LOS ANGELES — A few days remain before his defense's long-awaited debut at USC, but Alex Grinch's vocal cords have already been through the ringer. What's left of his voice comes out hoarse and gravelly. By this point in his career — entering Year 20 and his fourth stop as defensive coordinator — testing his vocal limits is such a time-honored tradition that Corbi, Grinch's 10-year-old daughter, calls out dad's disappearing voice as a sign the season is near.
"I like to bark. I just do," Grinch said. "I think anyone can draw lines on a board and call themselves a coach."
On this subject, USC's new defensive coordinator is particularly blunt. He knows plenty of coaches say the right things, pontificating on toughness, on physicality, on discipline. Whether they actually do what's necessary to instill those ideas, he suggests, is sometimes another story.
