Trojans

The walk-on took his place next to USC’s quarterback, the last man standing in a battered backfield. In the midst of a bruising Big Ten battle with Michigan, where brawn and ball control were at a premium, both of the Trojans’ top two running backs had already been carted up the Coliseum tunnel. Two of their top linemen, meanwhile, started Saturday in street clothes. The circumstances were anything but ideal for a team whose season hung in the balance.

King Miller, though, was already familiar with beating long odds. Not long ago, the redshirt freshman was buried on the depth chart, a preferred walk-on from Calabasas High without any obvious path to playing time at USC.

But that was before Saturday, before Miller saw a crease in the Michigan defense, before he took off on a breakaway, game-changing run that broke open the game and eventually lifted USC to a statement-making, 31-13 win over No. 15 Michigan.

It was a resounding victory for the Trojans, given how poorly they’d played in their loss to Illinois two weeks earlier, and for Lincoln Riley, who was just 3-11 against ranked teams prior to Saturday.

That the win came behind a back who pays his own way at USC only made it all the more impressive.

Miller had just two carries for 10 yards to his name, when Waymond Jordan, the Trojans’ leading rusher, hopped off the field in the second quarter, unable to put any weight on his foot. His next 16 carries, though, would go for 148 yards.

His outburst began with that breakaway early in the third quarter, as Miller slipped through a hole and took off, stutter-stepping his way past one Michigan defender and into the open field. Miller ultimately was tackled, only to punch in a touchdown two plays later.

USC tight end Walker Lyons makes a first-down gesture after catching a pass in the first half of the Trojans’ win over Michigan at the Coliseum on Saturday night.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

The score gave USC a 21-7 lead that it would never relinquish. But Miller wasn’t done with his breakout performance. He sprinted away for a similar, 47-yard gain on the very next drive.

The most encouraging developments came on defense, where USC bounced back from a disastrous defeat at Illinois to dominate Michigan and its standout freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood. After weeks of their secondary being picked apart, the Trojans held Underwood to just 207 yards on 15-of-24 passing. It was similarly stifling against the run, holding Michigan’s top rushing attack to a meager 3.5 yards per carry.

There were other positive signs Saturday too. For one, USC committed just three penalties, a season low.

Its offense, outside of Miller, has seen better days. Quarterback Jayden Maiava threw a bad interception in the red zone, when USC could have put the game away in the third quarter. Still, he finished with 265 yards and two touchdowns.

But this was the star walk-on’s night, begging the question: How long will it take USC to offer him a scholarship?

USC quarterback Jayden Maiava passes in front of Michigan defensive end Derrick Moore in the first half.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Before Miller burst onto the scene, it wasn’t clear how USC would look coming off the Illinois loss. But USC wasted no time asserting itself.

The Trojans marched down the field with ease on their opening possession. Jordan touched the ball six times, and Maiava completed all five of his passes, capping a seamless 11-play drive by hitting a wide open Ja’Kobi Lane in the end zone on a two-yard slant.

USC kept rolling on its next drive, until disaster struck and the momentum suddenly shifted. Just as the Trojans crossed into the red zone, threatening to bust the game open, tight end Lake McRee caught a pass over the middle and was popped by Michigan defensive back Jyaire Hill, who jarred the ball loose. The Wolverines recovered.

USC managed to withstand Michigan’s initial response, stopping an 11-play drive with a well-timed safety blitz on third down that pushed the Wolverines out of field-goal range. But a 14-play followup proved too much for the Trojans’ defense, which couldn’t stop Michigan’s ground game and gave up a tying touchdown to receiver Donaven McCulley.

With three minutes remaining in the half — and Michigan set to receive the third-quarter kick — USC finally kicked into high gear. It faced just one third down as it marched the length of the field. But with precious seconds ticking away, Maiava looked to the end zone where he found Makai Lemon, who leaped skyward to snag the pass between two defenders, then held on as he landed on his back for the go-ahead score.

USC, however, paid a price for that final scoring drive before the half. Jordan, the Trojans’ leading rusher, hopped off the field after a single carry, unable to put weight on his foot. He was eventually carted off the field, joining Eli Sanders, the Trojans’ other top back, who left the game in the first quarter.

But Miller seamlessly stepped into that void in the second half. He ripped off one big run, then another, sprinting his way into Trojan infamy in the midst of a statement victory.

USC wide receiver Ja’Kobi Lane celebrates after scoring a on a touchdown reception in the first quarter against Michigan.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The loose ball tumbled through the end zone, slipping through one set of fingertips, then another, blue-and-orange bodies clawing desperately aside cardinal-and-gold ones. So much had gone wrong for USC all afternoon, from its struggling secondary to its stifled pass rush to its inconsistent quarterback, but at the most critical moment in its season thus far, here was a particularly fortunate twist of fate, as linebacker Eric Gentry punched out a fumble and, somehow, some way, Christian Pierce had recovered it.

After a seamless 4-0 start to its season, the deck had seemed stacked against the Trojans all afternoon. Their starting left tackle was out. Their starting center soon joined him. Their top red-zone target was limited, and their defensive leader, Kamari Ramsey, was up all night puking.

For a while, that seemed to be the least of the problems facing USC on Saturday. The rushing attack couldn’t find room. Both lines were being blown off the ball, and the secondary was struggling to stop the bleeding. Then there were the self-inflicted mistakes, the very same ones that had marred the season to date.

All that, however, would be washed away with that loose ball in the end zone, the second fumble Illinois had coughed up that close to the end zone. A sliver of hope immediately turned to ecstasy as quarterback Jayden Maiava launched a rope to the corner of the end zone that found Makai Lemon for a go-ahead score with under less than two minutes remaining in the game.

But that hope was erased just as quickly, fading once again into the frustration, as Illinois drove the field for a game-winning field goal as time expired, beating USC, 34-32.

Illinois (4-1, 1-1 in Big Ten) gave the Trojans (4-1, 2-1) opportunities to take over the game. It fumbled on the goal line the first time just before halftime, and struggled to move the ball to start the third quarter.

Illinois quarterback Luke Altmyer (9) rushes for a touchdown during the first half in a win over USC.

(Craig Pessman / Associated Press)

But back-breaking mistakes continued to mar the Trojans on both sides of the ball. Driving with a chance to tie the score in the third quarter, Maiava threw an ill-advised pass over the middle that was intercepted.

USC’s defense forced a rare three-and-out on the next drive, only for its own offense to go three-and-out in response.

Illinois wouldn’t waste its opportunity after that, as Kaedin Feagin caught a swing pass, shook one USC defender, turned the corner and saw nothing but open field in front of him. His 66-yard touchdown would secure Illinois’ lead until that late fumble gave USC life.

The Trojans might have been in better shape before that if it weren’t for their defense, which struggled mightily throughout Saturday. USC gave up 502 yards and was generally picked apart by Illinois quarterback Luke Altmyer, who had 331 passing yards and two touchdowns.

The Trojans also struggled again with penalties, committing eight for 69 yards. The most crucial came on the final drive when cornerback DJ Harvey was called for a critical pass interference penalty.

USC’s quarterback was not exactly at his best on Saturday. Under more pressure than he’d faced all season, Maiava sailed several passes and missed multiple open receivers. He also threw his first interception of the season.

But he did make his share of eye-popping passes downfield, including hitting Lemon in the corner of the end zone for that 19-yard, fourth-quarter touchdown. Maiava finished with 364 yards and two touchdowns.

Lemon did his best to carry USC on his own, especially with Ja’Kobi Lane out because of an injury. He caught 11 passes for 151 yards.

From the start, it was a difficult day for the Trojans.

Just as USC started to find its stride early, Waymond Jordan burst through a hole on second down and lost control of the ball. The fumble, his second on an opening drive in three weeks, bounced right into the arms of Illinois defensive back Jaheim Clarke, and the Illini mounted a 10-play touchdown drive from there, striking with a 10-yard touchdown run from Altmyer.

In spite of the fumble, USC went right back on the ensuing possession to the rushing attack and Jordan, who punched in a one-yard score. But Illinois punched back with an even longer drive, capped by a trick-play touchdown from Altmyer.

USC pulled out a trick play of its own a few minutes later, as Jordan, running toward the sideline, tossed the ball to Maiava for a perimeter flea flicker. He immediately launched a pass downfield to Lemon, who juked two defenders out of their shoes on his way into the end zone.

But the 75-yard score was ultimately called back on account of backup center J’Onre Reed being too far downfield.

The penalty was nearly a devastating one. USC’s 13-play drive stalled just past midfield, as Maiava threw three consecutive incompletions, and the Trojans turned the ball over on downs. Illinois proceeded to march down the field, all the way to the USC two-yard line.

In desperate need of a break just before halftime, USC got a gift at the goal line. As Feagin tried to force his way through traffic, the ball came loose, and USC recovered.

The sequence was significant. Without enough evidence to overturn the call, the Trojans charged down the field in time to secure a field goal. What perhaps should have been a two-score lead for the Illini coming out of the half was instead just four.

Still, it proved too much for USC to overcome.

Through four games this season, Jayden Maiava has done just about all he could to dispel any lingering doubts about him as USC’s starting quarterback.

Maiava is averaging 12.7 yards per pass attempt this season, higher than any other quarterback in college football. His completion percentage has risen more than 11 points since last season (to 70.8%). He has thrown nine passing touchdowns, plus added four on the ground, and has yet to turn the ball over after throwing nine picks during the same number of starts in 2024.

Granted, during the Trojans’ 4-0 start, Maiava has yet to face a pass defense that ranks inside the top 100 in passing yards allowed per attempt. Nor has he or anyone on USC’s offense faced much in the way of adversity. The Trojans have scored more than 52 points per game and won their first four by an average margin of 32.

But the level of competition ratchets up this week. Each of USC’s next three opponents are ranked in the top 25, while three of its next four games come on the road, beginning Saturday with No. 23 Illinois, which was ranked in the top 10 before it was trounced by Indiana last weekend.

If USC has any hope of making the College Football Playoff, it’ll need Maiava to prove his fast start in September wasn’t a fluke. USC coach Lincoln Riley doesn’t want Maiava to change much from his first four weeks.

“Just keep doing what you’re doing,” Riley said.

USC quarterback Jayden Maiava evades a tackle attempt by Michigan State defensive back Armorion Smith at the Coliseum on Sept. 20.

(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)

“He’s been steady. He’s been in a good head space. There will be different challenges. You’re gonna have mistakes here and there. That’s where your experience is going to show up. We just need him to be the steady, efficient leader he’s been and keep playing really good, efficient ball. I think he’s in a really good head space to do that.”

Illinois hasn’t had much success rattling capable quarterbacks this season. Duke’s Darian Mensah threw for 356 yards and two touchdowns in Week 2, while Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza dropped five scores on the Illini secondary last Saturday. Injuries have only made matters worse for the Illini secondary as it lost All-Big Ten slot corner Xavier Scott to a potential season-ending injury, have one safety in concussion protocol and another cornerback in a walking boot. Two other defensive backs also exited Illinois’ last game with some sort of injury.

The stage is set for Maiava to make a major statement Saturday, in one of the marquee matchups of the week. Here’s what else you should watch for when USC plays to Illinois.

Makai Lemon came screaming across the center of the field, gliding past one Michigan State defender, then another, moving as if the world around him were in slow motion.

USC’s top receiver had presumably been a top-line focus of the Spartans’ game plan — and even more so after fellow wideout Ja’Kobi Lane was ruled out Saturday with an injury. But here was Lemon slicing his way through Michigan State’s secondary as if no one had bothered to tell him as much, sprinting free as a deep pass soared in his direction and hit him in perfect stride.

Most of Saturday night’s 45-31 win over Michigan State felt that seamless for USC, which moved the ball with ease on offense, racking up 517 yards in the process. But in a swirl of penalties and poor discipline from its defense, USC inexplicably found itself clinging to a one-score lead in the fourth quarter.

It was the sort of stumble that might’ve prompted flashbacks from the Trojans’ previous conference, when #Pac12AfterDark derailed more than a few seasons while the rest of America slept. Though, as late as Saturday’s game ran — with its conclusion coming just before 3 a.m. Eastern time — there would be no such comeback from Michigan State.

“We were dominating the football game,” USC coach Lincoln Riley said. “But our ability to separate back out, I thought, was just as impressive.”

USC mounted a 13-play drive with its back against the wall in the fourth quarter, at one point even converting a critical fourth down near midfield, before Lemon pushed the pedal to the floor. He went sprinting on a jet motion, took the handoff and flew into the end zone for a score the Spartans couldn’t counter.

“Any time the ball is in his hands, something big is about to happen,” USC quarterback Jayden Maiava said.

With Lane out, Lemon accounted for more than half of the Trojans’ passing output, as he finished with eight receptions for 127 yards and a touchdown, the vast majority of which came in the first half.

Maiava didn’t need to do much more through the air after halftime. He finished with a season-low 234 yards, but completed 20 of 26 passes and added three passing touchdowns, to go with another on the ground.

USC’s rushing attack ultimately made the difference, despite facing a defense that hadn’t allowed any of its opponents to rush for 100 yards.

USC running back Eli Sanders runs with the ball during a win over Michigan State on Saturday night.

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

Jordan bested that total himself, running for 157 yards on 18 carries, while Eli Sanders added 84 rushing yards of his own.

But once again, the Trojans paid a serious price for their propensity for penalties.

On one third-quarter drive, USC ran into Michigan State’s kicker on a punt, was flagged for an illegal substitution and then was called for pass interference, all within a four-play stretch. For a while, it seemed the sequence might turn the tide towards the Spartans.

“Obviously we haven’t done enough,” Riley said of coaches’ efforts to reduce USC’s penalties.

That message was reiterated after the game by linebacker Eric Gentry, who stood up in front of the team to belabor the severity of their penalty problems. The Trojans were called for 10 total penalties on Saturday for a loss of 88 yards, making it three consecutive games of at least eight penalties.

Fortunately for USC, its defensive front was also able to impact the game in other ways, namely by keeping Spartan quarterback Aidan Chiles uncomfortable in the pocket.

But where the pass rush continued to look improved, USC’s secondary didn’t exactly soothe concerns Saturday. Chiles only threw for 212 yards, but 169 of those yards — almost 80% — came on just four pass plays.

Through four games, USC now ranks worst in the Big Ten in plays allowed of 10 yards or further (17).

“We’ve had about one of them a game,” Riley said, “and we’ve got to put a lid on it.”

The road only gets harder from here for USC (4-0). The Trojans’ next three games (Illinois, Michigan and Notre Dame) come against ranked opponents, and two of those games (Illinois and Notre Dame) are on the road. And while the Irish are 1-2, and the Illini were just steamrolled by Indiana on Saturday, both should provide much tougher tests than the Trojans have faced thus far.

Whether USC will have one of its top receivers back for that stretch remains to be seen. Lane, who was listed as questionable on Saturday, came out with the team for early stretches. But when the team reemerged in full pads for warm-ups, the Trojans stud wideout was wearing sweatpants.

Riley said after the game that the severity of Lane’s injury is still “inconclusive,” but his absence could extend multiple games.

“I don’t think it’ll be super long,” Riley said. “But at the same time, I certainly can’t sit here today and say for sure he’s going to play next week or in the coming weeks.”

Without one of their top targets, USC tried to lean on its backs early. Twelve of the Trojans’ first 16 plays went to either Waymond Jordan or Eli Sanders. But it was Maiava who punched in USC’s first score after he faked a handoff and sprinted 15 yards to paydirt.

Michigan State (3-1), meanwhile, took to the air to challenge the Trojans’ struggling secondary. On the Spartans’ first possession, Chiles found Chrishon McCray wide open for a 42-yard touchdown, and Michigan State took an early lead.

Chiles completed each of his first seven passes. But with their run game completely grounded, the Spartans offense came to a halt. Their next three drives accumulated a combined 66 yards.

USC started humming in the meantime, gaining at least that many yards on four of its five first-half drives. The rushing attack found a rhythm, with seven rushes of 15-plus yards in the first half alone, while Maiava moved the ball with ease through the air.

USC quarterback Jayden Maiava scores a touchdown in the first quarter against Michigan State.

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

Still, despite being outgained by almost 200 yards before halftime, Michigan State was within a single score — and set to receive the second-half kick — as USC drove 88 yards down the field before half. With 37 seconds left, Maiava lofted a pass to the corner of the end zone for freshman Tanook Hines, who reeled in the well-timed, seven-yard score.

USC looked ready to speed past Michigan State in the second half as it took just four plays and less than two minutes to drive the field. Maiava hit tight end Walker Lyons for a touchdown, his second in two weeks, to make it 31-10.

But Michigan State mounted an 11-play drive, and USC’s defense chipped in with four back-breaking penalties to keep it moving. Eventually, Chiles punched in a touchdown himself, cutting the lead to two scores.

The momentum swung suddenly after that. On the first play of USC’s ensuing possession, wideout DJ Jordan lost a fumble deep in the Trojans’ territory. The turnover opened the door for Michigan State, which needed eight plays to reach paydirt and cut the lead to a single score.

But USC slammed that door shut on its next drive. And while Saturday night’s win wouldn’t go down as the most seamless of the Trojans’ season, it was still just as satisfying to Riley.

“If you’re learning lessons as you win, it’s hard not to be excited about what you see out of this football team,” Riley said. “And everything I see makes me believe that we’re going to continue to grow, learn from some of the mistakes, because there are so many positive things happening out there.”

The unfamiliar road through Big Ten country was not exactly welcoming to USC during its conference debut in 2024. The Trojans blew a fourth-quarter lead during all four of their Big Ten road trips outside of Los Angeles last season, each defeat seemingly more devastating than the one before it.

So as USC sets out on its second swing through the Big Ten, starting with a trip to West Lafayette, Ind., on Saturday, it has tried to address that problem in ways big and small — from replacing the strength and conditioning coach to changing the team’s sleeping and meal times.

Those changes will be put to the test this week when USC crosses two time zones. Part of that new approach includes taking a totally different plane to get there, one with a bit more space to stretch out during a long flight.

“[The players are] gonna like having more leg room,” coach Lincoln Riley said with a smile. “Who doesn’t like more leg room?”

Purdue should make things a bit more uncomfortable for USC than its previous two opponents. The Boilermakers are 2-0 to start under new coach Barry Odom, who brought in 54 transfers to rebuild a team that finished 1-11, dead last in the conference, last season.

Riley may not have much of a handle on Purdue’s personnel, but he should have a pretty good idea what the Boilermakers will prefer on offense. After all, Purdue’s offensive coordinator, Josh Henson, spent the previous two seasons as Riley’s offensive line coach and coordinator at USC.

“He’s going up against us, too,” Riley said. “So those things kind of go both ways. There’s obviously going to be some things that both sides are familiar with because of that. But it’s a players’ game at the end of the day.”

Here are three things to watch as USC takes on Purdue on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. PDT (CBS, Paramount+):

I don’t care whom you’re playing.

Seven-hundred fifty-five yards are a lot of yards.

That’s how much USC gained during its 59-20 victory over Georgia Southern on Saturday.

One-hundred thirty-two points are a lot of points.

USC receiver Ja’Kobi Lane evades Georgia Southern defensive back Tracy Hill Jr. during the Trojans’ win Saturday at the Coliseum.

(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)

That’s how much USC has scored in its two games this season, including its blowout victory over Missouri State the week before.

If you want to believe the Trojans are better than they were in their previous two seasons, there are developments that could further convince you that you’re right. If you want to believe Lincoln Riley has elevated his team from mediocrity, there are statistics you could cite to support your observations.

There is also evidence to the contrary, of course.

The two games USC has played this season were more or less Rorschach tests.

The only indisputable truth to emerge was that Trojans receivers Makai Lemon and Ja’Kobi Lane would be serious problems for every one of their opponents.

Everything else remained up for debate.

When you watched the Trojans trample over former Clay Helton’s Eagles at the Coliseum, were you encouraged by how quarterback Jayden Maiava threw for 412 yards or concerned how badly he misfired on some of the handful of passes he didn’t complete?

Was your breath taken away by how Waymond Jordan changed direction in his 167-yard performance or did you gasp in horror when he fumbled on the opening drive?

Were you heartened by how USC scored every time it was in the red zone or alarmed by its three separate illegal-use-of-hands penalties on defense?

Did you see the 39-point margin of victory as an indication the Trojans are ready to take on the big boys or Georgia Southern’s four consecutive drives into their territory in the first half as a sign they will encounter trouble when the level of competition improves?

Riley was more measured in praising his team than he was a week ago.

“Definitely a lot of positives to take out of it,” Riley said.

However …

“Several things we have to clean up,” he said. “We had a couple of errors, I thought, especially with penalties where we have to be better as a football team, more disciplined as a football team.”

Riley warned his team of the consequences of failing to improve.

“It’s like I told the guys last night, there were plays we made last week that some weeks where if we’re not cleaner when we play more talented teams, the results are going to look like that,” he said. “And, so, we have to look at it through the lens of, ‘Did we do our best?’ We’re still a long ways off our best. That’s the No. 1 thing that showed up.”

Riley has sounded tone deaf at times during his three-plus years at USC, but this wasn’t one of them.

Mistakes could be punished by Michigan State, which will present the Trojans with their first real test on Sept. 20.

Mistakes could be punished by Illinois and Notre Dame and Oregon.

USC coach Lincoln Riley directs his team from the sideline during the Trojans’ win over Georgia Southern Saturday.

(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)

Mistakes probably won’t be punished by UCLA, which has been turned into a complete Dumpster fire by athletic director Martin Jarmond, but that’s another story for another day.

For what it’s worth, Georgia Southern’s coach offered an optimistic view of USC’s ceiling. Helton was the Trojans’ head coach for five-plus seasons and still follows the program.

“I’ll tell you what, it’s a better personnel team than last year, especially, I think, offensively,” Helton said.

He pointed specifically to receivers Lemon and Lane, and running backs Jordan and Eli Sanders.

“And the quarterback [Maiava] is playing really, really within himself. You can see reps and experience matter,” Helton continued. “I’ve always thought that, and the experience he had last year, you see his growth.

“They’ve got a good situation here. You can see the changes that have been made from last year’s personnel group to this year’s personnel group, and talking with Coach Riley, I know he’s happy. He’s getting the opportunity to coach a lot more, he said, and you can see it. You can see it on tape.”

Helton still considers himself a champion of USC, and what he saw the Trojans do against his team on Saturday night gave him hope for what they might be able to accomplish this season.

“I hope,” Helton said, “they go win it all.”

The metaphor feels almost too obvious, the iron-and-brick facade of a half-finished, $200-million football palace looming over Howard Jones Field. A chorus of construction equipment cuts through the chaos of a preseason football practice, the whole scene a reminder that USC, in Year 4 of the Lincoln Riley era, is building toward something.

Where USC’s football program stands in that building process is a bit more complicated to capture. After winning 11 games in Riley’s first season as USC’s coach, the Trojans’ win total has declined in each of the two seasons since. Riley, through 40 games at USC, now has one fewer win (26) than his predecessor, Clay Helton (27), did at the same point during their tenures.

But in recent months, a groundswell of momentum has been building at USC. During the offseason, the Trojans retained top-tier defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn in spite of serious advances from his alma mater, Penn State. They added a rising star in general manager Chad Bowden, who has been an adrenaline shot to the entire program. They surged to the top of the recruiting rankings for the class of 2026 and finally began setting the pace in the NIL space, where they once lagged far behind other programs of their stature.

The only pressing questions now for USC, it seems, are on the field. Even as enthusiasm builds for 2026 , when the football facility will open and the top recruiting class lands, the upcoming season is a critical one for Riley. A third consecutive disappointing campaign would force USC to face some uncomfortable truths, some of which the school can’t afford to confront.

“I just feel great about the progress that’s been made,” USC athletic director Jennifer Cohen told The Times. “And now we’re now in a position where our expectations are high. We all know what they are and that’s to win.”

The Times spoke to Cohen ahead of the Trojans’ season opener against Missouri State to discuss that progress and the expectations that come with it, for Riley and the program.

The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Where would you say the football program stands right now?

“We’ve seen a tremendous amount of momentum, in particular this offseason, with a combination of moves and investments on the retention side of the coaches that we already had that were doing a great job within our program and culture. Just the quality of coaches overall is at an all-time high in my opinion. So that’s one big piece that’s helped with the momentum.

“The second is the front office development and just the hiring of [general manager] Chad [Bowden]. Chad being able to restructure his team and also restructure how all of our coaches work, how he supports Lincoln, how he supports the assistant coaches — he’s more than just somebody that’s developing a roster. He’s really a culture guy, and he’s been a great partner for Lincoln and the staff in football, but he’s really been a great partner for all of us, and he’s done a lot of bridging of relationships, both internally and externally. And top of all that, obviously, we’ve seen the specific momentum of their skill set from a recruiting standpoint coming to fruition in this ‘26 class.

“So that’s huge progress and has really moved us in a direction that we really needed to go in. The facility investment has obviously been exciting. Watching Bloom grow that quickly and the fact these guys know now that it’s real and they’re gonna be in it this time next year, I think that’ll help us from a retention standpoint. We’ve made so much progress this past year in NIL and how we invest in our student athletes in football, and then obviously being in this new era now where we’re entered into NIL agreements directly with students, I just feel great about the progress that’s been made, and now we’re in a position where our expectations are high. We all know what they are, and that’s to win.”

USC football general manager Chad Bowden, left, speaks with coach Lincoln Riley during a team practice.

(USC Athletics)

We’re entering Year 4 with Lincoln Riley. In each of those seasons since he’s been here, his win-loss record has declined. What is your confidence level with him as coach as we start the season?

“We’re both aligned on the expectations that we have, and that’s to win. And Lincoln knows that. I know that. You know that. Our fans — everybody knows it. I would just say we’re really embracing those expectations together. I feel really good about the support and the infrastructure and the resources that he’s been provided. I know he’s energized by it. He’s motivated by it, and there’s nobody that wants to succeed more than Lincoln. I’m really excited for us to get behind him and the guys and the staff and see those results.”

What sort of tangible results do you need to see from Lincoln and the program to maintain that confidence?

“The whole idea here, right, is that we’re going to win. Our goal and our standard here is that we win championships. That’s what we’re working towards, and that’s what we’ve invested in, and that’s what my expectation is, his expectation is, our collective expectation is as a Trojan family. We haven’t even played a game yet. My focus right now is on supporting him, supporting our coaches, supporting our student athletes and really just moving this program forward — moving this whole athletic department forward. This is a completely different era that we’re in, and we’re laser focused. And I’m laser-focused on pulling every lever that I can and we can for this program to succeed and for all of our programs to succeed.”

Eight weeks ago, on the first day of USC football’s summer workout program, Trumain Carroll hoped to drive home one particular message.

How you do one thing, he told the team, is how you do everything.

Carroll had just been hired as USC’s new strength and conditioning coach, replacing Bennie Wylie, who was abruptly let go in April. The late start for Carroll left him with only so much time to lay a foundation. But this lesson was especially critical. Not only was it one of his core beliefs as a strength coach, it was also one of the main reasons he was brought to USC, where discipline, especially late in games, had often unraveled.

Carroll knew, that first day, that he needed to make clear how much details mattered. So when the team was lacking effort during warm-ups, he made players start again. And again. Soon enough, before the workout even started, they were out of time.

USC quarterback Jayden Maiava, third from left, and quarterback Husan Longstreet, fourth from left, join fellow quarterbacks during a preseason camp workout on Wednesday.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

“We were supposed to do some half-gassers that day,” Carroll said Wednesday, “but we didn’t make it to them. We didn’t make it for the simple reason that how you do one thing is how you do everything. That workout was a warm-up, learning the standard for how we warm up, for one full hour.”

The message was received after that, Carroll says. The question now, as USC opened preseason camp on Wednesday, is whether it’ll show on the field.

A year ago, the Trojans inexplicably blew fourth-quarter leads in five of their six losses, often in devastating fashion. They also didn’t win a single conference game outside of L.A. in their debut Big Ten season, their only road victory coming in a close call at UCLA.

How you view those narrow losses is a matter of perspective. At the time, coach Lincoln Riley claimed it was a sign of how close USC was to being a contender.

But by spring, he’d settled on a new explanation. That the team needed someone else demanding discipline and calling for accountability. So he parted ways with Wylie, who’d come with him from Oklahoma four years ago, knowing that something needed to be done.

“We’ve had a lot of success together, a lot of success,” Riley said of Wylie at Big Ten media day. “It was not an easy decision. But I felt like for USC, at this time and place where our program was at, that we needed a new voice down there.”

That voice carried across Howard Jones Field early Wednesday morning, bellowing above the din of a Drake song at the start of USC’s first preseason practice. As he barked out the team’s next moves, Carroll paced between the Trojans’ offense and defense, scanning for anything that might be amiss.

Watching him command the group, it wasn’t hard to see why Riley sought out such a firm hand for the job — and why Carroll has had little trouble thus far in getting the respect others say he demands.

USC coach Lincoln Riley watches the team on the first day of preseason camp at Howard Jones Field on Wednesday.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

“The way Coach T came in here and put his foot down early, we knew we weren’t going to have any problems,” said Trovon Reed, USC’s new cornerbacks coach. “Coach Tru yell at them sometimes, and I get scared.”

But before the yelling could be effective, Carroll wanted the players to know he respected them. He and his staff learned as many names as they could before the first workout, so the players would understand how serious they were about details.

The team was scheduled to run stairs at the Coliseum every Friday this summer. But after one walk-through of the stadium, Carroll decided the players would need to prove they deserved the opportunity first.

“This is such a sacred place,” Carroll said of the Coliseum. “I don’t want to come in and disrespect it before we’re ready.”

Players and staff have raved about Carroll’s influence in the months since. But how much a new strength and conditioning staff can tangibly affect wins and losses for the Trojans remains to be seen.

Count Riley as one who believes Carroll’s hire will help close the gap for a team that was so close, so often last season.

“When you first get started, you’re just teaching guys what this stuff looks like,” Riley said. “Then they start really wanting to win and believing they can win, and that’s great, but at some point, that expectation has got to go through the roof, where they know they’re going to win and they know exactly what to do. That’s obviously a big emphasis point for us. The better job you do at being consistent and demanding that out of the guys, the better job the team does to accept that and understand that every little thing is going to matter, the faster you become a championship team.”

Carroll knows he’s not capable of changing all that on his own.

When it comes to actually closing out games in the fourth quarter, he said, “I’m going to have a Powerade towel in one hand and a Powerade bottle in the other hand.

“But,” he continued, “I firmly believe you don’t rise to the occasion, you fall to the level of your training.”

And with Carroll in the building, no one seems all that worried about that baseline any longer.

Etc.

Adrian Klemm, a former offensive line coach at UCLA, Oregon and in the NFL, has been hired to USC’s staff as a defensive analyst. … Wideout Ja’Kobi Lane was limited for USC’s first practice, but otherwise the Trojans open camp with a mostly clean bill of health.

When DJ Wingfield picked USC in the transfer portal last January, it seemed like an ideal one-year arrangement for both parties. The Trojans desperately needed experience on the interior of their already thin offensive line. Wingfield — after two seasons at a junior college, one at New Mexico and another spent at Purdue — was seeking to raise his profile in his final season of eligibility.

USC offered him a clear path to playing time at left guard, as well as a $210,000 payday for his name, image and likeness. He just needed the NCAA to approve a waiver for him to play another season.

Neither Wingfield nor USC figured that would be a problem at the time. But the NCAA denied Wingfield’s initial request for a waiver in late March, then later denied his appeal.

So, with fall camp set to open this week, Wingfield took the only route remaining for him to play at USC: He filed a lawsuit against the NCAA, seeking injunctive relief in order to play for USC.

Wingfield is seeking to challenge the lawfulness of the NCAA’s “Five-Year Rule”, which contends that players are eligible to play four seasons of competition across five years. Both USC and Wingfield believed, according to the complaint, that his waiver would be approved, considering recent rulings in the cases of Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia and Rutgers’ Jett Elad, each of whom won the right in court to play an additional season.

But the waiver was denied, robbing Wingfield, he claims, of what could have been a “once-in-a-lifetime” NIL payday as well as an opportunity to “enhance his career and reputation” by playing at USC.

“The effect of the NCAA’s anticompetitive conduct will be to penalize Wingfield for having attended a junior college and for the disruptions caused by the pandemic,” the complaint reads. “The NCAA’s anticompetitive conduct, coupled with its unreasonable denial of Wingfield’s meritorious request for a waiver, thus threatens him with immediate irreparable harm.”

Wingfield’s collegiate career began in 2019 at El Camino College, a junior college in Torrance. He left El Camino during the 2020 season due to the pandemic, as Wingfield was tasked with taking care of his mother.

He played at El Camino in 2021 before transferring to New Mexico in the spring of 2022. Before completing a single game with the Lobos, he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee, ending his season. He returned to play in nine games in 2023 before entering the transfer portal.

Wingfield transferred to Purdue where he earned a starting job in 2024, five years after he first started his college football career.

Still, he figured the NCAA would look past that timeline, given his circumstances and the cascade of legal challenges claiming that the NCAA is violating antitrust laws by limiting athletes’ eligibility.

Now that decision — and Wingfield’s college football future — is in the hands of a federal judge.

Whatever that judge decides could have an adverse impact on the Trojans offense this season. Without Wingfield, USC would be perilously thin up front. His absence could mean sliding projected right tackle Tobias Raymond to guard, while sophomore Justin Tauanuu steps in as starting right tackle. Otherwise, USC is likely to turn to inexperienced sophomore Micah Banuelos at left guard.

LAS VEGAS — While the rest of the college football world spent the summer whipped into a frenzy, swept up by the specter of revenue sharing or congressional intervention or one of the many other landscape-altering changes looming over the sport, Lincoln Riley was able to actually step away and take a breath.

In four years as USC’s coach, Riley hasn’t had many chances to really unplug. There was the sprint ahead of his first season, and the heavy portal push ahead of his second. The third came with a new conference, new defense, new expectations, new pressure.

The fourth, by comparison, is starting on a more relaxed note than Riley is used to. There were no phone calls taking up half a day of his family vacation. His fly fishing went mostly unbothered. He even golfed at Pebble Beach in May.

“I’d say I’m feeling as refreshed and recharged as I’ve been in a long time,” Riley said Thursday during Big Ten media days.

Never mind that the pressure for Riley to win at USC has perhaps never been so high, coming off a 7-6 campaign in which the Trojans needed a comeback bowl win to scrape past .500. The path to winning has arguably never been so uncertain, either, with the advent of revenue sharing completely upending how championship rosters are constructed.

In spite of that backdrop, this past summer still felt less daunting to Riley than the rest. He says he didn’t feel the offseason chaos that some of colleagues have described in the wake of the House settlement. Some of that added calm he credits to Chad Bowden, USC’s new general manager, and his handpicked front office, who have taken personnel matters largely off Riley’s plate. Immediately laying claim to the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class for 2026 hasn’t hurt in building that trust, either.

But it’s more than that, according to Riley.

“There are less big fixes going on right now, you know?” he said. “It’s like you’ve got the house built, and it’s kind of all about the finishes now. You’re not trying to put up a wall or anything like that.”

Whether USC is actually that close to being a finished product is up for debate. The Trojans’ win total has declined in each of Riley’s first three seasons, during which his record is worse than that of his predecessor, Clay Helton. Now the Trojans enter his fourth with a raw, unproven commodity at quarterback, a threadbare linebacker room, and an inexperienced offensive line that could already be down a projected starter.

There’s also the matter of their fourth-quarter issues last season, which saw the Trojans inexplicably cough up leads in five of their six losses.

But Riley looks at it differently.

“It’s the first time where we had an opportunity at the end of the game to win every single game that we played,” he said.

“The really good teams separate in a lot of their games, and they win the close games they end up in. That’s typically how it happens, and that’s what we’ve got to become. And so the way to do it, every part of your program has to be pretty strong.

“We’ve graduated from being way behind in this area, and being pretty decent in this area to, like, every right now is either good or pretty darn good. Now it’s just about taking those small steps in all those areas to, I guess, hypothetically push you over the hump.”

USC defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn walks on the sideline during a game against Nebraska at the Coliseum in November.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

The biggest leap in that regard could once again be on defense, where USC went from one of the worst units in the nation in 2023 (121st in scoring defense) to respectable (56th) under defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn.

That was no small feat, considering where they came from. And the Trojans have added considerable talent to its defense since. The front seven should benefit greatly from the return of linebacker Eric Gentry and defensive end Anthony Lucas from injury. And on the interior, USC brought in two massive transfers on the interior, as well as a five-star freshman.

“I think the depth, the talent level, and the size of the defensive line, I mean, there’s honestly really no comparison to this time 12 months ago,” Riley said.

But the Trojans’ path will inevitably, at some point, come down to their quarterback. Riley reiterated his confidence in Jayden Maiava as the Trojans’ starter, even as he once again heaped praise on five-star freshman Husan Longstreet.

Left tackle Elijah Paige said Thursday that he has seen a major change in Maiava since he entered the offseason as the presumptive starter.

“He’s taken a complete 180,” Paige said of USC’s quarterback. “[In the spring,] he commanded the offense, and that’s what this team needs.”

Of course, everyone is feeling optimistic this time of year, with more than a month still remaining before USC kicks off against Missouri State.

But Riley isn’t the only one who feels those finishing touches underway.

“We’ve gone and gotten some of the very best people in the business,” Riley said. “They’re not going to attach themselves to something where they don’t see the progress.

“And you do not get a recruiting class like this unless there’s a crazy amount of momentum within the program. Like, I don’t care what else you have. If you don’t have momentum, you do not get a class like we have.”

USC star freshman Alijah Arenas will miss at least the next six to eight months after sustaining a serious knee injury that will require surgery, leaving his future with the Trojans in question.

An MRI this week found a slight meniscus tear, as well as a bone bruise, according to a person familiar with the situation not authorized to discuss it publicly, dealing a critical blow to both USC and a player it hoped could become a superstar in short order.

“Alijah is a tremendous worker, teammate, competitor and person,” USC coach Eric Musselman said in a statement. “He is understandably disappointed that he will not be able to take the court to start the season, but his health is our No. 1 priority.”

The injury comes just two weeks after Arenas was cleared to practice with USC, and three months after he survived a carwreck in his Tesla Cybertruck. Now it’s unclear how much he’ll play for USC — if at all.

At best, Arenas may be cleared to return late in his freshman season. But considering his status as a top draft prospect, there could be more to consider surrounding his return to action.

The five-star freshman was expected to step in and play a major role in his first year with the Trojans, despite being a full year younger than most freshmen in the same position. Arenas graduated a year early from Chatsworth High in order to reclassify into the 2025 class and join USC.

“We have no doubt that he will come back even stronger,” Musselman said.

One of the top prospects in USC’s top-ranked 2026 recruiting class has decided not to wait another year to join the Trojans.

Rancho Cucamonga cornerback RJ Sermons, a four-star recruit, plans to reclassify to the 2025 class, leaving high school a year early to enroll this summer at USC.

Sermons, whose father, Rodney, played at USC, should give the Trojans another talented option in a defensive backfield that lost five starters from a season ago. How swiftly he’ll be able to claim a role in that rebuilt secondary remains to be seen.

USC already added two starting-caliber corners through the transfer portal in DJ Harvey and Chasen Johnson, while returners DeCarlos Nicholson, Marcelles Williams, Braylon Conley and Prophet Brown have experience in the Trojans’ scheme. Three other freshmen — Alex Graham, Trestin Castro and James Johnson — also joined the position group in the spring.

Sermons should at least step in with a legitimate claim as the fastest member of USC’s secondary. He currently owns the state’s top times in the 100- and 200-meter dashes at 10.30 and 20.88 seconds.

He won’t be the only member of the Trojans’ 2025 class that was supposed to be a senior in high school next season. Five-star defensive lineman Jahkeem Stewart reclassified from the 2026 to the 2025 class last season after playing in just 12 high school games. He’s expected to have a role on USC’s defense this fall.