I thought USC’s firing of Lane Kiffin was pretty tacky and maybe that’s why they’ll wait until the end of the season to dump Defensive Coordinator Alex Grinch. I mean it’s true that in 2022 he took over one of the Trojan’s historically worst defenses, but he hasn’t made a difference and whether it be from lack of coaching/training or the inability to recruit bigger/stronger/better defensive players there’s no more excuses—he has to go. A couple of headlines in the Los Angeles Times after this game said it all. The first reads; “Alex Grinch’s disconcerting USC defense continues to fail. Can he pull it together?” The second; “Lincoln Riley’s on the verge of losing USC fans’ devotion by keeping Alex Grinch.”
In this one after getting out to a 17-7 lead by the end of the 1st Qtr the Trojans were held scoreless in the 2nd while the Golden Bears put up three more TD’s to take a 28-17 lead at the break. USC outscored Cal in the 3rd, but only by four points and were still behind 36-29 going into the fourth quarter where they had to score back-to-back-to-back TD’s in between two Cal scores to have a single point lead, 50-49, with less than a minute left in the game and Cal deciding whether to kick the extra point and send the game into overtime or go for the win. I have always heard that you go for the win on the road and overtime at home with conventional wisdom saying that home field advantage will give you the edge in the extra period. But Cal didn’t play it that way and USC Junior Safety Jaylin Smith deflected Cal’s pass in the end zone on a two-point conversion attempt that failed, giving USC the one point victory and keeping them still well in contention to play in the PAC-12 Conference Championship. But with Washington, Oregon, and UCLA left on their schedule, if they make it in they most definitely will have earned it.
For USC, QB Caleb Williams connected on 23-of-40 for 369 yards, 2 TD’s—one to Senior WR Brenden Rice and one to Senior RB Austin Jones—and no picks while rushing 13 times for negative yards with Senior WR Tahj Washington, Marshawn Lloyd, Sophomore TE Lake McKee, and Sophomore WR Kyron Hudson combining for 287 of those passing yards on only 15 receptions. On the ground it was Junior RB Marshawn Lloyd shouldering most of the load while rushing 17 times for 115 of the Trojan’s 128 yard total on the ground. For Cal, Freshman QB Fernando Mendoza connected on 25-of-39 for 292 yards, 1 TD, and 1 pick while also rushing 8 times for 48 yards and 2 more TD’s. As impressive as Mendoza’s ground game was for a QB their lead RB, Sophomore Jaydn Ott, was stellar as he rushed 21 times for 153 yards and three TD’s while averaging over seven yards per carry. Mendoza connected more than three times with four different receivers with Junior WR Jeremiah Hunter and Sophomore WR Trond Grizzell combining for 65% of Mendoza’s 292 yard total with Grizzell and Freshman RB Jaivian Thomas collecting a TD each.
USC Head Coach Lincoln Riley had this to say afterwards; “That was a wild one. I’m really, really proud of the group. They could have folded there in the fourth quarter. The last two weeks, things haven’t [gone] our way. To step up here on the road and go find a way to get this sucker done was huge. There’s a lot to build on and there’s a lot that needs to improve [but] I believe this team can win this league. I know we can. We have to go do it. This team’s good, definitely good enough to beat anybody.” Sometimes in the past USC has had a tendency to play to the level of their competition and with that in mind I’m expecting them to play a whole lot better when they host the Huskies this coming Saturday. Cal faces an even tougher task as they have to hit the road to Eugene to take on the Oregon Ducks.