USC walked into Beaver Stadium and walked out with one of the biggest road wins of the Lincoln Riley era, a 31-23 victory over Penn State that quieted the whiteout crowd on Saturday night.
For Riley, it was the kind of result he had to have. Afterward, he said Saturday night’s win over the Nittany Lions was one of his favorite wins as a coach.
The Trojans got a major lift from their receivers, with Trent Mosley and Tanook Hines doing most of the damage. The pair combined for 13 catches, 193 yards and two touchdowns. Zacharyus Williams and Kayden Dixon-Wyatt added six receptions for 85 yards and a touchdown between them.
USC’s defense had its own big moments, too. It was not flawless, but it came through when it mattered, with defensive coordinator Gary Patterson calling the game from the booth. The defining play came late, when senior safety Christian Pierce recovered a fumble with 3:57 left to help USC drain the clock and close it out.
Penn State, meanwhile, keeps sliding. The loss marked the Nittany Lions’ third straight defeat, and Matt Campbell pointed to missed chances as the difference.
“I think we tried to have some multiplicity in terms of what we were doing, especially for the quarterback [Maiava]. I think from our end, how many different ways could we disguise coverage and especially post-snap, especially when it got under 15 seconds.
I think there was some thought process for us to be able to do that.” Campbell said.
“There were moments where it put us in some advantageous situations. I thought we the biggest killers were some of the third down opportunities that we weren’t able to finish on.
Getting them to those points and not finishing. Those were the killers,” Campbell continued
The Trojans’ offense kept finding answers on third down, and it did damage against Penn State’s three-man rush defense. That was enough to move USC to 6-1 and keep it in strong position for a College Football Playoff push with one loss.
Now comes a bye week, USC’s first of two this season. The Trojans opened the year a week early on Aug. 29, which created the extra break.
After that, USC heads back on the road to face Wisconsin at Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 24. Kickoff time and TV information for that Week 8 matchup have not been announced.
The stretch run is where things get serious. Three ranked opponents still stand in the way: No.
5 Ohio State on Oct. 31, No.
7 Indiana on Nov. 14 and No. 21 UCLA on Nov.
- Ohio State has one loss, while Indiana and UCLA are both unbeaten.
In Other News...
Penn State Just Hit A Breaking Point Matt Campbell Must Fix
The White Out was supposed to be one of those nights that lifts Penn State and turns a big-stage matchup into a statement. Instead, USC walked out of Happy Valley with a 31-23 win, and the mood in the stadium reflected it. By the final stretch, frustration had become impossible to ignore, with the kind of visible discontent that tends to follow a loss the program and its fans expected to avoid.
Matt Campbell did not try to minimize the disappointment, acknowledging that the performance fell short and stressing the need to keep improving and find a way forward. Tight end Andrew Rappleyea echoed that resolve, saying the focus has to stay on response rather than internal conflict. For a team with expectations that stretch far beyond one rough night, the question now is whether that message can steady things before the frustration lingers any longer. [Read more 🡒]
Penn State Fans Have Every Right To Question Matt Campbell's Decisions
Matt Campbells timeout management against USC will be one of the first things Penn State fans point to after a 31-23 loss that slipped away in the moments where every decision mattered. Campbell burned all five of his timeouts early, a conservative approach he has said is designed to avoid mistakes, but it left the Nittany Lions without any margin for error when the game tightened late.
The contrast was hard to miss because Penn State was otherwise willing to be aggressive in other areas, including on fourth down, yet the late-game sequence still tilted against it. A defensive penalty only added to the frustration and turned a situation that already demanded precision into another reminder that game management can decide as much as play calling. [Read more 🡒]
Penn State Has A Trenches Problem Fans Can't Ignore
Penn States trip to USC brought more of the same in a 31-23 loss, and the result left the Nittany Lions still searching for their first Big Ten win after a 0-3 start in conference play. There were some encouraging signs on offense, with quarterback Rocco Becht finding help from Chase Sowell and Andrew Rappleyea, but the good moments were too often undercut by a run game that never got going and third-down struggles that kept drives from breathing.
On the other side of the ball, the issues were hard to miss. Penn State had trouble finishing tackles and never generated enough heat on the passer, while special teams again did its job and gave the team a chance to stay around the game. The coaching staff also had a few designs that worked, but the bigger problem was the same one fans have seen too often lately: the line of scrimmage, where Penn State just is not controlling games the way a contender needs to. [Read more 🡒]