USC Trojans fans have no love-loss for former defensive coordinator Alex Grinch. As a person, Grinch is one of the best and someone who always treated everyone with respect, but as a coach, USC saw one of its worst periods of defensive play, ever.
Usually, when you are fired from a role that witnessed historic lows across the board, it takes some time to recover. For Grinch, that recovery seems to be expedited.
After spending one season at Wisconsin as the Co-Defensive Coordinator and Safeties Coach, he is now the top candidate to land the UCF Defensive Coordinator position.
According to Pete Nakos of On3, newly hired head coach (for a 2nd time) Scott Frost is targeting Alex Grinch for his defensive coordinator position.
UCF Targeting Former USC Trojans DC Alex Grinch For Same Role
Some irony in this whole thing is that just two weeks ago, a report came out that UCF had inquired about Lincoln Riley’s interest in leaving USC to become their head coach. Now they have set their sights on his former DC.
During Grinch’s time with USC, the Trojans had one of the worst defenses in College Football. In his first season in LA (2022), USC finished 101st in total team defense allowing 423.9 yards per game.
After a 2nd half-defensive collapse against Tulane in the Cotton Bowl, there was speculation that Lincoln Riley would move on and seek a new DC. However, Grinch was retained for the 2023 season.
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In that season, the defense performed worse, finishing 114th in total defense allowing 432.8 yards per game.
After a 52-42 loss at the hands of the Washington Huskies, a game that saw the Huskies gain 572 yards, Grinch was fired, with 2 games remaining in the season.
If he does indeed land the UCF DC job, it would certainly be a quick rebound.
**Update: Immediately after publishing this story, it was announced that Alex Grinch was officially hired as the next DC of UCF.