Will USC Football DC Alex Grinch replace Scott Frost at Nebraska?

After Clay Helton forced Nebraska to fire head coach Scott Frost, USC Football Defensive Coordinator Alex Grinch was immediately brought up as an option for the new job opening by ESPN's Pete Thamel. It's not the most surprising news, as many in the game like Grinch despite his defense at Oklahoma regressing last season.

Some USC fans like Grinch, too, so they may not like to hear Thamel include his name among 15 coaches who he thinks are options for the Cornhuskers. If anyone reading this happens to be one of those fans, don't stress. Here are the other names Thamel listed:

Matt Campbell, Mark Stoops, Dave Aranda, Bill O’Brien, Lance Leipold, Jim Leonard, PJ Fleck, Chris Klieman, Dave Doeren, Sam Pittman, Alex Grinch, Matt Entz, Bret Bielema, Jamey Chadwell and Troy Calhoun.

There are too many options for Nebraska to hire before they hire USC Football Defensive Coordinator Alex Grinch.

USC Football's DC, Alex Grinch, has never been a head coach before. Not only did Thamel list many names of coaches who have had head jobs before, but he even listed some particularly good head coaches.

For instance, Dave Aranda is coming off of a year where he won a Sugar Bowl in just his second season as a head coach. Believe it or not, the Huskers are going to go after him before Grinch. Sure, Grinch is respected by many in the game as a coordinator. But even then, Aranda is a National Champion at LSU as a defensive coordinator.

Mark Stoops is a heck of a name. He's turned Kentucky into a program that's ranked ninth in the country right now, and he's somehow won 10 games twice in the last four seasons with Kentucky FOOTBALL. Again, Nebraska's got options.

Sam Pittman's another coach who has his team (Arkansas) in the top 10 right now that Thamel listed. He's re-built Arkansas into a ranked team in back-to-back years.

Another guy on the list, Matt Campbell, is respected around the game quite a bit due to how he has somehow led Iowa State out of being one of the top laughingstock programs in the country. He's won three Big 12 Coach of the Year awards. Nebraska wants a coach like him over a first-time head coaching hire in Grinch.

Lots of these guys on Thamel's list will be looked into before Grinch, and they're hard to turn down. Of course, however, there's the chance that they all turn down the job. That may be less likely than some may think.

While Nebraska hasn't finished the season ranked since 2012, and hasn't made a Bowl Game since 2016, they still have quite a history and tradition of prior success. That's going to be attractive to a number of these candidates, and a lot of these coaches are going to want to coach for a university that takes football very seriously.

Especially if the coach is currently at a small program like Jamey Chadwell (Coastal Carolina) or Lance Leipold (Kansas). The Nebraska job, even at its current state, could at least be argued to be better than some of these small programs that some of these options are currently coaching at.

It's a clear upgrade over some of these coaches' current jobs, even with all the bad juju going around the Huskers for decades now. Grinch likely won't be high enough on Nebraska's list for him to be hired away from USC. If Grinch continues to force four turnovers per game for USC, then he may end up being a little higher in the pecking order. For now, he'll probably not be the guy for that job.