USC got the result it wanted on Saturday. The atmosphere inside the Coliseum? That told a much different story.
The No. 14 Trojans rolled past San José State 42-26 in Week 0 of the 2026 college football season, giving Lincoln Riley his 10th straight win in a season opener.
On the field, USC looked sharp across the board. Jayden Maiava had full command of the offense, the freshman class flashed immediate promise, and new defensive coordinator Gary Patterson appeared to settle in quickly.
But while the Trojans were handling business, a large portion of the historic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum sat visibly empty, and the optics were hard to miss during a nationally televised NBC broadcast.
There were reasons for the thin crowd. The game kicked off at noon Pacific in temperatures in the 90s, and the Coliseum offers no shade. The opponent also didn’t exactly scream must-see event: San José State entered after a 3-9 season, and USC was a 38.5-point favorite at DraftKings Sportsbook.
Still, the turnout drew attention because USC students were already back on campus for fall classes by Monday, Aug. 24, and tickets were reportedly cheap enough that the barrier to entry was lower than a fast food meal. The Coliseum’s capacity is 77,500, and USC averaged 67,782 fans across its 2025 home schedule. Last season’s opener, a 73-13 win over Missouri State, was announced at 62,841, and early-season attendance later became a talking point when the weather turned punishingly hot.
Riley has been open about what it takes to consistently fill seats in Los Angeles. After USC’s final Big Ten regular-season game in 2025, he laid it out plainly:
“I understand that Los Angeles is a place that people aren’t going to show up just because. You have to win.
You have to give them something. And when you do, there’s no better sports town," Riley said.
"Those moments in the Coliseum, us playing well, the crowd going crazy, like those are important, man, because every one just gets better. This year was better than last year, and then next year is going to be better, even better than this, and it's just going to keep growing and growing.
I just think it shows that this city is excited about the Trojans again. And you feel that.
Our players feel that. Our recruits feel that," Riley continued.
That’s the backdrop for USC in a city packed with options. The Trojans are competing for attention and dollars against the Dodgers, Lakers, Rams, Chargers and plenty of other teams, which means there’s no shortage of competition for the LA sports fan’s time.
“Great programs have a great home field advantage. It’s worth a lot in this game.
And that didn’t exist here for a little while. It does now," Riley said.
USC is clearly trying to build that edge back, but Week 0 didn’t exactly deliver the kind of packed-house image the program wants to project.
The good news for the Trojans is that the home schedule should bring more eyes and more energy later in the year. Oregon and Ohio State both come to Los Angeles, and ESPN’s College GameDay could be along for the ride. When those games arrive, the Coliseum should look very different.
USC also carries a deep footprint in the building. Entering the 2026 season, the Trojans had played 661 games at the Coliseum, the third-most by any program in its home stadium.
Only Georgia Tech at Bobby Dodd Stadium, with 735, and Tennessee at Neyland Stadium, with 664, had played more. USC’s total includes six victories later vacated by NCAA penalties.
On this sweltering August afternoon, against an overmatched opponent, there were plenty of understandable reasons for fans to stay away. USC still came away with an encouraging win - even if the scene in the stands wasn’t the one Riley and the Trojans are hoping to see more often.
In Other News...
USC Just Got Another Reminder It No Longer Looks Like An Elite Program
USCs place in the national conversation has become a little easier to measure by who is missing from the preseason spotlight. The Trojans did not place a single player on the USA TODAY Sports preseason All-America college football team, a list that leaned heavily toward the sports familiar heavyweights from Oregon, Ohio State, Indiana, Georgia and Texas. For a program that still carries a blueblood name, it is another sign that the market no longer treats USC like one of the sports defining powers.
The bigger concern is how often this sort of reminder keeps arriving for a team that has not reached the College Football Playoff in 12 seasons and now heads into a pivotal 2026 campaign under Lincoln Riley. USC is still being measured against the standard set by programs such as Ohio State and Oregon, but the preseason rankings suggest it has work to do before it can claim that tier again. For a fan base used to thinking in championships, the gap between reputation and reality is becoming harder to ignore. [Read more 🡒]
USC May Have Found A New Weapon Sooner Than Expected
USCs 42-26 win over San Jos State offered an early glimpse of a player who may have arrived sooner than expected. True freshman Trent Mosley caught seven passes for 118 yards in his college debut, becoming the first USC freshman since 2014 to clear 100 receiving yards in a first game and giving the Trojans another dynamic option to watch as the season unfolds.
The performance came on a day when USC was also sorting out its leadership structure, naming Tobias Raymond, Kilian OConnor, Alex VanSumeren and Jayden Maiava as permanent captains for the season. OConnor is currently sidelined by injury but remains part of that leadership group, while the program also unveiled the Progressive Insurance logo on the field as part of a multiyear sponsorship agreement, another sign of how much is changing around the team even as Mosleys emergence grabs the attention. [Read more 🡒]
USC Freshman TE Is Drawing A Comparison Trojans Fans Will Notice
Mark Bowman has barely gotten his USC career underway, but the freshman tight end is already generating the kind of buzz that tends to follow special talent. After a quiet debut in which he had limited production, Bowman still left enough of an impression for college football analyst David Pollack to point to his potential, which is exactly the sort of early conversation Trojans fans like to hear about a young pass-catcher in their system.
The comparison gaining traction is one USC supporters will recognize quickly: Brock Bowers. The former Georgia star piled up a rare college rsum, winning two national championships and the Mackey Award twice before heading to the Las Vegas Raiders, and an SEC coach reportedly sees some of that same upside in Bowman. For a freshman just beginning to carve out his role, being mentioned in the same breath as Bowers says plenty about the ceiling USC thinks it may be working with. [Read more 🡒]