USC heads into Saturday’s showdown with Washington carrying plenty of pressure and a long injury list.
The No. 18 Trojans were dealt a damaging 41-27 loss to No.
15 Oregon in Week 4, their fifth straight defeat in the rivalry, and the result left their College Football Playoff hopes badly dented. Now Lincoln Riley’s team gets a chance to steady things at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum against a Huskies team that arrives with its own fresh disappointment.
USC did get one boost against Oregon with the return of sophomore defensive end Jahkeem Stewart, but the Trojans were still missing several key pieces. Among the absences was freshman wide receiver Trent Mosley, who has sat out the last two games with a knee injury. Wednesday’s Big Ten availability report laid out the current injury picture as USC prepares for a game that now feels like a must-win.
The timing could hardly be more important. Fans are already frustrated after another double-digit loss, and Riley knows the easiest way to calm the noise is simple.
"By winning, just by winning," Riley said. "Look, we didn't get run out of the stadium. There's a lot of good things on that tape, there's a lot of young guys making a lot of plays, there's a lot of good on that tape."
"You don't have a chance to win like that if you don't do some things pretty well. We gotta capitalize on those and we got to attack the areas we gotta be better at.
We got another great opportunity to do it here Saturday against Washington. We're ready for them," Riley continued.
This is only the second game in a brutal six-game stretch for USC, and the road gets no friendlier after Washington. The Trojans still have Penn State on Oct.
10, Wisconsin on Oct. 24, No.
5 Ohio State on Oct. 31, and No. 6 Indiana on Nov.
That stretch will go a long way toward defining USC’s season and its place in the playoff conversation. The Trojans’ closest brush with the CFP came in 2022, when Caleb Williams powered Riley’s first USC team to an 11-3 finish. Two of those losses came against Utah, and the year ended with a 46-45 Cotton Bowl loss to Tulane.
Washington comes in needing a reset of its own after a 27-24 home loss to Minnesota. The Huskies opened 3-0, but the start was padded by two underwhelming wins over Washington State and Utah State before the loss to the Golden Gophers exposed some of the same issues.
USC’s defense will have its hands full with Demond Williams Jr., who has thrown for 1,129 yards, seven touchdowns and three interceptions while completing 69.3 percent of his passes in four games. He was sacked seven times against Minnesota, and the Trojans will look to make life miserable again with Jahkeem Stewart, Luke Wafle and Jide Abasiri up front.
The Trojans are 9.5-point favorites, according to DraftKings Sportsbook, with kickoff set for 4:30 p.m. PT at the Coliseum. NBC will carry the game.
In Other News...
USC Quarterback's Response To Dante Moore Injury Has Oregon Fans Talking
The late sequence between USC and Oregon turned into more than just a targeting call when Dante Moore stayed down after a hit by linebacker Desman Stephens, who was ejected from the game. In the aftermath, USC quarterback Jayden Maiavas decision to remain nearby while Moore was being tended to drew attention, adding a human moment to an otherwise heated Pac-12-style collision. Moore was later diagnosed with a concussion, though scans came back clean, and Stephens was suspended for the next game.
Maiava still had to finish the job on the field, and he did so with a strong day through the air, throwing for 326 yards and two touchdowns. Afterward, he also made clear he was sympathetic to what Moore went through, a response that has resonated beyond the box score and given Oregon fans plenty to discuss after a rivalry-type matchup that ended with both injury concern and disciplinary fallout. [Read more 🡒]
USC Is Suddenly Leaning On A Freshman More Than Expected
An injury to Trent Mosley has pushed Kayden Dixon-Wyatt into a much bigger role than USC likely envisioned for a true freshman this early in the season, but the wideout has handled it with the kind of production that changes expectations fast. Against Oregon, he turned in his second 100-yard game, catching seven passes for 114 yards and a touchdown while earning an 81.0 Pro Football Focus grade for Week 4.
Through four games, Dixon-Wyatt now leads the Trojans with 25 receptions, 272 yards and three touchdowns, a striking start for a player still getting his footing at the college level. The bigger question for USC is no longer whether he can contribute, but how much of the passing game will continue to flow through him as the schedule moves forward and the Trojans adjust to life without Mosley in the mix. [Read more 🡒]
USCs Big-Budget Vision Is Facing A Credibility Test Already
USCs push to modernize the program has been one of the defining stories of the Lincoln Riley era, and it has been easy to see why the school poured so much into the effort. Early in 2023, the Trojans overhauled their personnel operation with Chad Bowden leading the new staff, added assistant coaches, and opened the Bloom Football Performance Center, all of it aimed at giving the program a more comprehensive, forward-looking foundation. The early returns were encouraging enough to justify the investment, with recruiting rankings trending upward and the win total improving in 2025.
But the selling point of a big-budget rebuild has always been credibility on the field, and that is where the conversation has started to turn. The loss to Oregon, along with persistent defensive issues, has made it harder to separate the long-term plan from the week-to-week reality, and it has put Riley under a more skeptical microscope. For a program that has been trying to show it can operate like a heavyweight again, the next stretch matters less for optics than for whether the overhaul is actually producing the kind of football USC says it is building. [Read more 🡒]