USC’s bye week arrives with the Trojans still very much in the College Football Playoff picture, and the path ahead is loaded. Lincoln Riley’s team is 6-1 after a 31-23 win over Penn State at Beaver Stadium, one of the biggest victories of his five-year run in Los Angeles. Now comes the stretch drive: five regular-season games, three of them against ranked opponents, and every one of them carrying weight.
If you sort USC’s final five by difficulty, the softest landing spot is obvious. Maryland comes to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Senior Day, and the Terrapins are sitting at 2-4 overall and 0-3 in Big Ten play entering Week 7.
The article also notes that, by season’s end, Mike Locksley is likely out of a job depending on how Maryland finishes. USC is expected to send its seniors out in style with a double-digit win on Nov.
The next notch up is Wisconsin, where the Trojans return from the bye for an Oct. 24 trip to Camp Randall Stadium. The Badgers have opened some eyes at 4-1 and 2-0 in Big Ten play, with wins over Penn State and Michigan State, and they head into a primetime road game against No.
12 UCLA with plenty of momentum. Even with Luke Fickell’s recent struggles, Camp Randall remains one of the conference’s tougher places to play, and USC will be feeling that environment for the first time.
Wisconsin also showed last season that a rough record doesn’t mean a soft punch, knocking off No. 21 Illinois and No.
23 Washington despite finishing 4-8. With a better roster this year, the Badgers will be aiming to make the Trojans sweat.
Then comes UCLA, and that one has plenty of juice beyond the usual Crosstown Rivalry edge. The Bruins are unbeaten at 5-0 and up to No. 12 in the AP Top 25 after their 17-15 upset of previously No.
13 Oregon in Week 6. New coach Bob Chesney has flipped the script fast, which gives this matchup a different feel even before you get to the playoff implications.
If both teams keep winning elsewhere, this game could matter a great deal. Nico Iamaleava being out for the rest of the season helps USC’s chances of keeping the Victory Bell for a third straight year, but UCLA still has Wayne Knight, Anthony Woods, and Jaivian Thomas in the backfield, and that group will test USC’s run defense.
One of the biggest road hurdles sits in Bloomington on Nov. 14, where USC meets No. 5 Indiana for the first time as Big Ten opponents.
The article says the Halloween game with Ohio State could shape how much this one matters, but there’s no mistaking the challenge. Indiana is the defending national champion and still viewed as one of the sport’s top teams despite some flaws, with Josh Hoover directing the offense and help around him from Nick Marsh, Charlie Becker, and Turbo Richard.
And that Halloween matchup at the Coliseum may be the game that tells the most about USC’s ceiling. Two of the Big Ten’s best offenses are set to collide, but the matchup is just as much about Gary Patterson and the Trojans’ defense getting its toughest exam of the season. USC’s defense has shown improvement, but the secondary still has issues, and that becomes a major problem when Julian Sayin and Jeremiah Smith are on the other side.
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 🡒]