Aydin Breland doesn’t need a scouting report on USC from a distance. The Oregon defensive lineman knows the Trojans, knows the Coliseum, and knows exactly what No.
12 Oregon is walking into for its road matchup with No. 20 USC.
The Southern California native said Tuesday that the challenge starts with Jayden Maiava, one of the Big Ten’s most efficient passers and the conference’s passing leader during the 2025 season. Oregon’s defense has had trouble getting quarterbacks on the ground, especially the kind who can extend plays with their legs, and Breland pointed directly to that trait when talking about Maiava.
“Just his ability to make plays. He'll have a lot of pressure on his face and he'll scramble and he'll still find a way to throw it and get the ball downfield and they'll come up with the catch. So we just got to do our best in caging him and rushing him effectively," said Breland.
For Oregon’s front, the answer is simple in theory: stay disciplined, trust the plan, and don’t let Maiava escape into second-chance throws. Breland said he feels good about where the Ducks are structurally as long as they keep their eyes right and their gaps clean.
“I feel like we've schemed it up pretty well," Breland said. "We just got to keep watching film and just everybody has to be dialed on our game plan and just know the looks we're getting. And just like I said, be gap disciplined and sound and play our brand of football.”
That message carried through the rest of his comments, whether he was talking about Oregon’s practice week, the Trojans’ run game, or the way the Ducks are approaching the pass rush. Breland said the team had its “typical Bloody Tuesday,” with the focus squarely on USC and the work leaning physical and run-heavy.
"We kind of had our typical Bloody Tuesday. Obviously, it was SC focused.
Just a physical practice, a lot of run focus. Just getting the look on USC, you know what I'm saying?"
Breland also made clear this trip means something personal. He said he has not played in the Coliseum before, but returning to Los Angeles carries extra weight because of his family and where he grew up.
"I haven't played in the Coliseum before this. It means a lot going back home, though.
I got a lot of family members from the city. I grew up down there.
I grew up down there quite a bit, and it just means a lot being able to have a lot of my family come down and have the opportunity to play in front of them. So, it's pretty exciting."
The Ducks’ defensive line, Breland said, is locked in on the same mission every week: get after the quarterback as a unit and make life miserable for whoever is under center.
"We're focused on just rushing as a group and just trying to assault the quarterback. So we're just trying to get better at that every week in practice, and hopefully it shows up."
On USC’s offense, Breland said the Trojans have shown plenty of counter and a physical edge up front, along with backs who are patient and difficult to bring down. Oregon’s job, he said, is to stop the run first and make Maiava work under pressure.
“From what we've seen so far, they run a lot of counter and they look to be pretty physical up front. They have some patient backs, have some good running backs. So we're looking to just stop the run and just try to affect the quarterback as best as possible.”
He also pointed to protection schemes as a key part of the matchup, saying USC leans heavily on sliding help and limiting straight-up one-on-one chances.
“I'd say just police protection having a lot of one polarizes and just having to deal with the full sliding and all that. You know, not really having a lot of one-on-ones in protection, but when we do get it, we got to win our one-on-ones.”
Breland’s path to Oregon also came up, and he traced it back to the first offer he received from the Ducks when Mario Cristobal was still in charge. He said Oregon stayed in the picture after Cristobal left, and by then USC and UCLA were not the schools that stood out to him the way Oregon did.
“In my recruitment process, Oregon was actually the first school to offer me back when Mario Cristobal was here. So they were kind of on board from the jump.
But then when Mario Cristobal left, I think I got re-offered or reintroduced to the new coaching staff in probably, I want to say like my freshman year. And back when I was a freshman, I wouldn't say SC was really like a big school or like or same with UCLA or nothing like that.
So this is the school I wanted to go to if it was to stay on the West Coast and stay home. So that's why I'm here.”
Breland said the matchup feels personal for Oregon’s Southern California contingent, even if he framed it as a broader West Coast rivalry.
“I guess you could call it a rivalry between the two bigger teams on the West Coast, I guess if you want to say that. But I feel like it's personal for us because we have a lot of kids from Southern California, including myself. So it's personal to a lot of the guys on the team.”
He said the tone around the Ducks has changed too, with practice becoming sharper and more demanding.
“The attitude's changed. The attitude of practice has changed.
The accountability with our players has changed and our coaches has changed. Everybody is coming to practice and we're coming to play, and it's not lackadaisical practice anymore.
It's not hee-hee-ha-ha. Everybody's getting straight to business, and if it doesn't look right, we've been making sure that it does.”
And when Breland circled back to the football itself, the formula stayed the same: play physical, hold up against USC’s counter game, and win the battles in front of the quarterback.
“Just being physical up front, you know what I'm saying? Like I said, playing the counter game because they run a lot of counter, being patient when we strike our - being patient on our gaps because their backs are pretty shifty, and just playing up front together, you know what I'm saying?”
For Breland, the trip home is part football, part family reunion, and part business trip. He has been to USC games before, he said, and he knows exactly what it means to line up there with Oregon.
“Watching games, I've been to a couple USC games in my fair share. A couple USC games growing up, whether it was football or whatever events were there.
And it's just great to go back there and be able to play, like I said, in front of my family because I have a lot of family in the city. I live like 15, 10 minutes away.
So it would just be a great opportunity to play there.”
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For USC, the timing matters. The Trojans are set to see Oregon in Week 4, and that matchup now carries a little extra weight as the Ducks try to climb back in the College Football Playoff conversation. A win over a team still trying to steady its title hopes would give USC its own boost in the national discussion, while Oregon will be aiming to show the kind of response that sportsbooks and voters tend to notice. [Read more 🡒]