Rece Davis isn’t ready to shut the door on USC’s College Football Playoff case.
The ESPN College GameDay host still sees the Trojans as a live contender for one of the Big Ten’s playoff spots after they went into Penn State’s White Out and came out with a 31-23 win on Oct. 10. USC is now 6-1, and Davis said on The Pat McAfee Show that he still believes the conference can send three teams to the playoff.
“I haven’t lost total faith in USC yet,” Davis said during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. “That was a big win for them on the road against Penn State.”
For Davis, the location mattered as much as the result. He pointed to USC’s struggles in East Coast road games and said this one carried real weight.
“I know Penn State’s struggling, but Lincoln Riley’s had all kinds of trouble in the Eastern time zone,” Davis said. “You go to the East Coast, you win in the White Out. Really big win for them.”
The win came before 114,419 fans at Beaver Stadium and gave USC a much-needed boost after a difficult Big Ten stretch. Penn State, now 3-3 and 0-3 in conference play, still forced the Trojans to finish a tense game in one of the loudest environments in the sport. USC head coach Lincoln Riley called it one of his “favorite wins” and said afterward that his group is only scratching the surface.
Davis has been on this USC bandwagon for a while. He picked the Trojans as his surprise playoff team in late August with quarterback Jayden Maiava leading the way, and last week he warned that USC should be careful about making a coaching change.
His broader view of the Big Ten race is simple: the middle will sort itself out. Davis said his theory is “not exactly rocket science, but if you’re not good enough, a loss will find you.”
“If you’re not elite, you’re going to lose to somebody that maybe you shouldn’t because you have to bring your A-game to beat the better teams,” Davis said.
He’s much more settled on the top of the conference. “I feel very certain about who two of them will be, and they play Saturday in Bloomington,” Davis said.
That matchup features No. 4 Ohio State at No.
5 Indiana at noon ET Saturday on Fox. Indiana beat Ohio State 13-10 in the 2025 Big Ten Championship Game, and the Buckeyes’ only loss this season came at Texas in Week 2.
USC’s path to staying in the mix is still there, but it’s not forgiving. The Trojans stumbled in their Big Ten home opener, falling 41-27 to Oregon on Sept. 26 in their fifth straight loss to the Ducks. They bounced back with a 25-21 win over Washington before heading to Happy Valley.
The schedule after the bye gives USC a chance to keep Davis’s optimism alive. The Trojans go to Wisconsin on Oct. 24, host Ohio State on Oct. 31, travel to Indiana on Nov. 14, host Maryland on Nov. 21 and finish at UCLA on Nov. 28.
If USC can beat Wisconsin, Maryland and UCLA while splitting the Ohio State and Indiana games, Davis’s playoff math would still hold. That would put the Trojans at 10-2 with a top-five win on the résumé.
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 🡒]