A new facility, a new defensive coordinator, a fresh wave of talent - USC has spent the offseason stacking up reasons to believe 2026 could look different. But the pressure sitting on Lincoln Riley hasn’t budged an inch.
Twelve years into the College Football Playoff era, and still no USC appearance. Even after the tournament expanded to 12 teams in 2024, the Trojans have yet to break through, which only sharpens the spotlight on Riley as he heads into his fifth season.
“We are more equipped than at any point in the previous few years,” Riley said at Big Ten Media Days on July 28. “That’s not a hope or a wish; those are facts.”
That confidence has some backing. USC brings back a quarterback who put up massive numbers, adds one of the country’s top recruiting classes, and now operates out of the $200-million Bloom Football Performance Center, which the program moved into just weeks ago.
Jayden Maiava is the centerpiece on offense. The redshirt senior passed on the NFL Draft after a 2025 season that had its rough edges - seven interceptions in the Trojans’ four losses, including two in a stunning Alamo Bowl loss - but also established him as one of the best quarterbacks in the country. He threw for 3,711 yards and posted the highest total quarterback rating in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
“Of all the guys that I’ve been fortunate enough to coach, I don’t know that I’ve had any that have improved from day one to this point as much as Jayden has,” Riley said, noting that he has coached three Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks. “It’s been fun to see him grow as a leader and really start to embrace what it means to be the starting quarterback at USC.”
The challenge for Maiava is that the targets around him have changed. Ja’Kobi Lane and Biletnikoff Award winner Makai Lemon are gone to the NFL, leaving USC to rebuild that receiver production with a different cast. NC State transfer Terrell Anderson and four-star freshman Kayden Dixon-Wyatt join returning sophomore Tanook Hines in that group, while four-star freshman tight end Mark Bowman is expected to be a regular part of the lineup.
There’s more continuity in the backfield. Redshirt senior Waymond Jordan and redshirt sophomore King Miller give USC a familiar one-two punch at running back, with Miller having taken over as a starter after Jordan’s season-ending ankle injury last year. Both are expected to play meaningful snaps again this season.
The offensive line was supposed to be intact, with all five starters back, until Riley announced Aug. 6 that redshirt senior center Kilian O’Connor would miss the entire 2026 season because of a “non-contact freak injury.” That leaves USC sorting through options at center, with redshirt junior Tobias Raymond and redshirt sophomore Kaylon Miller among the candidates.
If offense has generally been a strength, defense has too often been the drag. USC has improved in total defense each season since 2023, but last year it still finished No. 13 out of 18 teams in the Big Ten. That’s why so much of the attention now lands on Gary Patterson, the new defensive coordinator Riley called a “one-of-one” coach.
“I’ve never coached against somebody that I thought was more unique and tougher to go against than Gary Patterson,” Riley said July 28. “They don’t put ‘College Football Hall of Famer’ behind your name for nothing.”
Patterson inherits a defense with some pieces in place. Redshirt senior defensive tackle Alex VanSumeren, a three-star transfer from Michigan State, joins the line, and Riley said the group has “more talent and more depth than at any point in my time at ’SC.”
The secondary is also in transition. With Bishop Fitzgerald and Kamari Ramsey off to the NFL, senior Christian Pierce is set to lead a unit in which he has already appeared in 36 games over the last three seasons. Transfer redshirt senior Jontez Williams, who spent four years at Iowa State, is expected to start at cornerback.
The schedule will tell the rest of the story. USC’s first major checkpoint comes Sept. 26 against Oregon, the team that ended the Trojans’ playoff hopes last season. Then comes Ohio State’s first trip to Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum since 2008 on Oct. 31, followed by a Nov. 14 visit to Bloomington, Indiana, to face the reigning champion Hoosiers.
If USC survives that stretch, the road to the postseason looks a lot cleaner. The regular season ends with the crosstown matchup at UCLA on Nov. 28, a game that could decide whether the Trojans finally get into the CFP conversation for real.
Riley knows the stakes by now. He also knows this is as promising a setup as he has had at USC.
“The alignment and momentum within the program is real. It’s palpable.
We feel it, our recruits feel it, our team feels it, our fanbase feels it,” Riley said. “That’s how it should be at USC.”
In Other News...
USC Finally Gets Its Notre Dame Rivalry Back In A New Form
After more than two years of negotiations and plenty of uncertainty created by USCs move to the Big Ten, the Trojans and Notre Dame have settled on a new way to keep one of college footballs signature rivalries alive. The schools announced Aug. 3 that they will resume the series starting Aug. 31, 2030, with a four-year agreement that keeps the game in its familiar early-season slot and gives both fan bases a clear reason to circle future calendars.
USC will host the first meeting at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 2030, then again in 2032, while Notre Dame Stadium gets the return games in 2031 and 2033. It is not the old annual setup, and the broader scheduling picture still reflects the realities of conference realignment, but the agreement at least restores a rivalry that had been left hanging while both sides worked through the logistics of making it fit again. [Read more 🡒]
Zuriah Fisher Offers An Early Read On USCs New Defensive Identity
USCs defense is trying to look and play different in 2026, and the early signs of that makeover have come from a group that barely knew each other a few months ago. Gary Patterson is steering the new-look unit, and the Trojans have supplemented it with five transfer additions, including former Penn State defensive end Zuriah Fisher, whose five years of Big Ten experience gives him a useful frame of reference for what this group wants to become.
Fisher has also been part of the push to add more edge and toughness up front after getting back on the field following a minor camp injury. From his vantage point, the defense is already showing progress in the areas Patterson has emphasized, with the young players especially beginning to settle into the standard USC wants to set. The bigger question now is how much of that early physicality can hold once the real pressure starts. [Read more 🡒]
USC Heads Into Game Week With One Roster Battle Suddenly Heating Up
USC wrapped up its final full on-field practice before game week with a session that felt a little more sharpened than the ones that came before it. The Trojans worked through positional drills, special teams periods and plenty of visible coaching on the field, while players like Prophet Brown and RJ Sermons talked about health, versatility and the way the roster is settling as the season opener gets closer.
The most notable development came in the trenches, where a roster battle that had been quiet earlier in camp suddenly looks a lot more interesting. With the opener approaching, USC is trying to sort out depth and roles without any major new injury concerns in the picture, leaving the coaching staff with a cleaner look at how pieces fit together heading into game week. [Read more 🡒]