USC defensive coordinator Alex Grinch may have come from Oklahoma with Lincoln Riley, but he's no stranger to the Stanford Cardinal.

Grinch coached against David Shaw's program three times as the DC at Washington State from 2015-17, going 2-1 in those games with a pair of wins over ranked Stanford teams in which his defense gave up just 16 and 21 points.

That's when the Cardinal was rolling as one of the team teams in the Pac-12 year after year. It's been a different story recently, as Stanford went 3-9 last year (with a lopsided win over USC, of course). More jarring has been the erosion of the Stanford ground attack, which had long been prominent in the program's identity, as it finished fifth-worst in the FBS last year in rushing yards.

But Grinch isn't looking at the Cardinal any differently now than he did those handful of years ago, as he prepares his Trojans for the teams' meeting Saturday.

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"I think the DNA hasn't changed much at all. I think they have an expectation to play a physical brand of football, and it's on each defense each week to try to match that and they make it very difficult to do that," he said Wednesday after practice. "And they'll do it out of a number of different personnel groupings -- not specific to one. Sometimes it's with multiple tight ends, sometimes it's with one tight end and sometimes they flush you out and they create seams in kind of the spread game with the use of the RPO, which puts obviously back-end guys in conflict.

"Some [aspects] may have changed, but I don't think Coach Shaw in terms of the DNA of that program has at all. It's a coaching staff that has been doing it at a high level for a long time."

It's hard to take much away from Stanford's first game of the season -- a 41-10 win over FCS-level Colgate -- but it did average 6.0 yards per rush, led by E.J. Smith's 118 yards and 2 touchdowns on 11 carries (albeit with most coming an 87-yard scoring scamper).

At quarterback, junior Tanner McKee returns as the starter and is considered a future NFL draft pick. He opened his season completing 22 of 27 passes for 308 yards, 2 TDs and 1 INT.

"I think you just have a level of expectation for the quarterbacks at Stanford," Grinch said. "I guess you call it pro-style -- I mean that in a positive way, the ability to direct the ball down the field. The unique ability in the vertical passing game, if you want to call it 50-50 balls, but they have a tendency not to be against them. And very difficult to surprise them from a coverage standpoint. I think that's just experience level and also the knowledge that you've got to be so sound in the run game, which creates matchups on the second level. I've been impressed -- they had a real nice weekend last weekend."

Grinch also spoke about new Stanford safety Patrick Fields, who was a three-year starter for him at Oklahoma before transferring to the Cardinal this year. Fields totaled 193 tackles and 3 interceptions over 42 games with the Sooners.

"One of my all-time favorites. He is elite at all the things on the field, off the field. I couldn't say enough positive ... it's going to be awkward right now how much I feel about Pat Fields," Grinch said. "You can poll anybody that was with us, he's an elite player, communicator. I'm going to start crying thinking about Pat. Anyway, I wish he was here."

Grinch could certainly use more veteran experience in his secondary, where the Trojans are young and relatively thin on depth until the roster gets healthy.

While safeties Calen Bullock and Xamarion Gordon notched interceptions in the season opener and USC held Rice to just 134 passing yards with four total INTs (three pick-6s) and four sacks, that was a much different test than Stanford will give the Trojans.

Up front, of course, if Stanford can revive its old physical run game ways, but also in the secondary where sophomore safety Calen Bullock, redshirt junior safety Max Williams, sophomore nickel Jaylin Smith and redshirt freshman Ceyair Wright are all more or less first-time full-time starters and sixth-year senior Mekhi Blackmon is the lone experienced veteran.

"It's going to be a real test for us. We're going to find out, we're kind of in that phase -- game day shouldn't be about this ultimate test. As you go, and it kind of speaks to the longevity with guys, you want to have a better understanding before you get to this point," Grinch said. "Certainly, I feel like we've done our part to the best of our ability based on what you can do in practice -- I don't mean just this week, I mean over the last nine months. ...

"It's all for these moments. Now, can you simulate an offense that kind of hangs their hat on [physicality]? ... The challenge is to do it on the practice field so you've got a chance to rise to the occasion on Saturday, but it's going to be a major, major test."

Watch Grinch's full interview here: