USC defensive coordinator Alex Grinch spoke to reporters Thursday for the first time since the Trojans' weekend scrimmage, and he provided a rather candid assessment of his unit's performance.

"I thank God it wasn't a game, long story short," he said.

The long version of that story is that the tackling was not sharp but also not totally surprising given it was the first true scrimmage of camp, Grinch said. Meanwhile, he felt several players had opportunities to assert themselves with others out injured and he didn't quite see that happen across the board.