Burnham, Tommy Trojan was modeled after five different USC football players — RB Russ Saunders (’27-29, San Diego), RB Ernie Pinckert (’29-31, San Bernardino), RB Henry Becker (’29, Joplin, MO), G Larry Stevens (’31-33, Piedmont) and T John Ward (’27-29, Garden Grove). On the bronze statue’s granite pedestal are inscribed the qualities of the ideal Trojan: “FAITHFUL, SCHOLARLY, SKILLFUL, COURAGEOUS, AMBITIOUS.” My favorite photo of Tommy Trojan Tommy Trojan Sculptor Roger Noble Burnham — He was the eldest of the four children of Arthur Burnham and Katharine Bray. His father was an 1870 graduate… Read more »
Washington transfer Wesley Yates commits to USC men’s basketball Connor Morrissette (USCFootball.com) — USC men’s basketball has received a transfer commitment from former UW shooting guard Wesley Yates, a class of 2023 prep prospect who spent only one season in Seattle. Yates announced his USC commitment on social media earlier today. The addition of Yates gives USC 14 scholarship players for next year, one over the NCAA-allotted 13. Barring the exit of a player on the roster, someone will likely be designated as a walk-on but be given an additional scholarship-equivalent NIL deal. Yates (6-4, 200) was the No. 53 ranked 2023 prospect and the No. 7 prep shooting guard.… Read more »
How Do You Go 8-5 With Caleb Williams As Your QB? Question for Stewart Mandel (The Athletic) — You talked up USC Trojans yet you do not have them ranked in your top 25. Why not? Mandel — I do not recall “talking up” USC anytime this calendar year. Perhaps you’re confusing me with a different college football writer and/or podcast host. But I’d be happy to explain why they’re not in my top 25. It’s mainly because I’m losing confidence in Lincoln Riley. The Trojans’ implosion last season was concerning. How do you go 8-5 with Caleb Williams as your quarterback?… Read more »
Too funny. When I was at the other board-ATOB, after seeing 2 UCLA games early into the 2023 season I posted how C.DA Lynn D was impressive. I noticed the schemes were creative; his boys played fast, discipline, very physical and stopped the run well. The front D 7 were pretty much no names, but played like 5* and 4*. They played team D like UGA, Michigan, Penn St., Bama. Most of the board members did not agree with me. I think their hatred for UCLA blinded their thoughts. But, after seeing what C.DA Lynn D did to C.LR O, they wrote complimentary things… Read more »
Come on Bruddah Chris too early for a thread like this. LOL. Shoot, thinking about it makes me want to vomit. Both were da worst DC ever at USC. Sorry, I can’t pick. And to think both got another job right away too.
Uh Gee, poke me in the eye with a stick or hit my hand with a hammer? Grinch was the worst, never seen a defense with players running around not knowing what to do!
Chris did you forget someone? Mr. Lack of Communication on the field? Justin Wilcox? What a succession of winners they were. You really have to feel sorry for the players who were unlucky enough to play for them. And to think at least in the beginning, LR was no better in knowing what a good DC was than Helton.
Bruddah Jamaica, playing devil’s advocate, between the 4 DC’s, I thought Clancy D was pretty good and his players played hard for him. Like you pointed out his downfall were his sub par recruiting efforts and results. This is how I rate them 1-10 with 10 beingda worst grade. Grinch = 10, Orlando= 9, Wilcox = 6 and Clancy = 7. Dam, USC not seen C.PC type D ever since he left. Dat’s what 14 years now. But, I think it’s about to change with DC.DA Lynn and his A+ AC. This has to be the best D staff… Read more »
Clancy Pendergast joined the dark side across town as a “defensive analyst” in 2021, and still shows up in the UCLA staff directory. Pendergast was thankfully fired by Clay Helton (who was only hanging on by a thread himself) after IOWA spanked us badly 49–24 in the 2019 Holiday Bowl and our D was non-existent. Following the beatdown from IOWA, USC’s Pendergast-led defense was ranked No. 77 in scoring defense (29.2 ppg), No. 72 in run defense (162.3 ypg), No. 98 in pass defense (246.2 ypg) and No. 77 in total defense (408.5 ypg). I don’t remember Pendergast quite as fondly… Read more »
Nice research Bruddah Allen. We can agree all 4 were bad DC. Good one, a 12 for Grinch, no arguments from me. Yep, forgot about C.O, he did produce Xlent D. As far as emotions during post game interviews, C.Orlando and C.Wilcox are the clear winners. These 2 coaches wer so out of it after games. I found C.Grinch tried his best to explain his defensive calls and backed his players. Sadly, C.Grinch truly believed in his D.
Hah, I never thought of combining those two geniuses. “Alex Grinch, is regarded as one of the nation’s top defensive and secondary coaches. Co-defensive coord and safeties coach Grinch is a four-time nominee and two-time semifinalist for the Broyles Award, given annually to the nation’s top assistant coach …” — Badgers official site “Clay Helton was the first USC head coach to have 10-win seasons in each of his first two full seasons, and he had more wins (21) in his first two full seasons than any USC coach. He led USC to a 13-game winning streak from 2016 to… Read more »
Grinch just never changed. At Missou and WSU he was great. His shifts confused everyone and those undermanned defenses outperformed expectations. Then everyone got film, adjusted, and beat the brakes off his defenses. He never changed. Just hoped it would get back to good.
No wonder Grinch totally sucked while at USC… Fast starters are legendarily a dime a dozen. Who cares if he was any good long ago at mid-majors MO and WSU? Tiger and Cougar fans I guess. But as it turns out OU fans, WSU fans, OHIO ST fans, etc, also thought Grinch always sucked as they often humorously demonstrate here… — “USC is a carbon copy of OU under Riley. Insanely talented on offense, good enough to overpower most, but so piss poor on defense that any team could play with them.” — “Aw, Alex Grinch…the Brian Ferentz of defense.”… Read more »
Dang, in C.LR 1st year if he had just an average D USC would have been in the CFP final 4 and maybe made the finals, championship game. DC.Grinch D was awful and killed an amazing season. Wonder why Wisconsin’s HC.Fickell hired him? Noticed most fired coaches at every level finds another job. Coaches are a strange fraternity…
But now we have D’Anton Lynn. Sometimes the cookie crumbles your way. He’s gonna be awesome at USC. LR deserves a lot of credit for reeling in the hugely promising Lynn. This was the most important part of the rebuilding puzzle that LR absolutely had to get right, and he did. Notice that once Lynn split for USC, it took about two seconds for Chip Kelly to bolt UCLA for OHIO ST for much less money at $2 mil in his first year as OC. It was like, “Why stick around with the permanent #2 program in town, even when… Read more »
Yeah Bruddah Allen, targeting C.DA Lynn was a great decision & job by C.LR. Plus, C.LR shopped for top D AC as well. Add, they are on a great start with the 2025 HS class. So far the D side are loaded with top players. I pray all the committed D players stick, especially J.Terry DL and I.Gibson DE, both from GA. You know UGA is gonna try to flip both players. I wonder why DA.Lynn and D staff did not recruit well in the TP? They still need to shore up DL and LB positions, but most of the… Read more »
Question for Ari Wasserman (The Athletic) — Ari, you frequently criticize Deion Sanders for wasting recruiting potential by not going on more school/house visits. What other coaches do you think are wasting recruiting resources (personality of the coach, proximity to talent, etc.), and what coaches maximize said resources the best? Wasserman — My mind drifted right to USC when considering your question. When Lincoln Riley took over, I thought the Trojans had a really good chance to build a legitimate West Coast powerhouse. I thought USC would clean up in California, land five-star quarterbacks and other elite players and take the college… Read more »
AW, I can’t agree more. Basically irrelevant whether SJB, Mater Dei or any other Calif powerhouse has a player(s) we are interested in. It shows respect, shows we are interested in them, and negates the appearance of aloofness towards the kids. All these programs have frosh / soph / JV players that could be phenoms in a year or two, therefore planting our flag at these schools is incredibly important. I realize one could rationalize that LR and assistants are probably someplace else recruiting, but my goodness, in Trojan attire, send an analyst, or someone from the Trojans storied legacy… Read more »
Indeed. Regardless of what recruits you believe LR and staff should be targeting at this exact moment in time, it’s obviously blatant recruiting malpractice to completely and intentionally ignore St. John Bosco’s College Showcase.
I could go on and on about the numerous important reasons to make a very visible and friendly appearance just down the road at such a big-time prep talent provider (you could do it in an hour), but USC football has its own way of doing things. Very strange, which is why experienced and respected CFB writers are stupefied by this approach. Many of us are.
It is a head scratcher. You can fly out to Florida and Geogia but you can’t drive an hour over to Bellflower? Establishing relationships can reap hugely down the road.
USC assts Brian Odom (now at N TEXAS) and Donte Williams (GA) showed up at a well-attended SJB Showcase in 2023, and super Bosco frosh CB Marcelles Williams is now a Trojan. Maybe USC likes the alternate year approach, or they now figure why send coaches who might soon be gone? 😉 😉
Looking forward to watching superior SJB frosh CB Marcelles Williams play for the Trojans this season —
TF that’s what stood out to me. Send someone to the showcase just to be present even if there is no one there your are interested in. I would sure hope and expect LR has regular contact somehow with all the powerhouse schools in SoCal. You are right TF, in a year or 2 or 3 there will be some phenoms and you better have a relationship with the HS HCs. Maybe Malachi Nelson burned LR on local talent, who know what is going on behind the scenes.
I just read an obituary in the sports page for T.J. Summers. He was not my favorite columnist or my least favorite either, but I agreed with him quite often. He was what Scott Wolf has always wanted to be- a provocateur. The thing is, if you understood his writing he wasn’t as nasty as people thought he was. I emailed him a couple of times and he responded, so I guess that’s a good thing.
College football preseason Top 25: Alabama, Miami rise, Louisville falls after spring ball Stewart Mandel (The Athletic) — The last of the high-profile spring transfer portal entrants have found new homes. Coaches are turning their attention to recruiting visits. And the video game is almost here. Time for my 2024 preseason Top 25, version 3.0. 1. Georgia (Previous rank: 1) 2. Ohio State (Previous: 2) 3. Texas (Previous: 3) 4. Alabama (Previous: 8) 5. Oregon (Previous: 4) 6. Ole Miss (Previous: 5) 7. Notre Dame (Previous: 8) 8. Utah (Previous: 9) 9. Michigan (Previous: 8) 10. Florida State (Previous: 14) 11. Oklahoma State (Previous: 10) 12. Missouri (Previous: 12) 13. Arizona (Previous: 13) 14. Miami (Previous:… Read more »
Georgia
Ohio St
Oregon
Bama
Texas
Notre Dame
Michigan
Florida St
Tennessee
Penn St
Oklahoma
#12 to #25 will be up and down for many teams.
I really do not know where to put USC? I’m expecting a 5 loss season and hoping for 4 to 3 losses. USC has a brutal schedule and the D roster is not complete and strong enough. Although, the D will be much improved. The big key falls on QB Moss consistent play, score mucho points and strong leadership. Once again, da O will have to carry the team. Cheers.
I see MICH being weaker than most. Losing a national championship coach like Jim Harbaugh who has been successful in so many places is tough to overcome in the short run, unless you get really lucky with your replacement. The Wolverines’ new HC, Sherrone Moore, is brand new at this. Who knows if Moore has what it takes? Also, MICH lost a lot of talent, including a high #1 Draft pick at QB who will be trying to immediately put Sam Darnold back on the bench. I don’t think MICH is a top-ten team, and I believe OHIO ST has… Read more »
Bruddah Chris, Looking over the DL & LB roster, I think the team do not have the firepower and depth to stop a good run game They are gonna play a brutal schedule with teams having very good run game. C.LR must add 1 more decent DL and 2 LB. If C.LR is able to do this in the next month there’s hope for the run D. Like you said the secondary unit will be very good. It has Xlent players and A+ depth. Let’s see if our new D staff will improve tackling, physicality & conditioning. They… Read more »
I believe our LB’s are good. Arnold is a huge upgrade, a true Mike LB. Gentry can now go out and play in space. Also, the young guys (Newby and Walker) will be better than all of them. Newby is best athlete in the group.
Bruddah, you are optimistic with our LB unit? Retuning players, Cobb, Gentry, Davis, Madden played in one of the worst run D in nation. Bad run stoppers. Arnold from the TP is a good one. Newby and Stephens are freshmen and raw. Who’s Walker, don’t know da guy? I think the LB unit is not strong and talent enough. This LB group does not measure up for the brutal 2024 schedule. Add them to the weak DL group, we are looking at a below average run D.
2025 COLLEGE FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME BALLOT ANNOUNCEMENT ATLANTA, Georgia (June 3, 2025) – The National Football Foundation (NFF) & College Hall of Fame has announced the names on the 2025 ballot for induction into the College Football Hall of Fame. The list includes 77 players and nine coaches from the Football Bowl Subdivision, as well as 101 players and 34 coaches from the divisional ranks. The USC candidates on the ballot are: Jeff Bregel – Offensive Guard – Two-time consensus First Team All-American and a 1986 NFF National Scholar-Athlete…Two-time First Team All-Pac-10 selection, leading USC to the 1984 conference title… Read more »
Joel Klatt lists 10 college football games that will shape the 2024 season FOX’s Joel Klatt has listed 10 games he believes will shape the 2024 season — all coming from the power conferences. Most involve Big Ten or SEC programs, with a couple even being matchups between the two conferences. LSU vs. USC (Las Vegas) “I think USC and LSU are pretty similarly positioned within their conferences,” Klatt said. “Which is, a bit of an unknown. We believe in their coaches… We believe in their locations… And yet, we still don’t know in the new iteration of these conferences — where are… Read more »
Question for Stewart Mandel (The Athletic) — In your opinion, which are the six most prestigious coaching jobs in college football and why? Please rank in order from 1 (highest) to 6. Mandel — One question first: Why six? I like this because it’s a slightly different question from the one I’ve tackled a million times — ranking the “best” coaching jobs. Prestigious and best aren’t necessarily the same. 1. Alabama. Simply put, you’re holding the same job as Bear Bryant and Nick Saban, with their 13 combined national championships. Hard to top that. 2. Notre Dame. Though not quite as shiny a… Read more »
Question for Stewart Mandel (The Athletic) — Over the next decade, give us one team you’re buying stock in, one team you’re selling, and one team you’re holding. Mandel — I’m buying stock in Oregon. Beyond being impressed with Dan Lanning, arguably no program has benefitted more from the sport’s biggest recent changes. The program for ages seemingly had a recruiting ceiling simply because of its modestly talented footprint. But that was before you could pay the players. Though Oregon has had the Phil Knight/Nike spigot for some time, previously the Ducks could only use it for buildings and swag. The… Read more »
Phil Knight estate for sure. If that is all he is interested in. He may want to spread some of it around. He may want to carve out other sports, Track and Field for sure. He may have other causes as well.
Nike as an international corporation may want to spread their marketing dollars around. If I was Oregon I wouldn’t be counting on the Nike gravy train as my sole source for $$$.
I still think USC is in a prime spot. A Power 4 school in the second largest media market. NYC has nothing. Chicago, Philly and Dallas will likely share programs. UCLA will never get its act together to compete for NIL with USC. When the dust settles USC will be the top dog for NIL, pay and benefits for athletes.
I just read a video of Joel Klatt saying the same thing. His point was that LR always has excellent O’s. He has really never had even a decent D because IMO LR did not think he needed one. 2023 changed that delusion. Klatt thinks that in 2024 SC will have a decent D. And at least as good an O as in 2023. We need to realize just how good LR’s O was in 2023. The D was ranked 121st. Teams with Ds in that range, per another post, have averaged 3-9 for records. Yet LR had his team… Read more »
RJJ,
I am in the same camp. I do t think we will have a dominant defense, but it will be good. A good defense under LR equals big things. The only game I see as a most likely loss is at Michigan. Toss ups are LSU, Notre Dame, and Penn St. I think we win the others. I don’t think we will lose all 3. I’m 10-2 if Moss is better than we think or 9-3 if he is what we think he is.
Hey TRJJ! I was at that SC game at Auburn for Leinert’s first game as well. I remember the stunned silence from the Auburn faithful as they got spanked 20-zip by one of those soft Pac-10 teams.
What a bummer, CB, Chuck McDonald, Mater Dei HS was a fairly good lean to USC a long time. He visits Bama and right after gave them his verbal. Dam you C.Deboer. C.Deboer has a strong hand on Calif. HS FB; he recruits Calif well.
Recruiting can be joyful and a downer at the same time. Dang, wanted CM badly, he is an A+ FB player. Heck I’ll calm down, it’s long ways to December early signing period..
B1G Coaches Briefly Dish On USC 1) “Lincoln [Riley] screwed up and held on to a bad situation with his DC a season too long, but hiring [D’Anton] Lynn from across town was a smart move. Kind of a can’t beat him, hire him situation.” 2) “Expect improvement schematically overall with the new system, and they’ve upgraded in the secondary. They’ll be better than under [Alex] Grinch.” 3) “Obviously they’re replacing Caleb [Williams], but the bigger question is if they can get both lines playing better. They can ease the new QB in if they’re protecting him, and if… Read more »
Widespread reports indicate that Georgia prep QB JuJu Lewis (6.05, 180, just visited USC last weekend) will end any speculation that the nation’s #1 signal-caller prospect isn’t completely committed to USC sometime in July.
Should Lewis actually publicly shut down these “commitment flip” rumors, it would definitely help USC’s immediate recruiting profile going forward.
Were USC to somehow eventually lose Lewis’ commitment, as speculated by some, especially in the South, the 2025 Trojan class would have a huge hole to fill.
Trojans Add 4-Star Edge Rusher Hayden Lowe To 2025 Class Antonio Morales (The Athletic) — Four-star edge rusher Hayden Lowe (Westlake Village Oaks Christian, 6-3 or 4, 227-245) announced his commitment to childhood fave USC on Sunday, adding badly needed talent on the LOS to the Trojans’ 2025 class. USC is now ranked fourth nationally in the 247Sports Composite. Lowe is No. 242 overall and the No. 19 edge rusher in the class. He recently took an official visit to MIA and was slated to visit ORE before committing to USC. TEXAS, GA, UCLA, OHIO ST and ND also offered, to name… Read more »
All great news. Coach Riley, please activate your “Trojan Babysitting program” until we get these kids cleats on Howard Jones field. Yes I’m paranoid.
We’re not gonna look like the Keystone Cops like last season and in the Cotton Bowl loss to the Green Wave. I think LR and staff will hold onto the vast majority of our important commits and sign ’em early in December. We may even cut loose some along the way to make room for later deciders. While I don’t think 2024 is our year (2025 could be though), we should see a lot of improvement justifying recruits having the confidence to stick with the new and much better-coached Trojans. June could just turn out to be a very nice… Read more »
247 Sports has USC ranked overall (portal+recruits), ’22-6th, ’23-7th, ’24-20th, ’25-4th, and (way to early) ’26th- 1st. Chalk up this year to the effect of Grinch and the wild west of NIL. This season will be the best coached USC team since PC. There are a lot of slow lumbering teams in the Big10 so we should get 8 wins year after year. Coaching may beat another couple others as well. We should be consistently in the top 10 for recruits+portal from now on with LR. I am waiting to see if Josh Henson has developed his young OL. It… Read more »
LR is the man who stupidly forced the Grinch upon USC football for two years, thereby needlessly completely wrecking USC’s 2023 season.
USC’s failure to progress sufficiently since Clay Helton was booted is 100% on LR, not just Grinch and NIL.
Our strength and conditioning program was also totally substandard during LR’s first two years at USC, as well as our barely coached special teams.
Hopefully, LR’s game and clock management skills have also improved significantly.
Oh for sure, Grinch and NIL efforts are the reason for the subpar 2024 recruiting. The blame is squarely on LR. He has a lot to prove this coming season, including will his team play tough physical football.
If LR hadn’t brought over Caleb Williams, he’d be viewed as a complete bust at USC so far. Since he’s never been viewed as a very strong recruiter because he’s not that personable and really doesn’t like to mingle or schmooze very much, his new superior coaching replacements are now shouldering the burden he could not handle in his first two years. The more LR delegates, the better off he’ll be. Hopefully, LR completely stays out of D’Anton Lynn’s wheelhouse. It always scared me when LR would say things like he was going to spend more time with the defense,… Read more »
I wonder what his first two years would have been like without Caleb. Would he have been forced to really coach up Moss? Would the whole team including defense been so exposed early on? That’s why as much fun as it was to watch Caleb play, I wonder if the program would be better off today without Caleb.
The only reason to watch USC the last two years was because of Caleb Williams.
Without Caleb, no-defense, bad-in-the-trenches USC would have a losing record under Lincoln Riley.
I laugh when I hear speculation that Moss could have been somehow immediately “coached-up” to do anything remotely as good as Caleb in 2022.
I’ve never before heard the theory that a team might have actually been better off without a Heisman-winning, #1 Draft pick, all-time generational talent at QB before. 😂 😂
In the short term Caleb was fantastic and made the ’22 season. Miller Moss is by no means in the next galaxy as Caleb. Just saying a disastrous 22 may have forced LR to make changes sooner that he didn’t do till now. Maybe Cohen and Folt would have been more aggressive with NIL. Just some summer what ifs. 😉
I’m not dealing in pure 100% speculation here.
“Woulda, coulda, shoulda” applies to millions of failed enterprises, experiments and people.
I’m sure Lincoln Riley wishes he could have several big-time do-overs during his USC tenure so far. He’s made a boatload of mistakes that were unexpected from such a huge name in the business.
I’ll comfortably stand by my original statement that Lincoln Riley’s been a complete bust at USC without Caleb Williams.
Carol Folt and Jen Cohen have nothing whatsoever to do with LR’s deficiencies and poor judgment.
Emojis rolling in. Will be a fun recruiting week.
Care to share who you think might commit?
Bruddah Allen, Rumor, the 3 commits are DL/DE players. There were only 5 DL/DE boys visiting yesterday. We have a pretty good idea who the 3 players might be. Looks like a good group. Xlent, C.LR and C.DA Lynn are focusing on the D side.
Hayde Lowe, 6-3, 230 lbs,DE, 4*, Calif,
Malik Autry, 6-5, 325 lbs,DL, 4*, Alabama
Randy Adirika, 6-5, 250 lbs, DL, 4*, Florida
Floyd Boucard, 6-3, 315 lbs, DL, 3*, Canada
Justin Hill, 6-3, 220 lbs, DE, 4*, Ohio
Congrats Canyon. You completely nailed Calif DE Hayden Lowe!
Eh Bruddah Allen, I’m no recruiting insider. I got the rumor from reading stuff on an open social media site. Some of them are paid members at recruiting sites. Nice they post free inside info. Heck, I just now read all 5 supposedly gave their full or silent commitments to C.LR? Big Kaboom! Also,they said JuJu Lewis is solid to C.LR & USC after being courted by schools throwing around mucho moola at him. Hope dat’s true, JuJu is our future. Hele on. Seems JuJu most of all just wants to learn da QB kraft from C.LR over money. Are… Read more »
Most xlent dat C.LR and C.DA Lynn are shoring up the DL unit. But, they must address the LB unit as well. 4 top LB’s visited this weekend, but so far there are no commitment rumors. Somehow, we must get 3 more top LB’s to go along with committed Matai Tagoia, 4*, San Clemente HS, making 2024 a 4 LB class. These boys are leaning to other schools but has interest in USC. There’s still time to flip them… Noah Mikhail, 6-2, 210, 4*, local, La Verne HS Madden Faraimo, 6-3, 225, 4*, local, J.Serra HS Marco Jones, 6-4, 240,… Read more »
Madden will be a Trojan. Book it.
We all know after these recruiting weekends, many players are high from the fun, good food, sight seeing and neat things da coaches showed them. I think they feel obligated giving the coaches a full verbal or silent verbal. I think silent verbal’s are given when players are on record committed to another school/coach do not want to hurt relationships. Months after these visit wear out, their silent verbal many times die and they will stick with the original school. Shoot 5/5 DL, DE committed, man dat’s a shocker and so hard to believe. 4/5 were committed or heavily leaning to other schools:… Read more »
USC’s Jasmine Jones just won the NCAA Women’s 400m Hurdles (53.15, meet record, #3 time in the world this year).
Jasmine ran smart following and staying close at a safe distance back of the Michigan and Arkansas runners for 300 yds. She made her closing kick at the last 90 m, using her 100 m hurdles speed & skills. She ran a perfect & tactical race.
Enjoy her great race!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDnZJWvQVfk
USC Men Place Third At 2024 NCAA Outdoor T&F Championships
Trojans’ best finish since also placing third in 2003
usctrojans.com
Congrats to the men’s team. USC men’s team had a very good meet, taking 3rd place = 33 pts. They should have won the NC, but did not score the estimated pts in 4 events. This was a close race for the NC. Women’s finals are today, 6-8-24. 4 x 400 relay placed 8th = 1 pt. According to prelims times, est. finish/place was 5th = 4 pts. 4 x 100 relay, DQ = 0 pts. According to prelim times, est. finish/place was 4th = 5 pts. John Brackins, 110 hurdles, 9th place = 0 pts. According to prelim times, est. finish/place 5th… Read more »
Mister Money Bags Phil needs to put more money into his beloved T&F and less into football.
Bruddah GT, for 30 years Knight, Inc were buying athletes for both the men and women track teams. Looks like he pulled da plug on the T & F teams and primarily funding da football & basketball teams. Heck, there are limits to his check book, lol…
Oregon’s buying for players will end one day, it won’t last forever. P.Knight is 86 years old. Heck when his funding stops, Oregon FB will go back to mediocrity. He wants a NC badly, he knows his time is coming up…
Eh guys, the women T & F NC finals are right now: 2:30 to 6:00 pm, ESPN. Get a beer, pupu’s and watch T & F. Cheers
NCAA Track & Field NC. 6-8-24, Women Finals USC placed 10th with 25 pts. It could have been better, their 4 x 400 m relay team DQ in the prelims. They most likely would have had a 5th place finish = 4 pts. With a small team da girls did good. The star was Jasmine Jones, Sr, Atlanta, Ga. J.Jones won the 400 hurdles in 53.15, meet record = 10 pts, placed 4th in 100 m hurdles = 5pts. Jasmine is tall 5-11. Arkansas won da NC with 63 pts. They have been dominating T & F for the last 12 yrs along with… Read more »
See all the event results.
https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sidearm.nextgen.sites/usctrojans.com/documents/2024/6/8/NCAA_Championships_4-Day_Results.pdf
Funny thing was that all Grinch had to do was simplify the defense, just enough so that the players knew what to do on each alignment. But Riley let him do his thing. Riley is for the most part a young head coach. He never needed a defense in the Big12. It took a few years and some lumps, but perhaps he has his head screwed on straight now, building as best he can an entire team. It has to be better than 2023.
What I saw with the D last year were player issues. Players playing with bad fundamentals and technique, very bad tacklers, in poor condition, not physical and strong enough, they got pushed around, very bad reaction, could not locate da ball (RB) on run play options. The 2023 D players sucked. The DB’s played with horrible technique. The CB man to man coverage was a bad scheme. Our CB’s was not suited to play man coverage, Grinch should have made them play zone with a nickel DB. CB’s got burned all season long. DL could not penetrate, plug da… Read more »
I agree. Grinch was a total trainwreck across the board.
It’s a shame that he was allowed to have such a horrible impact on USC football for so long, but hopefully LR learned some huge lessons going forward, because Trojan football deserves a lot better.
LR owes it to the program to the fans/supporters and actually to himself to get this football program humming on all cylinders and not waste anymore seasons doing so. Whatever his master plan was for the first 3-years has underwhelmed the expectations and set it back at least one if not two years and all because he ignored portions of a standard football philosophy most other coaches would have not dared to do: the defense, special teams and short sighted recruiting. What shape he thought this program would be today even if the 2023 season had been more of a… Read more »
What was really weird was with just a few weeks to work with the players, the remaining defensive coaches got the team to work together better, tackle better, and overall simply play defense better in the bowl game.
Bruddah Steveg not weird. Good reason, CB’s Wright and Jackson were not da starters. P.Brown, J.Smith, J.Covington & A.Beavers played most of da minutes at CB. USC played zone with a nickel DB. Yep, these guys tackled well and blanket Louisville WR all night. But, da freaken run D was still awful. Louisville rushed for 220+ yds, RB Guerendo had 161 yds & 3 TD’s. What makes me apprehensive for the 2024 season is dat the D front 7 will be pretty much da same players. Good news: DL got bigger (put on a lot of good weight and got… Read more »
This day in history, not only was yesterday the 80th anniversary of the D-Day Invasion, Tommy Trojan turned 94.
Tommy Trojan Sculpted by Roger Noble Burnham, Tommy Trojan was modeled after five different USC football players — RB Russ Saunders (’27-29, San Diego), RB Ernie Pinckert (’29-31, San Bernardino), RB Henry Becker (’29, Joplin, MO), G Larry Stevens (’31-33, Piedmont) and T John Ward (’27-29, Garden Grove). On the bronze statue’s granite pedestal are inscribed the qualities of the ideal Trojan: “FAITHFUL, SCHOLARLY, SKILLFUL, COURAGEOUS, AMBITIOUS.” My favorite photo of Tommy Trojan Tommy Trojan Sculptor Roger Noble Burnham — He was the eldest of the four children of Arthur Burnham and Katharine Bray. His father was an 1870 graduate… Read more »
Washington transfer Wesley Yates commits to USC men’s basketball Connor Morrissette (USCFootball.com) — USC men’s basketball has received a transfer commitment from former UW shooting guard Wesley Yates, a class of 2023 prep prospect who spent only one season in Seattle. Yates announced his USC commitment on social media earlier today. The addition of Yates gives USC 14 scholarship players for next year, one over the NCAA-allotted 13. Barring the exit of a player on the roster, someone will likely be designated as a walk-on but be given an additional scholarship-equivalent NIL deal. Yates (6-4, 200) was the No. 53 ranked 2023 prospect and the No. 7 prep shooting guard.… Read more »
2024-2025 College Football Playoff Schedule
How Do You Go 8-5 With Caleb Williams As Your QB? Question for Stewart Mandel (The Athletic) — You talked up USC Trojans yet you do not have them ranked in your top 25. Why not? Mandel — I do not recall “talking up” USC anytime this calendar year. Perhaps you’re confusing me with a different college football writer and/or podcast host. But I’d be happy to explain why they’re not in my top 25. It’s mainly because I’m losing confidence in Lincoln Riley. The Trojans’ implosion last season was concerning. How do you go 8-5 with Caleb Williams as your quarterback?… Read more »
Too funny. When I was at the other board-ATOB, after seeing 2 UCLA games early into the 2023 season I posted how C.DA Lynn D was impressive. I noticed the schemes were creative; his boys played fast, discipline, very physical and stopped the run well. The front D 7 were pretty much no names, but played like 5* and 4*. They played team D like UGA, Michigan, Penn St., Bama. Most of the board members did not agree with me. I think their hatred for UCLA blinded their thoughts. But, after seeing what C.DA Lynn D did to C.LR O, they wrote complimentary things… Read more »
Monte Kiffin didn’t exactly blow the doors off with his pro-style D, I think Tampa 2 based.
if you had to choose one- Grinch or Todd Orlando?
how did we get both?
Come on Bruddah Chris too early for a thread like this. LOL. Shoot, thinking about it makes me want to vomit. Both were da worst DC ever at USC. Sorry, I can’t pick. And to think both got another job right away too.
Uh Gee, poke me in the eye with a stick or hit my hand with a hammer? Grinch was the worst, never seen a defense with players running around not knowing what to do!
Chris did you forget someone? Mr. Lack of Communication on the field? Justin Wilcox? What a succession of winners they were. You really have to feel sorry for the players who were unlucky enough to play for them. And to think at least in the beginning, LR was no better in knowing what a good DC was than Helton.
Yeesh, when you throw in Clancy, who refused to recruit, we are overdue for a competent staff.
Bruddah Jamaica, playing devil’s advocate, between the 4 DC’s, I thought Clancy D was pretty good and his players played hard for him. Like you pointed out his downfall were his sub par recruiting efforts and results. This is how I rate them 1-10 with 10 beingda worst grade. Grinch = 10, Orlando= 9, Wilcox = 6 and Clancy = 7. Dam, USC not seen C.PC type D ever since he left. Dat’s what 14 years now. But, I think it’s about to change with DC.DA Lynn and his A+ AC. This has to be the best D staff… Read more »
Clancy Pendergast joined the dark side across town as a “defensive analyst” in 2021, and still shows up in the UCLA staff directory. Pendergast was thankfully fired by Clay Helton (who was only hanging on by a thread himself) after IOWA spanked us badly 49–24 in the 2019 Holiday Bowl and our D was non-existent. Following the beatdown from IOWA, USC’s Pendergast-led defense was ranked No. 77 in scoring defense (29.2 ppg), No. 72 in run defense (162.3 ypg), No. 98 in pass defense (246.2 ypg) and No. 77 in total defense (408.5 ypg). I don’t remember Pendergast quite as fondly… Read more »
Nice research Bruddah Allen. We can agree all 4 were bad DC. Good one, a 12 for Grinch, no arguments from me. Yep, forgot about C.O, he did produce Xlent D.
As far as emotions during post game interviews, C.Orlando and C.Wilcox are the clear winners. These 2 coaches wer so out of it after games. I found C.Grinch tried his best to explain his defensive calls and backed his players. Sadly, C.Grinch truly believed in his D.
So Many Now Gone
A couple of program killers there off center right! Good bye and good luck.
The Grinch who stole USC football.
Will there ever be a more vilified USC asst? I honestly don’t think so.
How friendly are they now?
The Grinch and The Cat! WOW what a duo that would make!
Hah, I never thought of combining those two geniuses. “Alex Grinch, is regarded as one of the nation’s top defensive and secondary coaches. Co-defensive coord and safeties coach Grinch is a four-time nominee and two-time semifinalist for the Broyles Award, given annually to the nation’s top assistant coach …” — Badgers official site “Clay Helton was the first USC head coach to have 10-win seasons in each of his first two full seasons, and he had more wins (21) in his first two full seasons than any USC coach. He led USC to a 13-game winning streak from 2016 to… Read more »
Grinch just never changed. At Missou and WSU he was great. His shifts confused everyone and those undermanned defenses outperformed expectations. Then everyone got film, adjusted, and beat the brakes off his defenses. He never changed. Just hoped it would get back to good.
No wonder Grinch totally sucked while at USC… Fast starters are legendarily a dime a dozen. Who cares if he was any good long ago at mid-majors MO and WSU? Tiger and Cougar fans I guess. But as it turns out OU fans, WSU fans, OHIO ST fans, etc, also thought Grinch always sucked as they often humorously demonstrate here… — “USC is a carbon copy of OU under Riley. Insanely talented on offense, good enough to overpower most, but so piss poor on defense that any team could play with them.” — “Aw, Alex Grinch…the Brian Ferentz of defense.”… Read more »
Dang, in C.LR 1st year if he had just an average D USC would have been in the CFP final 4 and maybe made the finals, championship game. DC.Grinch D was awful and killed an amazing season.
Wonder why Wisconsin’s HC.Fickell hired him? Noticed most fired coaches at every level finds another job. Coaches are a strange fraternity…
But now we have D’Anton Lynn. Sometimes the cookie crumbles your way. He’s gonna be awesome at USC. LR deserves a lot of credit for reeling in the hugely promising Lynn. This was the most important part of the rebuilding puzzle that LR absolutely had to get right, and he did. Notice that once Lynn split for USC, it took about two seconds for Chip Kelly to bolt UCLA for OHIO ST for much less money at $2 mil in his first year as OC. It was like, “Why stick around with the permanent #2 program in town, even when… Read more »
Yeah Bruddah Allen, targeting C.DA Lynn was a great decision & job by C.LR. Plus, C.LR shopped for top D AC as well. Add, they are on a great start with the 2025 HS class. So far the D side are loaded with top players. I pray all the committed D players stick, especially J.Terry DL and I.Gibson DE, both from GA. You know UGA is gonna try to flip both players. I wonder why DA.Lynn and D staff did not recruit well in the TP? They still need to shore up DL and LB positions, but most of the… Read more »
Question for Ari Wasserman (The Athletic) — Ari, you frequently criticize Deion Sanders for wasting recruiting potential by not going on more school/house visits. What other coaches do you think are wasting recruiting resources (personality of the coach, proximity to talent, etc.), and what coaches maximize said resources the best? Wasserman — My mind drifted right to USC when considering your question. When Lincoln Riley took over, I thought the Trojans had a really good chance to build a legitimate West Coast powerhouse. I thought USC would clean up in California, land five-star quarterbacks and other elite players and take the college… Read more »
AW, I can’t agree more. Basically irrelevant whether SJB, Mater Dei or any other Calif powerhouse has a player(s) we are interested in. It shows respect, shows we are interested in them, and negates the appearance of aloofness towards the kids. All these programs have frosh / soph / JV players that could be phenoms in a year or two, therefore planting our flag at these schools is incredibly important. I realize one could rationalize that LR and assistants are probably someplace else recruiting, but my goodness, in Trojan attire, send an analyst, or someone from the Trojans storied legacy… Read more »
Indeed. Regardless of what recruits you believe LR and staff should be targeting at this exact moment in time, it’s obviously blatant recruiting malpractice to completely and intentionally ignore St. John Bosco’s College Showcase.
I could go on and on about the numerous important reasons to make a very visible and friendly appearance just down the road at such a big-time prep talent provider (you could do it in an hour), but USC football has its own way of doing things. Very strange, which is why experienced and respected CFB writers are stupefied by this approach. Many of us are.
It is a head scratcher. You can fly out to Florida and Geogia but you can’t drive an hour over to Bellflower? Establishing relationships can reap hugely down the road.
USC assts Brian Odom (now at N TEXAS) and Donte Williams (GA) showed up at a well-attended SJB Showcase in 2023, and super Bosco frosh CB Marcelles Williams is now a Trojan. Maybe USC likes the alternate year approach, or they now figure why send coaches who might soon be gone? 😉 😉
Looking forward to watching superior SJB frosh CB Marcelles Williams play for the Trojans this season —
TF that’s what stood out to me. Send someone to the showcase just to be present even if there is no one there your are interested in. I would sure hope and expect LR has regular contact somehow with all the powerhouse schools in SoCal. You are right TF, in a year or 2 or 3 there will be some phenoms and you better have a relationship with the HS HCs. Maybe Malachi Nelson burned LR on local talent, who know what is going on behind the scenes.
the article fails to mention that SJB was invited out to spring practice and the team had their own day with USC staff.
Good catch, more than one way to forge relationships.
I just read an obituary in the sports page for T.J. Summers. He was not my favorite columnist or my least favorite either, but I agreed with him quite often. He was what Scott Wolf has always wanted to be- a provocateur. The thing is, if you understood his writing he wasn’t as nasty as people thought he was. I emailed him a couple of times and he responded, so I guess that’s a good thing.
USC QB Matt Barkley teaches then-Times sports columnist T. J. Simers how to set up a Twitter account in 2012. (Al Seib / LAT)
College football preseason Top 25: Alabama, Miami rise, Louisville falls after spring ball Stewart Mandel (The Athletic) — The last of the high-profile spring transfer portal entrants have found new homes. Coaches are turning their attention to recruiting visits. And the video game is almost here. Time for my 2024 preseason Top 25, version 3.0. 1. Georgia (Previous rank: 1) 2. Ohio State (Previous: 2) 3. Texas (Previous: 3) 4. Alabama (Previous: 8) 5. Oregon (Previous: 4) 6. Ole Miss (Previous: 5) 7. Notre Dame (Previous: 8) 8. Utah (Previous: 9) 9. Michigan (Previous: 8) 10. Florida State (Previous: 14) 11. Oklahoma State (Previous: 10) 12. Missouri (Previous: 12) 13. Arizona (Previous: 13) 14. Miami (Previous:… Read more »
He goes out on a limb. 6 ACC schools in top 25? Nope.
My Top 11.
Georgia
Ohio St
Oregon
Bama
Texas
Notre Dame
Michigan
Florida St
Tennessee
Penn St
Oklahoma
#12 to #25 will be up and down for many teams.
I really do not know where to put USC? I’m expecting a 5 loss season and hoping for 4 to 3 losses. USC has a brutal schedule and the D roster is not complete and strong enough. Although, the D will be much improved. The big key falls on QB Moss consistent play, score mucho points and strong leadership. Once again, da O will have to carry the team. Cheers.
I see MICH being weaker than most. Losing a national championship coach like Jim Harbaugh who has been successful in so many places is tough to overcome in the short run, unless you get really lucky with your replacement. The Wolverines’ new HC, Sherrone Moore, is brand new at this. Who knows if Moore has what it takes? Also, MICH lost a lot of talent, including a high #1 Draft pick at QB who will be trying to immediately put Sam Darnold back on the bench. I don’t think MICH is a top-ten team, and I believe OHIO ST has… Read more »
I think our back 7 will be really good. Not sure about D Line at all. Can we stop the run in any real manner? Not sure.
Bruddah Chris, Looking over the DL & LB roster, I think the team do not have the firepower and depth to stop a good run game They are gonna play a brutal schedule with teams having very good run game. C.LR must add 1 more decent DL and 2 LB. If C.LR is able to do this in the next month there’s hope for the run D. Like you said the secondary unit will be very good. It has Xlent players and A+ depth. Let’s see if our new D staff will improve tackling, physicality & conditioning. They… Read more »
I believe our LB’s are good. Arnold is a huge upgrade, a true Mike LB. Gentry can now go out and play in space. Also, the young guys (Newby and Walker) will be better than all of them. Newby is best athlete in the group.
Bruddah, you are optimistic with our LB unit? Retuning players, Cobb, Gentry, Davis, Madden played in one of the worst run D in nation. Bad run stoppers.
Arnold from the TP is a good one. Newby and Stephens are freshmen and raw. Who’s Walker, don’t know da guy?
I think the LB unit is not strong and talent enough. This LB group does not measure up for the brutal 2024 schedule. Add them to the weak DL group, we are looking at a below average run D.
2025 COLLEGE FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME BALLOT ANNOUNCEMENT ATLANTA, Georgia (June 3, 2025) – The National Football Foundation (NFF) & College Hall of Fame has announced the names on the 2025 ballot for induction into the College Football Hall of Fame. The list includes 77 players and nine coaches from the Football Bowl Subdivision, as well as 101 players and 34 coaches from the divisional ranks. The USC candidates on the ballot are: Jeff Bregel – Offensive Guard – Two-time consensus First Team All-American and a 1986 NFF National Scholar-Athlete…Two-time First Team All-Pac-10 selection, leading USC to the 1984 conference title… Read more »
Joel Klatt lists 10 college football games that will shape the 2024 season FOX’s Joel Klatt has listed 10 games he believes will shape the 2024 season — all coming from the power conferences. Most involve Big Ten or SEC programs, with a couple even being matchups between the two conferences. LSU vs. USC (Las Vegas) “I think USC and LSU are pretty similarly positioned within their conferences,” Klatt said. “Which is, a bit of an unknown. We believe in their coaches… We believe in their locations… And yet, we still don’t know in the new iteration of these conferences — where are… Read more »
Question for Stewart Mandel (The Athletic) — In your opinion, which are the six most prestigious coaching jobs in college football and why? Please rank in order from 1 (highest) to 6. Mandel — One question first: Why six? I like this because it’s a slightly different question from the one I’ve tackled a million times — ranking the “best” coaching jobs. Prestigious and best aren’t necessarily the same. 1. Alabama. Simply put, you’re holding the same job as Bear Bryant and Nick Saban, with their 13 combined national championships. Hard to top that. 2. Notre Dame. Though not quite as shiny a… Read more »
Question for Stewart Mandel (The Athletic) — Over the next decade, give us one team you’re buying stock in, one team you’re selling, and one team you’re holding. Mandel — I’m buying stock in Oregon. Beyond being impressed with Dan Lanning, arguably no program has benefitted more from the sport’s biggest recent changes. The program for ages seemingly had a recruiting ceiling simply because of its modestly talented footprint. But that was before you could pay the players. Though Oregon has had the Phil Knight/Nike spigot for some time, previously the Ducks could only use it for buildings and swag. The… Read more »
Buy Oregon until Phil Knight is no longer around. they have a passionate fan base, but not enough to carry them after he is done contributing.
Why would he ever stop contributing through his estate? Were I Knight, I sure would, into perpetuity.
Phil Knight estate for sure. If that is all he is interested in. He may want to spread some of it around. He may want to carve out other sports, Track and Field for sure. He may have other causes as well.
Nike as an international corporation may want to spread their marketing dollars around. If I was Oregon I wouldn’t be counting on the Nike gravy train as my sole source for $$$.
I still think USC is in a prime spot. A Power 4 school in the second largest media market. NYC has nothing. Chicago, Philly and Dallas will likely share programs. UCLA will never get its act together to compete for NIL with USC. When the dust settles USC will be the top dog for NIL, pay and benefits for athletes.
I just read a video of Joel Klatt saying the same thing. His point was that LR always has excellent O’s. He has really never had even a decent D because IMO LR did not think he needed one. 2023 changed that delusion. Klatt thinks that in 2024 SC will have a decent D. And at least as good an O as in 2023. We need to realize just how good LR’s O was in 2023. The D was ranked 121st. Teams with Ds in that range, per another post, have averaged 3-9 for records. Yet LR had his team… Read more »
RJJ,
I am in the same camp. I do t think we will have a dominant defense, but it will be good. A good defense under LR equals big things. The only game I see as a most likely loss is at Michigan. Toss ups are LSU, Notre Dame, and Penn St. I think we win the others. I don’t think we will lose all 3. I’m 10-2 if Moss is better than we think or 9-3 if he is what we think he is.
Hey TRJJ! I was at that SC game at Auburn for Leinert’s first game as well. I remember the stunned silence from the Auburn faithful as they got spanked 20-zip by one of those soft Pac-10 teams.
I am sure that you and I saw each other! 😄