USC report card vs Arizona: Lincoln Riley, Alex Grinch both get an F

USC is 6-0, and that’s better than being 5-1 with the season basically being over. It would have been over if the Trojans had lost to Arizona. Let’s be real: USC is highly unlikely to beat both Washington and Oregon. The Trojans would do really well just to split those two games. Giving away a game to Arizona — which USC very nearly did — would have basically put USC in a position where the Trojans would have been unlikely to make the Pac-12 Championship Game.

Not making the Pac-12 title game this year would be a clear and unmitigated disaster.

Even with the win and the 6-0 record, USC isn’t fooling anyone. The Trojans are not convincing experts that they are an elite team.

They aren’t.

They have the potential to be elite, but they aren’t playing like it. That’s on the coaches. Let’s go through yet another report card in which the grades aren’t good.

This time, they’re even worse than they were against Colorado and Arizona State.

Let’s open up the envelope and hand out some (very bad) grades to the Trojans:

LINCOLN RILEY: F

Start with this simple point: USC is not improving. The team is regressing. Maybe it was never that good to begin with, given that it played easy opponents in the first three weeks of the season, but we’re clearly not seeing development in most players.

The other central point to make about USC: The Trojans, right now, are soft. They are not tough and physical. They are getting punched in the mouth.

Riley is also not running the ball when teams play a lot of defensive backs. He isn’t managing games well, as shown by the chaotic sequence at the end of regulation time.

His decision to not have a special teams coordinator looks worse after the bad snap on the field goal.

This is a mess … all while Brent Venables looks really good as the head coach of Oklahoma, figuring things out and creating a very physical Sooner team in Year 2.

Riley has not coached well this season. When do we see some accountability and a true improvement in both attitude and performance?

ALEX GRINCH: F

USC’s defense was decent against the run in most games (not Arizona State) this season. Arizona changed that, gashing the Trojans and being physically tougher than the Men of Troy.

USC players, notably Bryson Shaw, said after the Colorado game that the players were letting down the coach. You would think the players would then play with passion and show they were better than what they were producing on the field.

Then they got kicked in the teeth by an Arizona squad which was more determined and focused. That’s how USC responded after a week of being questioned and doubted?

Clearly, Grinch doesn’t know how to get his players to play with appropriate force, focus, clarity, and toughness. There is no good reason to think any of this will be fixed.

CALEB WILLIAMS: C

He made important plays in big moments, and it’s important to realize that without Caleb, USC is probably 4-2 right now if not 3-3. He is still carrying this team. We’re not going to give him a D grade.

However, this was close to the 2022 Oregon State game in terms of Caleb being way off the mark and not finding any rhythm or consistency. Ball security was a problem at the end of regulation. Accuracy was missing.

He didn’t have much help from his teammates, but he still didn’t play an above-average game. He was average, and that’s a C.

MARSHAWN LLOYD: A

If you graded USC offensive players through the first six games of the season, Lloyd would actually get a better grade than Caleb Williams. He is always making important plays and putting this team in position to win. Lincoln Riley isn’t trusting him enough. In recent weeks, Lloyd has been the one player we can look at who is doing a great job and is rising above the mediocrity of his teammates. He is one player who is not the problem at USC.

DEFENSIVE LINE: D-PLUS

USC had been containing the run in the first five games of the season. It did not do so in Week 6. The defensive line regressed and got punched in the mouth for much of this game. Jamil Muhammad came up with some big plays, and the Trojans did briefly play well when they pulled off a 28-3 run for a 28-20 lead, but that’s a small bread crumb of quality in a stew of bad football. There’s no way to give this unit as much as a C. This was not acceptable.

LINEBACKERS: D

Linebackers are not making tackles at the point of attack. They are part of a defense which isn’t getting off the field on third down. Run support and pass coverage weren’t good, particularly in high-leverage situations. What else is there to say?

SECONDARY: D

Tackling wasn’t good. Coverage wasn’t good. Jacob Cowing of Arizona owned this secondary. The grade is not an F because Calen Bullock denied a 2-point play in overtime, and an interception enabled USC to come back from a 17-0 deficit. Overall, this group is not getting the job done, and it’s scary to contemplate what Washington’s elite receivers will do if the Trojans don’t improve quickly.

OFFENSIVE LINE: C-MINUS

This unit continues to not perform up to expectations. Caleb Williams continues to be hit at a rate we didn’t see last year. This group was outworked most of the night. At times it got really ugly for this line, and Justin Dedich had to leave the game. USC can’t afford to be without him.

The grade is higher than a D, however, because when the Trojans had to run block, they did better. Lincoln Riley needs to run the ball more when he sees Arizona or other opponents dropping guys back in coverage. Riley didn’t put his offensive line in position to succeed. Better play selection can improve how well the offensive line performs.

RECEIVERS: D

Receivers couldn’t get open. Jacob Cowing of Arizona got open. Tetairoa McMillan got open. Dorian Singer of USC did not get open against his former teammates. Singer has been an undeniable disappointment this season.

Brenden Rice and Tahj Washington made a few important plays, but that was pretty much it. We didn’t see a lot of guys catch passes. We didn’t see receivers help Caleb Williams in difficult situations, for the most part. This is usually a very reliable group, but it did not play with passion or effectiveness against an Arizona team which was simply hungrier throughout the game.

SPECIAL TEAMS: F

Story originally appeared on Trojans Wire