USC defensive coordinator Alex Grinch noted the Trojans' "effort" multiple times Thursday in assessing where things stand through five practices.

That part, he is encouraged by -- but he was also honest and candid in acknowledging that most everything else still has quite a ways to go.

"If I could highlight effort, this has been a group that hasn't given us a lot of pushback. I think it's a group that is attempting to give us what we're asking of them, specifically from an effort, 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," Grinch said.

"But if we continue to do that, if our practices match from a tempo standpoint, effort standpoint, we combine it from a learning [standpoint] -- doing the right job over and over again and this thing turns into live work -- I think we can progress in the right way."

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Asked if he could highlight any standouts through five practices, Grinch started with junior defensive lineman Tuli Tuipulotu, who is arguably the Trojans' best returning player on either side of the ball.

"A guy that we expected to show well has. He has some athleticism, he's a gifted player -- a guy we're really excited to work with and coach [Shaun] Nua will do a great job with him," Grinch said before adding more names to the list. "Shane Lee, new guy to Southern California like all of us, but kind of has assumed a good role for us in terms of a leadership standpoint, mature guy and has shown up on the practice field as well. And certainly there's others -- Mekhi Blackmon is another one, experienced player. Those guys have a tendency to show a little bit different than a guy that maybe hasn't been in the fire yet. So that's good."

Grinch and his staff have quite a rebuilding job ahead, of course. They were handed a defense that gave up 31.8 points per game last year -- the worst in program history and ranked tied for 103rd in the country -- that also returns very few starters.

Tuipulotu, defensive end Nick Figueroa, nose tackle Stanley Ta'ufo'ou and linebacker Ralen Goforth were starters last fall, safety Calen Bullock was a part-time starter but a regular rotation guy regardless and nose tackle Brandon Pili had played a lot in his career before missing last season due to an Achilles injury.

The rest is mostly new to USC, unproven or raw.

"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 ourselves a shot. We've got a long, long way to go," Grinch said. "But there's some physical plays in practice and some other ones where we're getting out-physical-ed. So back to the drawing board tomorrow, but I've been pleased with the effort."