Four games into Lincoln Riley’s fifth season at USC, the Trojans still look a lot like the team people have been trying to figure out for years.
They’re 4-0, sure. But the real test starts now, with No.
20 Oregon coming to town on Saturday, Sept. 26, and a Big Ten schedule that won’t offer many soft landings after that. For a program with USC’s brand, the noise is never going away.
The Trojans are one of college football’s biggest magnets for attention, and every stumble gets amplified even more because of the history, the expectations and the sheer size of the stage they’re playing on.
USC has put real money behind trying to turn that attention into results. The school opened a brand-new $225 million facility in early August and has upgraded its NIL collectives to help build rosters that can keep up with the rest of the country.
The resources are there. The mandate is there, too.
The only goal that really matters is reaching the program’s first College Football Playoff.
But the same issues that have dogged USC before are still hanging around. The defense has already shown its fragility, and not just with backups.
In week 0, San José State got into the Trojans’ reserves and third-stringers late. Louisiana did something similar in week 2.
Then came Rutgers, USC’s first road game and first Big Ten game, and the problems followed the Trojans there too.
After safety Christian Pierce intercepted a pass on Rutgers’ opening possession, USC still spent most of the night fighting its own defense. The Trojans gave up 460 yards and barely escaped with a 42-35 win over a Scarlet Knights team that had already lost to UMass and Boston College. Gary Patterson is the third defensive coordinator under Riley, but the end result has not changed much so far.
That kind of showing won’t survive long in Big Ten play. Winning on the road is part of the deal now, especially in games with real weight attached to them.
The conference is full of hostile buildings and long travel. West Coast schools feel that grind differently, but they signed up for it when they joined in 2024.
USC has looked far more comfortable at the Coliseum than away from it over the past two seasons, and that has to change with Penn State and Indiana still looming on the road schedule.
The injury list has only made things harder. USC dealt with significant injuries in its first Big Ten season in 2024, and injuries cost them again in 2025. This fall has brought more of the same.
Freshman receiver Trent Mosley is out for the foreseeable future after a knee injury against Louisiana. Against Rutgers, Corey Simms took a low hit, immediately grabbed his left knee and was visibly in pain before limping to the sideline. Early reports out of USC are not good, and Jayden Maiava may now be without two of his starting receivers.
The concerns don’t stop there. Defensive lineman Jahkeem Stewart still hasn’t played this season because of the same foot injury that affected him last year.
Riley said the sophomore could have played in week 2 and had been a full participant in practice the week before Rutgers. In the secondary, cornerback Jontez Williams missed almost all of the second half, and nickel Alex Graham left in the first half.
Both could be in question this week.
So while USC was never going to erase every doubt in its first four games, it also didn’t help itself. Now comes the chance to say something real about this team. Oregon is in the way.
The Ducks have stumbled in some of their biggest moments, but they’ve still been the West Coast’s standard-bearer over the past decade. They’ve beaten USC seven times in the last eight meetings, including a 42-27 win in Eugene last November. If the Trojans are going to climb back toward the kind of standard they had in the Pete Carroll era, they have to get through Oregon.
This one carries plenty of headline material: Lincoln Riley vs. Dan Lanning, Jayden Maiava vs.
Dante Moore, USC vs. Oregon.
Patterson, too, has a chance to make an imprint in what amounts to a second act in a Hall of Fame career.
And there’s more than pride on the line. A win would give USC a real boost in the College Football Playoff race. It would also hit Oregon where it hurts, since the Ducks already took a loss to Oklahoma State in week 2.
In Other News...
Oregon Just Lost A Receiver Its Passing Game Really Needed
Jeremiah McClellans foot injury landed at an especially awkward moment for Oregon, which had been counting on its starting wide receiver to help stabilize the passing game. The setback happened during warmups before the game against Portland State, and head coach Dan Lanning later confirmed McClellan broke his foot and will be out indefinitely. For a Ducks offense still trying to find its rhythm, losing a key perimeter target this early changes the picture quickly.
Oregon has already started leaning on other options to absorb the extra workload, with Messiah Hampton and Iverson Hooks among the receivers getting chances to step up. That creates an immediate test for the depth of the room and for how well the Ducks can keep the passing game on schedule without one of its more important pieces. How quickly the new rotation settles in may end up shaping the next stretch of the season. [Read more 🡒]
Dan Lanning Had A Strong Answer For Oregon Blowout Critics
Dan Lanning spent part of this week trying to put Oregons lopsided win over Portland State in context, and his explanation was straightforward: the Ducks were willing to shorten the second half to 10-minute quarters, but Portland State declined. Once the game continued, Oregon kept its starters out after halftime and turned the rest of the afternoon over to backup players, giving them a chance to get meaningful game experience in a game that was never in doubt.
There was still a human side to the blowout beyond the score itself. For some Ducks, including Akili Smith Jr. and Brady Bidwell, the matchup carried personal moments that mattered inside a game otherwise defined by the criticism around the margin. That is the part Lanning seemed intent on emphasizing, even as the outside conversation kept circling back to how much running up the score really happened. [Read more 🡒]
Oregons Early Transfer Returns Are Raising One Uncomfortable Question
Through the first three games, Oregons transfer-portal haul has looked less like a roster overhaul and more like a mixed bag wrapped into a team that has leaned heavily on returners and younger players. The Ducks brought in help with clear expectations, but the early returns have varied from player to player, with some settling into useful roles and others still searching for a real foothold in the rotation.
For a program that has used the portal as part of its roster-building plan, the uncomfortable question is whether the additions have actually changed the shape of this team enough. Oregon has gotten more dependable production from familiar faces than from its new arrivals, and the next stretch will tell whether that is just an early-season snapshot or a sign that the Ducks may need more from the transfer class to match their bigger ambitions. [Read more 🡒]