In this edition of the Peristyle Podcast hosts Ryan Abraham and Chris Trevino give their reaction to all of the mostly negative fan reaction to USC head coach Lincoln Riley's decision to retain embattled defensive coordinator Alex Grinch. During a two hour sit down with Riley this week, he told local media that he wanted to keep continuity with the coaching staff and no changes would be made heading into the 2023 football season. Specifically with Grinch, he emphasized that his defenses had some really good performances this season but the consistency wasn't there, especially late in the season. Riley did not want to make a rash, emotional decision based on data from one year. He knows Grinch had great results at previous stops and when he arrived at Oklahoma he turned around a bad defense and Riley is confident that USC's defense will be much improved in 2023.
Both Ryan and Chris talk about how upset many USC fans were to learn that Riley was going forward with Grinch. Both hosts understand how the defense was terrible this season, but they also think that Riley took a 4-8 team and rebuilt the roster, won 11 games, won the Heisman Trophy, beat both rivals UCLA and Notre Dame and was a play away from the College Football Playoff. Riley made a lot of good decisions about this football program and both feel that he should be given the benefit of the doubt about the future of this defense.
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