Brian Odom, trust into the role of interim co-defensive coordinator this week in the wake of Alex Grinch's firing, joked while talking with reporters after practice Tuesday that he'd already lost track of days.
"It's been a lot of work over the past couple days, but we've had some fun in the staff room just in terms of game-planning and really just diving in and seeing what we wanted to do," Odom said. "With that being said, I don't even really remember what day it is right now. We've been grinding away at it, and we'll go give it our best shot."
Odom, USC's inside linebackers coach, and defensive line coach/fellow interim co-DC Shaun Nua met with media Tuesday for the first time since Grinch was let go Sunday morning on the heels of 52-42 loss to Washington in which the Trojans gave up 572 yards and had no answers or adjustments against the Huskies.
“You never wish this or hope for anything like this, because we’re humans. And when you spend a lot of time in the office, day in and day out, night in night out, with people you get close to them and you get to know them, so it’s never easy. So the first thing coming to mind was Alex, and his family," Nua said.
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The Trojans (7-3, 5-2 Pac-12) are giving up 436 yards per game (119th out of 130 FBS teams) and 34.5 points per game (121st), which are both ignominious records as the worst in program history.
In Odom's case, he's been with Grinch through stints at Washington State, Oklahoma and here at USC.
He was asked what went so wrong with a defense that had expectations of taking a leap forward this year and instead has regressed.
"I think we’ve all seen the issues. There’s plenty of them. We’re attacking them. I think that everybody’s got their opinion on it, and I think it’s just been off a little bit for quite some time. Working to get those issues fixed as much as we can in one week," Odom said.
"It’s hard to put a finger on like the exact thing, whether it be one thing or the other, but obviously the result wasn’t what we all wanted. And I’d be the first to tell you, [Grinch] was as disappointed as anybody after any of those games, probably more so than anybody, but we continued to try to grind at it, work at it. Obviously, the result wasn’t what we wanted."
