USC defensive coordinator Alex Grinch talked after practice Tuesday, touching on the expectations he has for the Trojans defense this year, the areas that have been most emphasized from the struggles of 2022, how the tackling has looked in practice overall, cornerback Domani Jackson's growth, freshman linebacker Tackett Curtis' emergence, transfer rush end Jamil Muhammad's rise and more.
Watch the full video interview here and scroll down for a complete transcript of Grinch's comments Tuesday:
Full transcript of Alex Grinch's comments ...
What have you seen from SJSU's mobile QB Chevan Cordeiro:
"Yeah, just real slippery, can make a bad play good. I mean, anymore the surprises as a defense to say you got a scrambling quarterback, if you’re surprised by it in this day and age, shame on you. It’s our expectation every single week. It doesn’t make it any easier to defend, so both on the ability to get yards down field and just extend plays and it thins you out in every which way. It’s easy to say the spy guy and all that stuff, but you’re not rushing as many as you’d like to rush or you’re not putting as many guys in coverage, so it gives you major fits. Always has and always will."
What was the main factor in moving Anthony Lucas from RUSH to DE late in camp?
"Just continuing to move guys around, trying to get the best 11 on the field. Those edge positions for us are so similar and so from a job description standpoint, we feel very confident moving guys back and forth and just trying to get the best four in the front and then the best four behind them. And so whether you're to the field or to the boundary, two-point stance or three-point stance, trying to be multiple that way. So he’s a guy that can do both of those things, as other guys as well, so we expect him to play both of those spots."
What were the main hurdles Domani Jackson had to overcome in coming back from injuries?
"Yeah, I think for a young guy in particular, when you add the injury component, we tried to force feed him a little bit when we could a year ago and probably wasn’t completely fair to him, to be honest with you. But there’s only one way to get better and it’s game reps and obviously to get those game reps you’ve gotta do it on the practice field. Certainly was not 100% last year but had a good spring for us. And I think just as you get the cumulative reps, the confidence comes with it and you see so many different things. The nice thing for him is he’s been healthy.
"He was kind of supposed to be on a pitch count in spring and very, very quickly kind of came off of that and kept going, kept going, kept going, which allowed him to have a good spring in terms of volume. Same thing into the summer, which we didn’t get a year ago, either of those two things. And then been healthy and working and could not be any higher on Domani. Now you gotta go do it on Saturdays, we understand that, but I’ve been very pleased with him. He’s an exciting young player."
