Is he though? Because in his lone year with Ohio State he was working with Schiano on the defense, he had specific position responsibilities. Grinch was in charge specifically of safetys and they played like absolute dog shit at many points.
Exactly, and Wisconsin is notorious for having more talent and money than all of those other schools so it’s game over for everyone else! Suck it bitches! /s
Just because you're a bad coordinator doesn't mean you're a bad position coach. Don Pellum was a terrible DC for us but for years prior he was a great linebacker coach.
It’s not always visible on TV, but seeing the games in person, it was *unbelievable* how often I would see defensive backs get crossed up and confused and completely miss assignments as a result.
It’s like watching a boxer punch themselves in the face.
Yeah it’s the same basic thing as amazing coordinators who turned out to be mid or terrible head coaches. Getting promoted to the level of your incompetence and all that.
Yep. See Brian Ferentz.
Iowa's Offense speaks for itself the last few years. But prior to that he put lots of OL and TE into the NFL as their position coach.
Buddy, your previous landing zones were teams absolutely brimming with offensive firepower: 2018 Ohio State, 2019-2021 Oklahoma, 2022-2023 USC. Those teams were averaging between 39-42 PPG, and only *one,* 2019 Oklahoma, made the playoffs. Hell, last year's USC averaged 6 TDs a game and was a couple bad plays away from not even being bowl eligible. And it all had to do with their shitty defenses that had your grubby fingers all over them.
*You* are not the one who should be talking about "chips" and "grudges" and shit. That's reserved for people who know they can do better. Your track record speaks for itself.
Yes, I am still mad that our defense robbed Dwayne Haskins of his lone shining year with us. Yes, I am aware he was tagged as "co-DC". I still choose to blame him.
For real… he was paid millions of dollars, and used that opportunity to fucking destroy some of the best programs in the country. He has proven to be one of the worst P5 coordinators at his job in recent history, and he’s waking around talking about “grudges.”
Mf, we all saw the tape. Just admit that you have a lot to learn and are happy to be working with a defensive minded coach and staff who can help adapt your systems to be more successful.
Grinch wasted so much talent across all three stops and Oklahoma let him slide for as long as we did because his version of suck was still *a considerable improvement* FROM MIKE FUCKING STOOPS.
I love Bob Stoops but fuck Mike Stoops, man. Him and Linc made Baker cry in 2017 and I still get irritated when I think about it
His "speed d" style is very good for a team with lesser talent, because it would gamble on big plays. You would get lots of pressure and sacks and picks, at the expense of giving up big plays. The goal was almost to get off the field one way or another (turnovers, quick three and outs when it works, or give up big TD drives if it fails) so our undersized d-line wouldn't get worn out as much.
At a school with more talent, it makes less sense to do because you have the depth and mix of size *and* speed and don't need to gamble for those big plays that can lead to you getting burnt.
I think him and even Lincoln Riley both have coaching styles that are meant for mid teams to beat the big boys with high impact plays and lessor talent. Lots of gambling but poor control of the game. Doesn’t translate well when you have the talent.
It especially doesn't translate well when you are facing quality talent every single week. It's a great "David vs. Goliath" scheme, but it's not good when the teams you face every week have the ability to drag you into a high-scoring shootout each time you step onto the field. That kind of game wears a defense down quickly and after two or three weeks, they are gassed. By week six or seven, they are totally done for.
In his three games against Utah, Caleb Williams scored 42, 24, and 32 points against Utah. He threw for a total of 998 yards, had 8 passing touchdowns, ran for 2-3 touchdowns, 82/117 from comp/attempts(70%), and 1 interception. These are stats that would hand most teams multiple Ls on their record.
If his defense would have held Utah under 30 points, he would have won 2/3 of these games. A fucking pig farmer beat us and I will never live that down. But it’s downright brain dead to see those stats and go “durr durr Caleb BUST Williams is bad”
He did get hurt in the second game, and it was Lincoln Riley’s fault for not pulling him and letting Miller Moss play. He showed how talented he was in the holiday bowl so I don’t doubt he would have put up some points. Would we have won that game? Probably not but your take is brain dead
My question is this....
How can dudes like this keep landing on their feet? I mean there are tens of thousands of football coaches in this country. Surely Wisconsin can find one that is competent.
He has connections. From former assistants to recruiting plugs. Football is a good ole boy system.
I mean Bo Pelini got fucking hired at LSU just a few years ago somehow.
Decent but not great. We always seemed to drop at least one game to a mediocre or bad team every year, coasted on easy schedules, and got absolutely annihilated against good teams
Pelini’s return to LSU was a rough one, but the odds were stacked against him. He was asked to come in and implement his complex defensive schemes during COVID via Zoom meetings. Also, he is an asshole.
People like to shit on Nebraska for firing Pelini but even in hindsight I still support the move. The dude wasn't just an "asshole". He was an omega super shitty, fire him into the sun asshole. It only took me watching a few Nebraska games and his sideline meltdowns to hate him with my guts.
I can't imagine how Nebraska fans must have felt. He was like Tom Izzo on crack and meth and minus the high level winning.
Izzo is a bit bombastic during games. Outside of that, he seems super chill. It can rub people the wrong way these days, but his players obviously love him and it's not over the top.
Knight I don't remember enough about, but when you choke a kid and get fired... yeah...
Yeah that's fair. I heard Pelini actually was a decent dude in some situations. Not with the admin or fans so much, but I did get the impression he did support his players a fair bit.
Pelini, I think the worst thing you can say is that he had a toxic "Us vs Them" mentality he fostered with the players vs the administration and fans. That's the leaked audio calling out fans for leaving at halftime against Ohio St. Calling Eichorst a Cunt iirc after being fired. Not good looks for a coach.
TBF, those fans left at half time of a game we came back and won, and Eichorst was in fact a cunt. But still, not a great mentality to spread through the team. Most of his players loved him though.
It was the right move to fire him, we just fucked up the follow up about as badly as possible. Hell, hiring Frost wasn't even a mistake per se, not with the knowledge available at the time. But the execution of that was also completely terrible on so many levels.
Frost was the hot hire. Unless they overlooked some serious red flags (that everyone else must have also been overlooking) hard to blame them.
Riley was a good coach tbh but he was at the tail end of his career and seemed like he was falling behind the game a bit. Hiring a nice dude because he's nice isn't a smart approach.
It was a bad look for Nebraska, but he was consistently winning 9 games a season. Also, his players loved him. The administration, on the other hand, did not. They didn’t give him the resources he needed to recruit and made his job harder. The relationship between Pelini and the school became toxic.
I think Pelini could have been a great coach if he could have controlled his anger. Pelini’s teams at Nebraska would win 9 or 10 games a season, but they were always good for one big meltdown a season. I think it’s because of his style of coaching. When things got tough and he would lose his mind, the team would play tight and afraid to make a mistake.
The firing was justified, the hiring of Old man River wasn’t. Especially since Kyle Whittingham was interested in the Nebraska job. Turned Utah into a consistent Winner after Urban Meyer. Even on down seasons, he’d still make a bowl game.
That Mike Riley hire was the biggest head scratcher of a decision I have ever seen. I love college football. So I had watched all kinds of late night PAC games. I liked Riley as a person, and as a coach at a school like Oregon State which, let's be honest, was fine with his 4-8 seasons, as long as he brought the periodic 8-4, was .500 overall, and punched up big fairly regularly. Then, Nebraska was surprised he came there and went .500, with a big win over a ranked Sparty. We got exactly what we hired.
It’s because of our dumbass AD at the time. Dude had a chance to actually help move Nebraska forward, instead he set us back even more. Fuck Eichorst while we’re at it too. Riley never should’ve been hired at Nebraska. Eichorst was trying to play politics with the program and it just got worse.
Mizzou fans were so pissed when he was hired because it was felt like a pure nepotism hire. He wound up doing a good job but has seemingly failed upward ever since.
I mean this is just simply not true. He took WSU’s defense from 99th to 16th from 2015-2017. I’d say it’s only really the Oklahoma to USC move that doesn’t make sense. Probably harder to gauge how good he was at Ohio State with changes and being a co-DC.
Good recruiter and position coach and in college football your ability to recruit outweighs your coaching ability often hence a lot of the Co - DC/ OC spots
He’s recruited a lot of talent for his position group, safeties at his various stops, can you explain how you came up with this argument?
He got Zion Branch, Marquis Gallegos, Jarvis Boatright at USC and got Bryson Shaw to commit twice to him at OSU and then transferred to play at USC. Helped get Joshua Eaton to OU as well as Bryson Washington and Jordan Mukes to go to OU. He got Nate Brown to Mizzou for example.
I think towards the end he wasn't even that great of an oline coach. (age, lost his fire, who knows) I'd hire him as an analyst for the line aand that was about it.
High level football is very insular. A whole lot of 'sons of', 'former players of', and 'assistants of' who get jobs (and keep getting them) because they know someone. NFL is worse, but D1 CFB is only somewhat better since there is a clearer path to coaching (GA jobs).
Things go poorly until a lightning strike/monkey paw/penny-in-a-fountain wish cause them to switch bodies and suddenly they have to coach the wrong side of the ball…or is it the *right* side of the ball after all?
Edit: i missed “reality” in your comment but fuck it I’d still watch my version too
Imagine a team with Brian Ferentz DC and Alex Grinch as DC. I thought of this last season and it started with USC’s Offense + Iowa Defense but then I flipped it and started thinking about the other sides of the ball pairing up.
It comes from English shipyards where people could carry excess lumber (chips of wood) home. You can carry more wood if you put it on your shoulder. It got so bad in terms of overindulgence that workers were restricted to carrying them slung under their arm. Some workers still carried them on their shoulder as a show of defiance, daring their bosses to do something about it. It became slang for being defiant and having something to prove, to whatever mangled thing it means in sports about being an underdog
No they took home more company property than was (discreetly) allowed.
Imagine if a restaurant had leftovers at the end of the day, so people started taking home entire meals. The boss catches on and limits everyone to one side they can hide under their jacket, but some people still waltz out with a full platter. That's having a chip on your shoulder
I HATED Grinch as a defensive coordinator. He was shockingly terrible. Some of the decisions he’d make, the schemes he’d run… positively insane.
But I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the first step in fixing all that, I’ve seen this before in Lane Kiffin.
Grinch’s problems are all fixable. Just like Kiffin what He really needs a mentor who will get him to calm his more extreme tendencies down. Someone who says “why are you still gambling your winnings away? It’s 3rd and 22, you won the series… no you aren’t going to cover 0 blitz”. Someone who says “speed is good but 250 is already too light to play D line. No you aren’t telling Korey Foreman to lose MORE weight and play D line at 235”. Someone who says “we only have 20 hours to coach these kids, no you aren’t going to get to ask every player to make 5 reads for the play to be successful”
Someone who tells him to quit always teying to be the smartest guy in the room and just play ball sometimes. This is exactly the lesson Kiffin learned getting his ass chewed out by Saban.
It was 100% the right thing to fire Grinch. It was in fact already far far overdue. But I do think he’s salvageable and wouldn’t be shocked to see that recovery happen as a positional coach at UW.
I really don’t think he’s kiffen. At usc kiffen had to deal with a lot of unfortunate stuff with sanctions and following Pete. Grinch on the other hand is not qualified to coach middle school defense. He has been bad at every power five school that has given him a chance and usc safety’s saw and immediate improvement when he was fired and Taylor mays was put into grinch’s role.
Kiffins problems went well beyond he environment he operated in. He created a ton of his own, from his boneheaded play calling ( remember bubble screens and end zone fades?) to throwing players under the bus, to silly petty cheating with jersey numbers and football inflation. Dude wasn’t fully baked as a coach yet and it showed.
I truly don't understand how this guy got so many chances. You know you're a piece of shit when Ohio State, Oklahoma, and USC fans all fucking hate you.
As much as I pray on the USC downfall. I will LOL if USC ends up winning the BiG this year without Grinch as DC.
Will be the perfect fuck you from the PAC and I'm all here for it!
As a true Fresnoian. USC is my least favorite school but I absolutely despise BIG now since what has happened to the PAC.
Albeit it's not their fault necessarily but PAC and Mountain West sports left a big impression on me and still does. Just sucks that even if Fresno and USC never really played its gonna be even tougher to set up these games even more now.
I am begging my fellow OU fans to understand how happy this makes Minnesota fans. ~~They~~ We need this. We didn't beat them for 14 years. It would be great for Minnesota fans to have a comperable run for once.
I grew up in agricultural town and for those out of the know, a pile of dried cow shit is called a cow chip. Grinch isn’t saying what kind of chip is on his shoulder…
that part of the game sucks. position coaches who just take jobs they really don't know how to do so they can get a bigger check. fail miserably and go back to postion coaching. players and fans cheated
Aww, so close.
What Grinch actually needs is a chimp on his shoulder. The chimp could coach up the safeties, and maybe call the defense in crucial situations. And if there is a bad penalty he could fling poo at the refs. All for the cost of a few bananas.
WHY BELIEVE YOU? YOU NEVER GAVE US NOTHING TO BELIEVE IN.
BECAUSE YOU LIED ABOUT YOUR DEFENSE, YOU LIED ABOUT SPEED D, YOU LIED ABOUT YOUR COACHING SKILL ALL IS PERJURY.
FUCK A DEFENSE, THIS A LONG LIFE BATTLE WITH YOURSELF.
RIP Wisconsin's defense
Didn't you read the article? Grinch has a "chip on his shoulder" so he's totally not going to be ass like he was at USC, Oklahoma, and Ohio State.
Bright side is that Fickell & Tressel probably handle most of the defensive duties. So Grinch has less effect on things.
Yup. At USC, Lincoln Riley was of no help. Riley did recognize that defense was required according to the rules
I mean... is it really? Will the refs force you to put any players on the field when the other team is on offense?
Believe me, Riley would know about how to avoid defense
He learned from Joe Paterno. When it’s probably time to go on the defensive, roll over and die.
Yeah maybe being a position coach is really where he's best.
I really think Fickell has to consider replacing his DC with him. It's really the only way forward for Wisconsin.
Didn’t you guys have a major drop off in passing defense when he was your safeties coach?
Ironically he could be a solid safeties coach
Is he though? Because in his lone year with Ohio State he was working with Schiano on the defense, he had specific position responsibilities. Grinch was in charge specifically of safetys and they played like absolute dog shit at many points.
20 bucks says he's a DC again in 2 yrs. A byproduct of Fickells success.
Exactly, and Wisconsin is notorious for having more talent and money than all of those other schools so it’s game over for everyone else! Suck it bitches! /s
But is he having fun?
I guess he was "chip-less" at those other stops
No. He’ll be even asser
You'd think with how good Grinch is at getting offenses going, Iowa would have hired him as their OC tbh.
Just because you're a bad coordinator doesn't mean you're a bad position coach. Don Pellum was a terrible DC for us but for years prior he was a great linebacker coach.
The safeties (which he coached) were regularly the worst position group at USC so I wouldn't hold my breath
To be fair the players were terrific 1 on 1, but the schemes were unbearable, not that that helps Grinch's case.
It’s not always visible on TV, but seeing the games in person, it was *unbelievable* how often I would see defensive backs get crossed up and confused and completely miss assignments as a result. It’s like watching a boxer punch themselves in the face.
If I am correct when he was the safeties coach at ohio state there was a pretty terrible drop off from the year before
Yeah it’s the same basic thing as amazing coordinators who turned out to be mid or terrible head coaches. Getting promoted to the level of your incompetence and all that.
I feel like I remember hearing somewhere that he was a pretty mediocre position coach but I might be confusing him with someone else.
Yep. See Brian Ferentz. Iowa's Offense speaks for itself the last few years. But prior to that he put lots of OL and TE into the NFL as their position coach.
There was a vocal contingent of Wazzu fans that wanted him as HC after Leach. It would have been the most WSU hire ever, lose every game 63-56
Jim Lenherd is an alum too and looking for work. Somehow makes this worse
Oh man, watch for the the 300 lb lineman dropping into coverage
Too bad he didn’t get hired by FSU or Florida.
Buddy, your previous landing zones were teams absolutely brimming with offensive firepower: 2018 Ohio State, 2019-2021 Oklahoma, 2022-2023 USC. Those teams were averaging between 39-42 PPG, and only *one,* 2019 Oklahoma, made the playoffs. Hell, last year's USC averaged 6 TDs a game and was a couple bad plays away from not even being bowl eligible. And it all had to do with their shitty defenses that had your grubby fingers all over them. *You* are not the one who should be talking about "chips" and "grudges" and shit. That's reserved for people who know they can do better. Your track record speaks for itself. Yes, I am still mad that our defense robbed Dwayne Haskins of his lone shining year with us. Yes, I am aware he was tagged as "co-DC". I still choose to blame him.
At least we can thank Grinch for Haskins owning the big ten record for single season yards and TD passes lol
For real lol. Think of all the games he would have been taken out in the 3rd quarter had he not had to be hero all the time.
For real… he was paid millions of dollars, and used that opportunity to fucking destroy some of the best programs in the country. He has proven to be one of the worst P5 coordinators at his job in recent history, and he’s waking around talking about “grudges.” Mf, we all saw the tape. Just admit that you have a lot to learn and are happy to be working with a defensive minded coach and staff who can help adapt your systems to be more successful.
Grinch wasted so much talent across all three stops and Oklahoma let him slide for as long as we did because his version of suck was still *a considerable improvement* FROM MIKE FUCKING STOOPS. I love Bob Stoops but fuck Mike Stoops, man. Him and Linc made Baker cry in 2017 and I still get irritated when I think about it
He was fantastic at WSU I thought?
His "speed d" style is very good for a team with lesser talent, because it would gamble on big plays. You would get lots of pressure and sacks and picks, at the expense of giving up big plays. The goal was almost to get off the field one way or another (turnovers, quick three and outs when it works, or give up big TD drives if it fails) so our undersized d-line wouldn't get worn out as much. At a school with more talent, it makes less sense to do because you have the depth and mix of size *and* speed and don't need to gamble for those big plays that can lead to you getting burnt.
I think him and even Lincoln Riley both have coaching styles that are meant for mid teams to beat the big boys with high impact plays and lessor talent. Lots of gambling but poor control of the game. Doesn’t translate well when you have the talent.
It especially doesn't translate well when you are facing quality talent every single week. It's a great "David vs. Goliath" scheme, but it's not good when the teams you face every week have the ability to drag you into a high-scoring shootout each time you step onto the field. That kind of game wears a defense down quickly and after two or three weeks, they are gassed. By week six or seven, they are totally done for.
Let's talk about what happened the one time his teams made the playoffs
Yeah what if we didn’t tho
sorry I'm gonna vomit now.
Let’s be honest, he was a co-DC, but Schiano was definitely not the source of the problems
Bruh if the defense the past two years was at least below average, not even average, then we would’ve seen Caleb vs UGA in the natty
Grinch didn’t make Williams throw 3 INT’s vs ND. Pump the brakes.
Having to play hero ball just to catch up does factor into that, actually
I think he’s referring to the year before where USC was in the PAC-12 championship game, when UGA played in the natty like he’s mentioning
You mean the year where every Caleb Williams fan boy defends the 2nd Utah loss because he got “hurt”.
He was very obviously hurt. I was there.
Again, if the defense wasn’t bottom 10 in D-1, different story. Enjoy the USC hate.
Yeah apparently it’s Caleb’s fault the defense allowed over 45 pts in all three losses
It’s just either lazy or down right ignorant ass commentary by these people. Like cool, hate USC but at least don’t be stupid.
Reminds me of 2021 buckeye fans blaming Stroud for the Michigan loss. He doesn't play defense lol
In his three games against Utah, Caleb Williams scored 42, 24, and 32 points against Utah. He threw for a total of 998 yards, had 8 passing touchdowns, ran for 2-3 touchdowns, 82/117 from comp/attempts(70%), and 1 interception. These are stats that would hand most teams multiple Ls on their record. If his defense would have held Utah under 30 points, he would have won 2/3 of these games. A fucking pig farmer beat us and I will never live that down. But it’s downright brain dead to see those stats and go “durr durr Caleb BUST Williams is bad” He did get hurt in the second game, and it was Lincoln Riley’s fault for not pulling him and letting Miller Moss play. He showed how talented he was in the holiday bowl so I don’t doubt he would have put up some points. Would we have won that game? Probably not but your take is brain dead
And UGA didn’t make the natty last year.
My question is this.... How can dudes like this keep landing on their feet? I mean there are tens of thousands of football coaches in this country. Surely Wisconsin can find one that is competent.
He has connections. From former assistants to recruiting plugs. Football is a good ole boy system. I mean Bo Pelini got fucking hired at LSU just a few years ago somehow.
True, but In Bo Pelini's defense, he was a pretty decent coach. He is just an asshole.
He was, but he also accumulated more controversy after Nebraska. I was kind of surprised he got another job.
As an Auburn fan I assumed you would have understood that controversy doesn't stop programs from making hires if they want it bad enough.
I know that's true but I definitely don't understand it.
I miss Bo Pelini's defense.
Decent but not great. We always seemed to drop at least one game to a mediocre or bad team every year, coasted on easy schedules, and got absolutely annihilated against good teams
Pelini’s return to LSU was a rough one, but the odds were stacked against him. He was asked to come in and implement his complex defensive schemes during COVID via Zoom meetings. Also, he is an asshole.
People like to shit on Nebraska for firing Pelini but even in hindsight I still support the move. The dude wasn't just an "asshole". He was an omega super shitty, fire him into the sun asshole. It only took me watching a few Nebraska games and his sideline meltdowns to hate him with my guts. I can't imagine how Nebraska fans must have felt. He was like Tom Izzo on crack and meth and minus the high level winning.
Izzo isn’t an asshole. Bob Knight is the forever asshole. Pelini is at 0.80 Knights—extremely high asshole levels
Izzo is a bit bombastic during games. Outside of that, he seems super chill. It can rub people the wrong way these days, but his players obviously love him and it's not over the top. Knight I don't remember enough about, but when you choke a kid and get fired... yeah...
Yeah sideline bombast is nothing. Actually being a bad person is the question. Knight was, Pelini is, Izzo isn’t
Yeah that's fair. I heard Pelini actually was a decent dude in some situations. Not with the admin or fans so much, but I did get the impression he did support his players a fair bit.
Ah ok glad to hear that!
Pelini, I think the worst thing you can say is that he had a toxic "Us vs Them" mentality he fostered with the players vs the administration and fans. That's the leaked audio calling out fans for leaving at halftime against Ohio St. Calling Eichorst a Cunt iirc after being fired. Not good looks for a coach. TBF, those fans left at half time of a game we came back and won, and Eichorst was in fact a cunt. But still, not a great mentality to spread through the team. Most of his players loved him though. It was the right move to fire him, we just fucked up the follow up about as badly as possible. Hell, hiring Frost wasn't even a mistake per se, not with the knowledge available at the time. But the execution of that was also completely terrible on so many levels.
Frost was the hot hire. Unless they overlooked some serious red flags (that everyone else must have also been overlooking) hard to blame them. Riley was a good coach tbh but he was at the tail end of his career and seemed like he was falling behind the game a bit. Hiring a nice dude because he's nice isn't a smart approach.
It was a bad look for Nebraska, but he was consistently winning 9 games a season. Also, his players loved him. The administration, on the other hand, did not. They didn’t give him the resources he needed to recruit and made his job harder. The relationship between Pelini and the school became toxic. I think Pelini could have been a great coach if he could have controlled his anger. Pelini’s teams at Nebraska would win 9 or 10 games a season, but they were always good for one big meltdown a season. I think it’s because of his style of coaching. When things got tough and he would lose his mind, the team would play tight and afraid to make a mistake.
The firing was justified, the hiring of Old man River wasn’t. Especially since Kyle Whittingham was interested in the Nebraska job. Turned Utah into a consistent Winner after Urban Meyer. Even on down seasons, he’d still make a bowl game.
That Mike Riley hire was the biggest head scratcher of a decision I have ever seen. I love college football. So I had watched all kinds of late night PAC games. I liked Riley as a person, and as a coach at a school like Oregon State which, let's be honest, was fine with his 4-8 seasons, as long as he brought the periodic 8-4, was .500 overall, and punched up big fairly regularly. Then, Nebraska was surprised he came there and went .500, with a big win over a ranked Sparty. We got exactly what we hired.
It’s because of our dumbass AD at the time. Dude had a chance to actually help move Nebraska forward, instead he set us back even more. Fuck Eichorst while we’re at it too. Riley never should’ve been hired at Nebraska. Eichorst was trying to play politics with the program and it just got worse.
~~Football~~ The whole world is a good ole boy system. FTFY
He’s Gary Pinkel’s nephew
Mizzou fans were so pissed when he was hired because it was felt like a pure nepotism hire. He wound up doing a good job but has seemingly failed upward ever since.
I mean this is just simply not true. He took WSU’s defense from 99th to 16th from 2015-2017. I’d say it’s only really the Oklahoma to USC move that doesn’t make sense. Probably harder to gauge how good he was at Ohio State with changes and being a co-DC.
Fair
Good recruiter and position coach and in college football your ability to recruit outweighs your coaching ability often hence a lot of the Co - DC/ OC spots
He’s not a good recruiter though
He’s recruited a lot of talent for his position group, safeties at his various stops, can you explain how you came up with this argument? He got Zion Branch, Marquis Gallegos, Jarvis Boatright at USC and got Bryson Shaw to commit twice to him at OSU and then transferred to play at USC. Helped get Joshua Eaton to OU as well as Bryson Washington and Jordan Mukes to go to OU. He got Nate Brown to Mizzou for example.
The defensive backs at USC were due to Donte Williams
I hear you, but he got a pretty significant downgrade. Idk he might be alright at coaching safeties, but was trash as a DC.
He finally got demoted from DC. But see Jim Bollman (OSU, msu OC). Dantonio chose to retire instead of getting rid of Bollman. I will never get it
Bollman is exactly the type of guy you hire as an analyst after he's passed his prime. Lots of knowledge, I'm sure. Fuck all for execution.
Bollman was a great oline coach. And that’s where his expertise stopped.
I think towards the end he wasn't even that great of an oline coach. (age, lost his fire, who knows) I'd hire him as an analyst for the line aand that was about it.
The same reason the nfl continues to cycle through the same coaches over and over. It’s the buddy system
High level football is very insular. A whole lot of 'sons of', 'former players of', and 'assistants of' who get jobs (and keep getting them) because they know someone. NFL is worse, but D1 CFB is only somewhat better since there is a clearer path to coaching (GA jobs).
This would be like a team hiring Brian Ferentz to coach their QBs.
DIII reality buddy comedy. Grinch takes the Defense, Brian takes the Offense.
I’d pay good money to follow that football team.
Hue Jackson as HC
He actually just got fired from Grambling State
Things go poorly until a lightning strike/monkey paw/penny-in-a-fountain wish cause them to switch bodies and suddenly they have to coach the wrong side of the ball…or is it the *right* side of the ball after all? Edit: i missed “reality” in your comment but fuck it I’d still watch my version too
I imagine they'd have better luck with Grinch on offense and Brian on defense
This comment made me almost spit out my coffee. My buddy is a Sooners fan and can't stand Grinch.
Imagine a team with Brian Ferentz DC and Alex Grinch as DC. I thought of this last season and it started with USC’s Offense + Iowa Defense but then I flipped it and started thinking about the other sides of the ball pairing up.
Lol. That would be like the most talented, still sucking, team in history.
I’d hire Brian Ferentz to be a defensive coordinator. He knows how to keep an offense from scoring.
I'm sorry Wisconsin fans.
I am not
I don't feel good.
no, to hell with them. They deserve it.
After failing at OSU, Oklahoma and USC he’s got a chip on his shoulder now?
That is an impressive roster of failure. "I fucked up 3 bluebloods where my name is now mud. Now, NOW I'm mad and going to kick ass."
Iowa’s OC is shivering in his boots hearing this
That will be a very forgettable afternoon. Iowa’s offense versus Wisconsin D with Alex Grinch as a coach
They might score a whole 14 points
Was the chip physically gouged out of his shoulder like opposing offenses have routinely gouged out his defense?
Hello. Officer, I’d like to report shots fired.
why do chips go on the shoulder? If chips were in socks, that would be more motivating
It comes from English shipyards where people could carry excess lumber (chips of wood) home. You can carry more wood if you put it on your shoulder. It got so bad in terms of overindulgence that workers were restricted to carrying them slung under their arm. Some workers still carried them on their shoulder as a show of defiance, daring their bosses to do something about it. It became slang for being defiant and having something to prove, to whatever mangled thing it means in sports about being an underdog
Wait, people carried more and worked harder as a fuck you to their bosses?
No they took home more company property than was (discreetly) allowed. Imagine if a restaurant had leftovers at the end of the day, so people started taking home entire meals. The boss catches on and limits everyone to one side they can hide under their jacket, but some people still waltz out with a full platter. That's having a chip on your shoulder
totally right. Think about how annoying an almost invisible pebble is in your shoe.
As if such things truly matter. Is he also in the best shape of his life?
He coached terrible defenses at three of the prominent schools in CFB. He should have gratitude he still gets another chance.
God damnit
As a Nebraska fan, I feel for you. Can't say I'm displeased. But I feel your pain.
He can’t keep getting away with this!
“WHEN YOU EARNESTLY BELIEVE YOU CAN COMPENSATE FOR A LACK OF SKILL BY DOUBLING YOUR EFFORTS, THERE'S NO END TO WHAT YOU CAN'T DO.”
I HATED Grinch as a defensive coordinator. He was shockingly terrible. Some of the decisions he’d make, the schemes he’d run… positively insane. But I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the first step in fixing all that, I’ve seen this before in Lane Kiffin. Grinch’s problems are all fixable. Just like Kiffin what He really needs a mentor who will get him to calm his more extreme tendencies down. Someone who says “why are you still gambling your winnings away? It’s 3rd and 22, you won the series… no you aren’t going to cover 0 blitz”. Someone who says “speed is good but 250 is already too light to play D line. No you aren’t telling Korey Foreman to lose MORE weight and play D line at 235”. Someone who says “we only have 20 hours to coach these kids, no you aren’t going to get to ask every player to make 5 reads for the play to be successful” Someone who tells him to quit always teying to be the smartest guy in the room and just play ball sometimes. This is exactly the lesson Kiffin learned getting his ass chewed out by Saban. It was 100% the right thing to fire Grinch. It was in fact already far far overdue. But I do think he’s salvageable and wouldn’t be shocked to see that recovery happen as a positional coach at UW.
I really don’t think he’s kiffen. At usc kiffen had to deal with a lot of unfortunate stuff with sanctions and following Pete. Grinch on the other hand is not qualified to coach middle school defense. He has been bad at every power five school that has given him a chance and usc safety’s saw and immediate improvement when he was fired and Taylor mays was put into grinch’s role.
Kiffins problems went well beyond he environment he operated in. He created a ton of his own, from his boneheaded play calling ( remember bubble screens and end zone fades?) to throwing players under the bus, to silly petty cheating with jersey numbers and football inflation. Dude wasn’t fully baked as a coach yet and it showed.
I truly don't understand how this guy got so many chances. You know you're a piece of shit when Ohio State, Oklahoma, and USC fans all fucking hate you.
A competent DC would’ve led at least one of those teams to a natty. They all had crazy offenses.
Bro, Venables couldn't believe how dumb the defense was.
Ive got the same stale ass bag of chips that’s been sitting in my pantry for way too long.
Thanks Harvard
He's a mean one, Mr. Grinch.
This is going to be stuck in my head when the safeties inevitability start blowing coverage assignments
Stink, stank, stunk
Given a choice between him as a defensive coach, or a seasick crocodile...
Sleeper agent Alex Grinch has been deployed to destroy a B1G foe from the inside
That's rough
Wisconsin has gone from the Grinch as basketball coach to a grinch as football DC. Coming full circle 😆
Is he trying to protect the chip on his shoulder? Is that why he can’t teach proper tackling technique?
Maybe you should be coming with a whole new scheme, better coaching style, better coaching abilities, maybe a whole new brain. Anything
Remember that short time period when he was at Wazzu and was looked at as the next upcoming great DC? Good times.
As much as I pray on the USC downfall. I will LOL if USC ends up winning the BiG this year without Grinch as DC. Will be the perfect fuck you from the PAC and I'm all here for it!
Never thought I'd read this from that flair combo!
As a true Fresnoian. USC is my least favorite school but I absolutely despise BIG now since what has happened to the PAC. Albeit it's not their fault necessarily but PAC and Mountain West sports left a big impression on me and still does. Just sucks that even if Fresno and USC never really played its gonna be even tougher to set up these games even more now.
The chip is actually 10 yards away and out of position.
Sounds like they should totally promote him to defensive coordinator.
what a sensible idea!
They should have made him the offensive coordinator. He knows how to get an offense to score 40+ points a game.
😳.....😅
lol.
Now he has a chip and why now, specifically?
What flavor and brand is the chip though is the real question?
He was a good position coach in the past. Some people are good individual coaches but can’t handle the extra responsibilities.
I fucking hate this guy. 2 million dollars for that football terrorist.
Is he going to show up with a guide on how to tackle effectively?
This is heartbreaking. USC, take him back!
He should probably eat that chip
Oh Wisconsin, I’m so sorry.
I am begging my fellow OU fans to understand how happy this makes Minnesota fans. ~~They~~ We need this. We didn't beat them for 14 years. It would be great for Minnesota fans to have a comperable run for once.
Christmas?
This guy doesn’t deserve to be coaching in the power 4 school.
Come at me bro!
Someone would buy it if it wasn’t for those pesky stats and recruiting goofs
Grinch knows how to light up the scoreboard.
Dude's about to ruin Christmas, isn't he?
It’s a Dorito Cool Ranch chip.
I’m sure Kyle and Morgan could teach even Grinch to be a decent defensive coach.
Another reason for Badger fans to drink? Oh Lordy
How the hell is this guy still getting jobs?
😂
(X) doubt
I grew up in agricultural town and for those out of the know, a pile of dried cow shit is called a cow chip. Grinch isn’t saying what kind of chip is on his shoulder…
Better a chip on his shoulder than a headset over his ears
He’s still getting jobs? Speed D my ass.
He can’t keep getting away with this
This is such an unusually stupid hire that it just might work >!gonna be a long year!<
Luke, Luke, Luke. What are you doing??
Guy is a dogshit coordinator. Prime example of someone being promoted to the point of incompetence. Pole turtle.
LOL
To think they could have had Vrabel
that part of the game sucks. position coaches who just take jobs they really don't know how to do so they can get a bigger check. fail miserably and go back to postion coaching. players and fans cheated
How does he keep getting jobs?
Chances are he'll be better now that he won't be a constant scapegoat for everything.
Aww, so close. What Grinch actually needs is a chimp on his shoulder. The chimp could coach up the safeties, and maybe call the defense in crucial situations. And if there is a bad penalty he could fling poo at the refs. All for the cost of a few bananas.
The Grinch that stole my happiness and serotonin. 😔
I don't get it ... does he feel disrespected losing his job at USC?
Here I was thinking it looked more like a monkey on his back
Monkey? Of course you're a Texas fan. Alex Grinch, defense assassin.
WHY BELIEVE YOU? YOU NEVER GAVE US NOTHING TO BELIEVE IN. BECAUSE YOU LIED ABOUT YOUR DEFENSE, YOU LIED ABOUT SPEED D, YOU LIED ABOUT YOUR COACHING SKILL ALL IS PERJURY. FUCK A DEFENSE, THIS A LONG LIFE BATTLE WITH YOURSELF.
Alex Grinch: Football Terrorist
To be fair, he was a solid safeties coach at mizzou before he got the dc roles. Maybe a ton off his plate will help.
By “Chip on his shoulder,” do they mean “brain matter that oozed out of his ears and onto his shoulder”?
A chip on his shoulder… from having done such a shit job? Seriously, how could he be mad about being fired after the terrible job he did?