Saturday, Oct. 17 gives the No. 19 USC Trojans something they haven’t had since the season started: a real pause.
After grinding through a seven-game stretch, USC finally gets a bye week instead of a road trip or home game, and Lincoln Riley made it clear on Oct. 13 that he sees the timing as a plus. The Trojans’ head coach said the week off is already making a difference.
"It's going to help us a lot. It already has," Riley said.
"We definitely felt the impact of it. I mean, our team has our advantages and therefore, we're better because of it already."
Riley knows exactly what kind of wear and tear builds up when a team has been living in game mode for this long.
"That's the impact of it. It will be felt even more because when guys bodies start to wear down, all the reps and leaks start to stack upon one another and the ability to recover."
He also pointed to USC’s new Bloom Performance Center as a real weapon during the open week, saying it should help players make the most of their recovery time.
"Another piece of Bloom is it makes' guys' lives so much more efficient than what it was in the John McKay era," Riley said. "And you're also conserving time that you can put into your film study, into sleep and into your school.
It all adds up one way or another. Either in a good or bad way.
"And Bloom helps add it all up in a good way," Riley continued. "So well definitely lean on the recovery here throughout the week. And down the home stretch, for sure."
That matters even more with USC coming off a Big Ten opening run that included Penn State, Oregon, Washington and Rutgers. The Trojans have now reached the midpoint of the 2026 season, with five games left.
And the schedule only gets harsher from here.
USC returns to action with a trip to Wisconsin, where Camp Randall looms as one of the loudest places in the Big Ten and the country, right behind Beaver Stadium. The Trojans already showed they can handle a hostile setting with their performance at Penn State, but Wisconsin under Luke Fickell looks stronger now and could be 5-1 by the time USC arrives, especially if the Badgers hand UCLA its first loss of 2026 on Oct. 17.
That’s just the start of the late-season run. No.
4 Ohio State comes to Los Angeles on Halloween night with quarterback Julian Sayin and wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, two names that are already in the Heisman conversation. After that, USC goes to Bloomington to face defending national champion Indiana to open November.
And there’s still the possibility that rival UCLA shows up for the Nov. 28 matchup at the Rose Bowl unbeaten.
With that kind of finish waiting, the bye week lands at the right time for USC.
In Other News...
USC QB Publicly Stands Up For Lincoln Riley As Pressure Builds
As USC tries to steady itself after a rough stretch, Jayden Maiava has made it clear he is not buying into the noise around Lincoln Riley. The quarterback spoke up publicly on a podcast, backing his coach at a time when the criticism has only intensified and the Trojans are looking for some sense of footing. It was the kind of remark that tends to travel fast inside a program, especially when pressure is already hanging over the staff and the results have not matched the expectations.
Maiava said the outside criticism can serve as motivation for the group, a stance that fits the broader mood around a team trying to push through scrutiny rather than retreat from it. Riley, for his part, recently praised Maiavas poise and confidence in the Penn State game, a sign that the quarterbacks voice and presence carry real weight in the locker room. Whether that support is enough to quiet the bigger questions around the program is another matter, but it is clear the conversation around USC is not going away anytime soon. [Read more 🡒]
Lincoln Riley Sees One USC Issue That Still Needs Fixing
USC came away from its 31-23 win over Penn State with plenty to like, but Lincoln Riley is still treating the running game as a work in progress as the Trojans head toward their next road test at Wisconsin. There were useful stretches on the ground, yet Riley made it clear the offense has room to grow there, even with the confidence the players around that unit have shown in the backs and the offensive line.
The timing could work in USCs favor, with the bye week offering a chance to get healthier and sharpen the parts of the offense that have not yet settled in. For a team trying to build on a big win and carry it into conference play, the ground attack remains one of the cleaner areas to keep watching, especially once the Trojans get back to game speed in Madison. [Read more 🡒]
Lincoln Riley Outsmarted Penn State When USC Needed It Most
With USC clinging to its lead late against Penn State, Lincoln Riley turned to a formation that did more than just keep the offense on the field. The unusual look created enough confusion to force Matt Campbell to burn a timeout on fourth down, a small detail in the moment that carried real weight in a game where every possession felt strained and every decision mattered.
The sequence only got better for USC a short time later when Christian Pierce forced a fumble and the Trojans recovered it, setting up the closing stretch they needed to drain the clock in a 31-23 win. Riley's call was the kind of late-game chess move that can tilt a tight matchup, and on this night it helped USC finish the job when Penn State needed one clean stop and could not get it. [Read more 🡒]