The Sports Report: Lincoln Riley has complete confidence in Alex Grinch

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From Ryan Kartje: After a dismal end to the season for USC’s defense cast some doubt on his coordinator’s future, coach Lincoln Riley has elected to stay the course with Alex Grinch.

Riley made that decision official Tuesday, offering a vote of confidence in his defensive coordinator amid pleas from frustrated fans who spent the last week calling for his ouster.

“I know what he’s made of,” Riley said of Grinch. “I know what’s getting ready to happen defensively. And so, I just have a confidence and a belief there, not just in Alex, but the other guys in the room.

“I’ve been through it enough with that guy to know, don’t bet against him.”

The final month of USC’s season had offered little reason for optimism about the direction of its defense. USC allowed nearly 2,000 yards over its final four games, unraveling at the most inopportune point of its season.

The defense was dominated by Utah in the Pac-12 Conference title game, erasing any hope of what had been an improbable run to the College Football Playoff. But the nadir didn’t come until last week, when USC fell to Tulane in the Cotton Bowl, giving up more than 10 yards per play as the Trojans relinquished a 15-point lead in the final five minutes.

In the lead-up to that defeat, Grinch was asked how much he believed USC’s defense had accomplished in his first season as coordinator.

“The answer is, ‘Not enough,’” he said. “You’re charged with having a championship-level defense at USC. You signed up for that. We played good enough defense 11 times. We didn’t play good enough defense two times, but I don’t take a lot of solace in that. We were expected to have a championship-level defense, and we weren’t able to do that in the ’22 season.”

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CHARGERS

From Jeff Miller: His coaching seat has gone from sizzling to soothing to who knows what’s next, Brandon Staley experiencing a coach’s lifetime in the span of barely a month.

From 6-6 to the AFC’s top wild-card spot, Staley has steered the Chargers into the postseason by avoiding an on-field calamity and ignoring an off-field cacophony.

“A lot of people outside the building have opinions about what should happen inside the building,” defensive lineman Morgan Fox said. “But they don’t know what goes on inside the building. You have to give all the credit for this to Coach Staley and his staff.”

Behind a steadiness and an authenticity cited by several of his players, Staley has this franchise in the playoffs for the first time since the 2018 season. The Chargers travel to Jacksonville for a wild-card game Saturday night against the AFC South champion Jaguars.

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CHARGERS POLL

How far will the Chargers advance in the NFL playoffs? Click here to vote. Results will be in Friday’s newsletter.

NFL PLAYOFF SCHEDULE
All times Pacific
Wild-card round
Saturday
Seattle at San Francisco, 1:30 p.m., FOX, FOX Deportes
Chargers at Jacksonville, 5:15 p.m., NBC, Peacock, Universo

Sunday
Miami at Buffalo, 10 a.m., CBS, Paramount+
New York Giants at Minnesota, 1:30 p.m., FOX, FOX Deportes
Baltimore at Cincinnati, 5:15 p.m., NBC, Peacock, Universo

Monday
Dallas at Tampa Bay, 5:15 p.m., ESPN/ABC, ESPN2-Manningcast, ESPN+, ESPN Deportes

RAMS

From Gary Klein: As the Rams wait on coach Sean McVay’s decision about his future with the team, Liam Coen made one of his own.

Coen, the Rams offensive coordinator this season, is returning to Kentucky as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, the school announced Tuesday.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Coen was expected to receive a lucrative multiyear contract to again call plays for a program that flourished when he was on the staff in 2021.

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CLIPPERS

From Andrew Greif: Last week, after a fifth straight Clippers loss, there was no team meeting held in the visitors’ locker room inside Minneapolis’ Target Center. There were no grand pronouncements between players.

But there was one voice that cut through the quiet of a losing streak.

Four years after reserve guard Norman Powell played with Kawhi Leonard on a championship team in Toronto, Powell saw “championship DNA” in the Clippers, too. Judging by the team’s comments throughout training camp, as talk of a title swirled, everyone had. But when it had yet to translate into any discernible consistency amid a 21-20 start Powell, frustrated by the losing, spoke up.

“I talked to the team, I told them like, ‘This team is deeper than the Raptors team I was on, it’s all about identity and who we are and how we’re going to play,’” Powell said. “I feel like every team goes through it, if you look back at championship teams and top teams there’s always a point in the season where you get here. And we’ve been here a couple times for whatever reason it is and it’s just, gutting up and taking it and coming out of it.”

On Tuesday, two days after losing a double-digit fourth-quarter lead to Atlanta but believing they had witnessed a step forward in their process after a new starting lineup, and new rotations, led to a spike in energy and defensive intensity, the six-game losing streak ended against Dallas at Crypto.com Arena as a Clippers transformation began.

Playing without Paul George (hamstring) and Luke Kennard (calf) yet again but utilizing the same reshuffled starting lineup and revamped bench lineups for a second consecutive game, the Clippers led by as many as 23 in a 113-101 win while looking like the kind of team Powell described hours earlier – no matter who is on the court, he said.

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LAKERS

From Dan Woike: Russell Westbrook was one of the few people inside the building on Jan. 9, 2021, the day Thomas Bryant hit the floor in Washington, the sound of him slapping the court in frustration and his pained howls echoing in an otherwise empty arena during the pandemic.

His anterior cruciate ligament was torn, the 6-foot-10 center’s season over and the momentum he’d been building over the previous two seasons with the Wizards violently skidded to a stop.

Westbrook knew he had a job to do.

“I had to show him support, instill that the process starts the next day of changing your mindset to get ready for a comeback,” Westbrook said. “Regardless of what happened [to your knee], that’s over with. Yeah, you’re going to be pissed about it. But now, the process starts.”

Almost two years later, Bryant doesn’t believe any process has ended.

“I would say it would be just the start of it,” Bryant said after a recent win.

Forced to try to reclaim their season with Anthony Davis injured, the Lakers have turned to Bryant, and he’s responded with likely the best stretch of basketball of his career.

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NBA roundtable: Where Lakers and Clippers fit among season’s surprises and disappointments

KINGS

From Helene Elliott: The Kings’ dismissal of the Edmonton Oilers on Monday felt like much more than one of 82 games, more than a nice, dry place to go on a rainy night in Los Angeles.

It was a statement. It was the Kings at their best, doing good things big and small while they nearly silenced runaway NHL scoring leader Connor McDavid and got a superb performance from a penalty-killing unit that has sometimes sabotaged otherwise strong efforts.

“We feel really good right now,” Kings defenseman Drew Doughty said after their 6-3 victory at Crypto.com Arena, their ninth win in the last 12 games. “We see that when we play some of our best hockey, we can play with the best teams in the league right now. If we keep doing that, things are looking really good for us.”

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LAFC

From Kevin Baxter: When Carlos Vela left Spain for LAFC six years ago, he was clear about his goals: he wanted to win an MVP award and a league championship and break the MLS single-season scoring record, not necessarily in that order.

With LAFC’s MLS Cup win last November, he has done all three while adding a pair of Supporters’ Shields along the way. But rather than satisfying him, that success has made Vela ever hungrier heading into a new season next month.

“When you get the trophy, you feel all those positive things, that energy, the enjoyment to win a trophy. [So] you want more, you want to be in that position again,” he said during Tuesday’s MLS Media Day. “We’ll have more tournaments, more chances to win trophies, so we’ll prepare to get more.”

In fact, no MLS team will be chasing more hardware this season than LAFC, which will play in the CONCACAF Champions League as well as the U.S. Open Cup, the inaugural Leagues Cup and the two MLS competitions.

“Last year it was it was a special year. Incredible,” midfielder Kellyn Acosta. “But that’s last year. This year has its own challenges. Talking about five tournaments in one year, it’s a lot of football. But we have sights on winning some more trophies.”

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Chicharito, Carlos Vela and Alan Pulido weigh in on future of Mexican soccer

THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1970 — The AFL wins its second straight Super Bowl as the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Minnesota Vikings 23-7 behind Len Dawson’s superb quarterbacking and Jan Stenerud’s three field goals.

1973 — The American League adopts the designated hitter rule.

1981 — Jim Plunkett completes 14 of 18 passes for 261 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Oakland Raiders to 34-27 victory over the San Diego Chargers for the AFC title. The Raiders are the first AFC wild-card team to advance to the Super Bowl.

1984 — The Denver Nuggets beats the San Antonio Spurs 163-155 in the highest-scoring regulation NBA game.

1987 — Denver’s John Elway leads the Broncos to a 23-20 overtime victory over the Cleveland Browns to win the AFC Championship. Elway caps a 15-play, 98-yard march with a 5-yard TD pass to Mark Jackson to tie the score with 37 seconds remaining. Rich Karlis kicks a 33-yard field goal in overtime to give Denver the win.

1992 — Kristi Yamaguchi, runner-up the previous three years, wins her first title in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Christopher Bowman, the 1989 U.S. champion, wins the men’s title.

1998 — Lleyton Hewitt, an Australian high school student ranked 550th, wins the Australian Men’s Hardcourt Championship to become the lowest-ranked player to win an ATP Tour event.

2004 — Detroit allows 100 points for the first time this season, but the Pistons were still able to outlast Dallas 115-102. Detroit has its NBA-record streak of not allowing 100 points snapped at 38 games, including 36 this season.

2009 — Philadelphia, led by Donovan McNabb, eliminates the New York Giants 23-11 to reach the NFC title game for the fifth time in eight seasons. This is the first game in NFL history to finish 23-11.

2011 — Toronto beats San Jose 4-2 to give Maple Leafs’ coach Ron Wilson his 600th win. Wilson becomes the seventh coach to reach the 600-win milestone.

2014 — LeGarrette Blount rushes for 166 yards and four touchdown as the New England beats Indianapolis 43-22 to advance to their third consecutive AFC championship game. Blount joins Ricky Watters, who had five touchdowns for San Francisco on Jan. 15, 1994, as the only players with four or more in a playoff game.

2014 — Gracie Gold wins her first U.S. figure skating title and 15-year-old Polina Edmunds finishes second. Charlie White and Meryl Davis win a record sixth straight U.S. ice dance title — one more than American ice dance pioneers Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto.

2014 — Alex Rodriguez is dealt the most severe punishment in the history of baseball’s drug agreement when arbitrator Fredric Horowitz rules the New York Yankees third baseman is suspended for the entire 2014 season as a result of a drug investigation by Major League Baseball. The decision cuts the suspension issued Aug. 5, 2013 by baseball Commissioner Bud Selig from 211 games.

2015 — Roger Federer beats the up-and-coming Milos Raonic 6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-4 to register his 1,000th career match and win the Brisbane International. Federer is the third player to win 1,000 times on the men’s pro tour’ joining Jimmy Connors (1,253) and Ivan Lendl (1,071).

2015 — Green Bay rallies from an eight-point deficit behind Aaron Rodgers, who throws two second-half touchdowns to beat Dallas 26-21 in an NFC divisional-round playoff. The Packers are helped by a video challenge with 4:06 remaining. Dez Bryant’s leaping catch at the Packers 1 on fourth-and-2 is reversed by referee Gene Steratore after Green Bay challenges. Instead of first-and-goal for Dallas, the ball goes to the Packers.

2016 — No. 2 Alabama wins its fourth national title in the last seven seasons, outlasting the dynamic play of Deshaun Watson and No. 1 Clemson in a 45-40 victory in the College Football Playoff championship game.

Compiled by the Associated Press

And finally

Highlights from Monday’s college football title game. Watch and listen here.