Trash talk has become part of the routine at USC, and the Trojans are leaning into it as they get ready for a massive matchup with No. 6 Indiana.
Defensive tackle Jahkeem Stewart has already earned the team’s unofficial crown as the best trash talker in the room. The vote came earlier this season, and running back Waymond Jordan said the choice was clear.
“It was a unanimous decision,” running back Waymond Jordan said with a laugh. “We all like to have fun. It’s a competition; it just makes practice more energetic, and you just go out there and get better.”
For USC, the chatter is more than just noise. It has become part of the way the Trojans sharpen themselves during a week that was originally a bye but got renamed a “standard week.” With first-team offense going against first-team defense in more intense drills, the edge in practice has been obvious, and the verbal jabs have come right along with it.
Center Tobias Raymond described the balance USC is trying to strike.
“There’s a fine line of having fun, but being locked in,” center Tobias Raymond said. “I’m talking trash, like trying to get them fired up to go hard to the next play.
“Like, let’s get after it right now. Let’s go after it and go out there and play and get each other better.
It’s trying to egg each other on, like, oh, I’m gonna beat you right now. And he says it back - whatever it is - just try to egg each other on to push each other to be the best we can.”
The Trojans have also been using a new sound system on the practice field, installed to help them get ready for the kind of crowd noise they’ll face away from home. The constant back-and-forth in practice is supposed to make that transition easier.
“We talk so much trash to each other that when somebody else on the other team talks, it doesn’t really bother us,” Jordan said. “We talk so much trash, but we all laugh and have jokes. We talk trash to anybody, even on our own side of the ball.”
That confidence will matter this weekend. USC enters the game at 7-2 overall and 4-2 in the Big Ten, while Indiana is 8-1 and 5-1.
The Hoosiers are also the current 10-point favorites and bring the conference’s best rushing defense into the matchup, allowing just 75.56 rushing yards per game and 2.29 yards per carry. Their 183.7 yards allowed makes their passing defense No. 4 in the conference.
Jordan said the Trojans are ready for the challenge.
“It’s our time to surge and just keep getting better every week,” Jordan said. “And just going out there and proving it.”
USC’s availability report didn’t bring any major surprises, though tight end Walter Matthews is listed as “questionable.”
Indiana will be without starting running back Turbo Richard, who is listed as “out” after leading the team with 745 rushing yards and six touchdowns. Richard had dealt with an ankle injury earlier in the season.
Quarterback Josh Hoover was not on the availability report, which will be updated on Thursday and Friday and again two hours before kickoff on Saturday. Hoover was injured in his throwing arm against Ohio State on Oct. 17 and was replaced by Grant Wilson in the next game against Minnesota. Head coach Curt Cignetti has not announced a starter for this week.
“We’ll see how the week plays out, and we’ll see who we trust out there,” Cignetti told reporters on Monday.
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