USC defensive breakdown: How the Trojans are exceeding expectations

LOS ANGELES — It’s been a strange few weeks for the narratives that have developed about USC. The Trojans are 6-0 and No. 7 in the country as they prepare for one of their most critical challenges of the season — a road trip to 20th-ranked Utah.

The popular notion about USC is that the team is all offense with little-to-no defense. Except in two of the biggest games of the season to date — Oregon State and Washington State — the offense didn’t really take flight, and the defense sparked both of those victories.

The eye-test (and some metrics) create understandable cause for concern. The Trojans lack ideal depth, and they get gashed in the run game far more often than you normally see from a top-10 team. But they play hard, make plays, are No. 2 in the country in takeaways and lead the Pac-12 in scoring defense.

So as USC heads to Utah, which ranks 14th nationally in scoring offense (40.3 ppg), I’ve enlisted the help of esteemed colleague Diante Lee, who writes for our NFL desk and has a great eye for X’s and O’s (and is an admitted USC fan), for his assessment on the Trojans defense so far and what to expect from them this week and as the season progresses.

Antonio Morales: Diante, thanks for doing this. You’re someone who watches USC closely and knows plenty about the defense. This defense looked like it could be legitimately bad after the first few weeks. But in two of the past three games, it’s been objectively good. What’s been your takeaway from what you’ve seen from USC on that side of the ball?

Diante Lee: Antonio, I appreciate you inviting me to talk about USC with you. The Trojans defense has been an interesting watch through the first half of the college football season, and I’m not sure that I always mean that to be a compliment — but it’s been just good enough to maintain a zero in the loss column thus far. I think the last couple of weeks have been confirmation of some truths we’ve always known in this sport: Pass rush and turnovers will patch over some structural issues. Playing defense that way forces you to live in a world of high variance, though, and a team like Utah is built to test your play-to-play consistency.

That's 𝐇𝐈𝐌. @pac12 Defensive Player and Defensive Lineman of the Week…@TuipulotuTuli 😤✌️ pic.twitter.com/lMEyRSzdg7

— USC Football ✌️ (@uscfb) October 10, 2022

Morales: Yep. Even within games, the defense is a roller coaster sometimes, playing much better in the second half than it does in the first half. When watching USC’s defense, what are some things that stand out to you when things are going well for the unit? And on the flip side of that, what do you notice most when it’s struggling?

Lee: I think the good and bad are tied together — without having access to the all-22 to make definitive evaluations, of course. Defensive coordinator Alex Grinch liberates his front four guys to be aggressive and tear up the field with speed or stunts. When defensive linemen get a jump on the snap, or the right stunt is called, you can generate enough penetration to stop an offense in its tracks. On the other end, it puts a good deal of stress on the players at the second level to clean up vacated areas, and a disciplined running game can take advantage of that aggression. I think that’s part of the reason that Eric Gentry and Shane Lee have looked up and down at different points this season.

Another issue I’ve noticed early in games is how often USC seems to be playing with light boxes, especially on first and second down. Against a team like Washington State, I think it served as a worthwhile gamble because Cameron Ward was forced to hold the ball long enough for the pass rush to get home. In the Oregon State game, the defense was gashed by outside zone runs before forcing some much-needed turnovers in the second half. I’m curious to see whether things will be different against Utah.

Morales: Speaking of Grinch, what have you thought of the work he’s done this season? He did some good stuff at Washington State and improved the defense at Oklahoma but never reached a real elite level. USC’s had to work in a bunch of transfers, replace almost the whole secondary and work around a lack of depth in the defensive front. So he didn’t walk into an ideal situation personnel wise.

Lee: I certainly want to be fair in my evaluation of all things USC in Year 1, because this kind of roster turnover is unprecedented. As for Grinch, he’s always done well with getting the most out of his pass rushers — Hercules Mata’afa as the standout example at Washington State. His system can get you to a baseline level of production, especially with pass rush and turnovers, which we’ve seen manifested in USC’s season to this point.

I don’t know what the ceiling of this particular USC defense might be, but I will note that this team seems to be improving in coverage each week on the perimeter. It was unlikely that this unit would have the interior dominance to stop the run without blitzing, so if the current trend of pressure and takeaways is the stamp of the 2022 Trojans, that’s an unequivocal success.

Morales: Agreed, especially on the coverage part. I think that’s been a major improvement from last season. Credit to Ceyair Wright. He’s progressed much quicker than I expected, and Mekhi Blackmon has been extremely steady for them.

As far as individuals go, Tuli Tuipulotu generates most of the headlines on this unit since he’s posting impressive stats and is disruptive. Is he the most impressive player to you on this defense or has anyone else caught your eye?

Lee: Tuli Tuipulotu has to be the consensus standout player on this defense, and people who’ve been watching USC for the last few years certainly saw this coming. It’s impressive to see a 290-pound guy who’ll spend his pro career as a defensive tackle win on the edge as a pass rusher and run defender, and he’s been the guy to make plays up front when USC has needed it.

Max Williams has been another interesting chess piece for Alex Grinch this season, third on the team in solo tackles and a guy that’s logged snaps in all kinds of roles for this defense. Not only has his production been a major contributing factor against all of USC’s opponents, Williams is laying the groundwork for USC to go out and help blue-chip recruits visualize themselves fitting into that nickel/safety mold that every elite defense needs to have in the spread era.

Morales: Williams has been banged up throughout the course of his career — two ACL tears in the past four years dating back to high school — and there were questions about his size, but the previous coaching staffs were always extremely high on his football IQ and his toughness. So it’s been cool to see him: 1) healthy and 2) making the most of his opportunity because it’s been a long road for him.

My last two questions for you pertain to the Utah game. If you’re USC’s defense, what’s your focus this week against Utah? Obviously, there’s the Utes’ power run game and the tight ends, which the pass game seems to revolve around.

The USC offense wasn’t as explosive in wins over Oregon State and Washington State. It seems like some opposing defenses — or ones with the secondary to hold up — have decided to keep everything in front to take away the big play, which has made them a bit vulnerable in the running game, and that’s allowed Travis Dye to have some big games. So if you were an opposing DC facing USC’s offense, what would be your strategy?

Lee: This Utah game is going to be the test of USC’s defensive identity. I think we all know Utah has spent a generous amount of time watching how much trouble Oregon State gave them with multiple-tight end sets, and that lines up with what the Utes do best. Alex Grinch is going to have to make peace with his defensive backs being on the proverbial island in order to load the box at all costs. My biggest concern has less to do with the scheme and more to do with personnel. USC, frankly, is not the biggest defense by height/weight measurables — and games like this can expose size deficiencies. The hope is that the Trojans can stop the run without blitzing because that’ll protect them from giving up explosive passes off of play action.

If I’m facing USC’s offense, I’m sticking to the blueprint that you laid out: Someone other than Caleb Williams is going to have to beat my team. Taking away the big plays, especially on early downs, leads to more third-down situations where passing the football is evident, and that’s where some of USC’s opponents have found success — taking advantage of an offensive line that still needs work to reach the level Lincoln Riley expects. Travis Dye will be a key component this week if he can get loose for big gains early — and the more effective the run game is, the more likely you are to get the single high or blitzing looks Lincoln Riley has built this offense to exploit.

Morales: I’m really intrigued to see how Utah plays it. I remember back in 2019 when BYU gave out the book on how to try to stop USC when it had Michael Pittman Jr., Amon-Ra St. Brown and Tyler Vaughns (and a freshman Drake London): drop eight into coverage. Utah had a really good secondary that year, and the next week it came until the Coliseum and left those DBs one-on-one and begged those receivers to beat them and Pittman practically did it himself.

Utah kind of reminds me of a basketball team that has to control the pace and slow it down a bit more. We’ve seen teams get Utah into high-scoring affairs (Oregon State and Ohio State last year, UCLA last week), and the Utes have lost those games. USC won an ugly game at Oregon State, but I think its odds of winning are better if this turns into a shootout with both teams in the 30s. So it should be fascinating to see who could dictate that pace or tempo on Saturday.

(Photo of Eric Gentry: Keith Birmingham / MediaNews Group / Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images)