USC is counting on QB Jayden Maiava to continue delivering big plays against ILL Saturday. (Carlin Stiehl/LAT)
No. 21 USC (4-0 overall, 2-0 Big Ten) at No. 23 ILLINOIS (3-1, 0-1)
Saturday, 9 a.m. PT, Gies Memorial Stadium, Champaign, Illinois
TV/Radio: FOX (Ch. 11)/710 AM
Ryan Kartje (LA Times) — 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.
Jayden Maiava evades a tackle attempt by MICH ST DB Armorion Smith at the Coliseum on Sept. 20. (Carlin Stiehl/LAT)
“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 lower leg 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.
“Depth in that room is big and I’ve also challenged those guys,” Illinois head coach Bret Bielema told reporters Thursday. “We’re game five. Some freshmen that we’ve had playing and repping during practices, we need those guys to step up.”
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 invades Illinois.
Premium pass rush
Creating pressure with USC’s front four was one of the main goals D’Anton Lynn had for his second year as defensive coordinator. Safe to say, that goal is off to a smashing start.
Through four weeks, USC leads the nation in sacks with 16, just five fewer than it had all of last season. Four Trojans already have at least two sacks each, while Braylan Shelby leads the team with 3 ½.
USC DE Jahkeem Stewart (4) celebrates with Trojans after tackling MICH ST RB Makhi Frazier (not pictured) for a loss in the first half last Saturday, Sept. 20, at the L.A. Coliseum. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/ SCNG)
“Just scraping the surface,” Shelby said of USC’s defensive line. “This year, I want this to be a super big year. I want to change the narrative of this entire D-line.”
USC finished 10th in the nation in sacks in Riley’s first season. But since then, the Trojans’ defense hadn’t hasn’t had much luck getting to the quarterback. Last year, they managed just 21 sacks, good for 92nd nationally.
Illinois has also been among the better pass rushing teams in the Big Ten this season. When it comes to protecting their own passer, though, the Illini have had a lot of trouble.
Illinois’ Luke Altmyer might be one of the conference’s best quarterbacks. But no Big Ten team has allowed its quarterback to be sacked more than Illinois (16). Altmyer has been sacked multiple times in every game, including an offense-suffocating seven times against Indiana. USC’s defensive front should be salivating.
Busted coverages
USC is focused on preventing ILL QB Luke Altmyer from connecting on big plays Saturday. (Darron Cummings / AP)
Lynn didn’t mince his words when asked this week about the big plays allowed this season by USC’s secondary.
“It’s completely unacceptable,” the Trojans coordinator said.
USC has allowed 39 pass plays of 10 yards or more through four weeks, which ranks in the bottom 25 in the nation, despite not having played any passers of note. This week, however, the Trojans are taking on one of the more polished quarterbacks in the Big Ten in Altmyer.
Riley knows that big pass plays could sink his defense during the next several weeks.
“Our batting percentage is fine,” Riley said. “The biggest thing is we’ve given a few too many gifts. We’ve gotta get a lot better. Our bad ones have got to be ones that don’t kill us.”
Triple option
ILL RB Kaden Feagin evades a tackle by W MICH safety Jaden Lyles on Sept. 13 in Champaign, Ill. (Craig Pessman / AP)
At 6-foot-3, 255 pounds, Kaden Feagin probably could have been a defensive end. Instead, at Illinois, he’s the leading ball carrier in the Illini backfield. And this weekend, he’ll be a handful for USC’s defensive front.
“He’s very big,” Lynn said. “He runs hard. He’s good in pass protection. It’s just [about] gang tackling. We need to attack the ball.”
Feagin isn’t the only option Illinois deploys in its backfield — just the most unique. Ca’Lil Valentine is averaging 5.5 yards per carry this season, while Aidan Laughery, the backfield’s best big-play threat, exploded for 123 yards and two touchdowns in the opener before dealing with an injury.
Illinois is averaging 124 rushing yards per game, but collected just 2 yards on the ground in the loss to Indiana. Due to the sacks, Altmyer had negative-27 rushing yards.
Injury updates
USC receiver Ja’Kobi Lane celebrates after scoring a TD against GA SO on Sept. 6 at the Coliseum. (Carlin Stiehl/LAT)
USC may have to weather its second Big Ten road trip in three weeks without two of its best players on offense.
Wideout Ja’Kobi Lane is dealing with an upper body injury that limited him in practice this week, and his status is up in the air for Saturday. Left tackle Elijah Paige left last week’s win in the second quarter with an unspecified injury and did not return. He was not seen at practice the rest of the week.
Prediction: USC 38, Illinois 31. USC will extend its winning streak and continue to prove the strength and versatility of its offense both through the air and on the ground.
latimes.com
___________
TrojanDailyBlog members — We always encourage you to add factual information, insight, divergent opinions, or new topics to the TDB that don’t necessarily pertain to any particular moderator post or member comment.
SC will be lucky to finish the regular season with 3 losses: Illinois, ND and Oregon but based on what we saw in this first loss, it won’t surprise me if we also lose to Michigan at home and at Nebraska. Can we fire Riley or demote him to a OC?
We need to go at least 9-3 for the sake of recruiting.
Listening to some of these football pundants, you would think that Lynn is the upcoming star in college football coaching. I’ve heard people say that he should be the next USC HC. That’s a big stretch as far as I’m concerned. He may turn out to be a great DC and an even greater HC but right now he’s an unproven commodity. He had a good year at UCLA in 2023. But SC’s 2024 defense was mediocre. How many games did we lose because our defense couldn’t hold a lead late in the game? If you compare last years defense… Read more »
My fear is that 2026 #1 recruiting class GM Bowden worked his butt off to get will start the trickling of decommits. Also can Riley just once at least act like one the great CFB head coaches after a loss like this and be pissed, have a red face or show urgency ? We had a guy like this already not long ago.
Another Lincoln Riley USC team got bullied and pushed around by an average team at the end of a game and lost it. That’s reality for Trojan fans now.
Now USC has a bye to get ready for MICH, whom we owe big-time after last year’s loss in Ann Arbor.
I suspect USC will show up guns blazin’ in the Coliseum.
Teams follow the coaches lead. LR does not promote a “tough” image and neither do his teams. Is LR also completely incapable of clocking managment? A 5 year old can understand this better than him.
Allen I’m gonna completely concur with you that the kids will be ready for revenge. I think I need to look to the assistants for that coaching urgency and inner drive that the kids feed off of. LR is just not that coach, that personality type. It’s his personality that demotivates the infrastructure like Bowden, Jen, and all the essential staff. LR thinks minimizing clear weaknesses and poor decisions will keep things together. There’s zero track record in CFB that supports that. I’ll be there in 2 weeks and plan to lose my voice by the end of the game… Read more »
The truth is, Lincoln Riley has never been the “leader” we all envisioned when we stole the big-timer from OU.
People don’t really follow LR like he’s a “leader.”
He’s the “name” at USC only. But he’s not the leader of USC football because too many fans and players don’t follow.
I’m not sure who really is the leader of USC football. Whoever he truly is, I sure wish he’d start making himself very visible. We’re gonna need him now.
LR is more like the older cousin with whom we had a mixture of friendship and mild respect because he was quite a few years older than us, but still a peer in the family tree. He wouldn’t discipline us, and we tended to follow him by default most of the time because of his age rather than his authority over us.
Those of you who have had a cousin 10-15 years older than you that you saw once or twice a year know what I mean.
If this defense doesn’t improve, I think LR will have to start thinking about replacing Lynn. At least think about replacing the secondary coaches and the LB coach. That’s the trouble with LR. Sometimes he doesn’t make the moves he needs to make, like with Grench. When he does finally make the move he’s usually good at hiring quality people. How many games last year were we ahead at half or even into the 4th quarter but we couldn’t hold the lead. The defense was not great last year and it isn’t great this year. Sure, last year it was… Read more »
Well, stinkin’ Lincoln can do what coaches do when they are in trouble—fire the coordinators. But he only has one and that is Lynn. I am more inclined to give Danton Lynn the benefit of the doubt.
Rileys clock management is been a feature of his poor coaching performance since he got to USC.
Personally, I’d choose D’Anton Lynn as USC’s HC over Lincoln Riley right now. I’m not advocating for a change by any means. That’s just not realistically in USC’s immed future. USC sure needs another post-loss kick start.
But we’ve seen what we get from LR for three and a half years already. Pretty predictable. And losing to another team by crumbling late again isn’t fun, as usual. It’s become USC’s identity.
“…we’ve seen what we get from LR for three and a half years already…” Bingo! At the end of the day, or should I say at the end of the past 12 months, with all of the “change” and hoopla about the GM (whom I really like) and new assistant coaches (whom I think I like), it all came down to the exact same scenario that we struggled with last year, that is, we couldn’t hold a late game lead due to poor clock management and a poor defense. Jimmys and Joes may eventually help on the defensive side, but where will… Read more »
I just read the game story in the Daily Breeze (SCNG). When you read the comments of Riley, it sounds like just like Clay Helton—only thing missing was mentioning his “warriors” and the need to look at the film. SMH.
You mean this quote, “We’ve just got to clean up a few things, we’ve got to polish them a little bit, but this team’s going to be tough to beat.”? All he had to do was add, “…in November” and he’d have nailed his Heltonian Speak perfectly. He overlooks that IL also had a few miscues that could have made the game resemle a blowout. What if not for their goal line fumble, for example? Not a championship defense, not a championship coach. He keeps seeking the “perfect game” without accepting that there’s no such thing, and that he’s got… Read more »
I hate to ask the question, but I really am not sure of the answer. Is our defense really any better than the Grinch years? If the definition of an an improved defense is making a stop when you need it most and not allowing an opposing team’s offense to go down the field at will, then I don’t think so. I do know this, the defense has regressed from last year.
As far as I am concerned. LR is half way there when it comes to building a team that can win a NC. Todays offense is national championship caliber right now. All he needs to do is build a national caliber defense. I have questions whether that will ever happen under D’Anton Lynn. But he could surprise me.
When the offense is healthy, they’re really good. They’re running the ball, throwing to wideouts and tight ends and they have one of the better QB’s in the country. The defense is mediocre at best. Somehow SC can never get both sides of the LOS going great guns at the same time.
Oregon beats Penn St on the long road
Looks like overtime for Oregon vs Penn st
I don’t know why they speak so highly of D’Anton Lynn. I agree that his first year at UCLA was a good year. But last year wasn’t a great defense. The only reason why people talk about last year like it was a great year is because they are comparing it to the years under Grench. If you compare it to the years under Grench, then yeah, it was a great improvement. I’ve even heard people talk about hiring him as the HC if they ever decide to get rid of LR. The DC at Iowa is a great DC.… Read more »
He’s a good DC but it takes time to buld a good defense given the personnel we had and needed to recruit,
We got better from 2023 to 2024 to this year.
Need to be patient and hope the talent coming in will make us better.
So far I’m not overly impressed. LR has a history of building great offenses. Lynn has no such history when it comes to defenses. The closest he’s come to having a really great defense is UCLA in 2023. He built that in one year.
My first thought when we scored the last TD after the 2 minute time out was we scored too early. I would have used most of the clock so that Illlnois had to play defense the whole time and force them to stop us from scoring. I understand Riley’s and other people’s thinking that you had to make you score to get the win. However, I’m pretty confident that Illinois would not have been able to stop us unless we stopped ourselves. Also everyone who was saying that the D Line didn’t get enough pressure needs to realize that Illinois… Read more »
All good points
All good points. But the biggest problem is we can’t fix LR shortcomings. We didn’t deserve winning this game, but it was ours for the taking. At least until LR was LR.
Well…..until folks in power understand what they have nothing changes…..and for whatever reason they refuse to accept it…..every year it’s about how he needs to be given another chance. You can dress up a pig…..but in the end…..you have a pig.
Stupid penalties again. The only way we have an illegal man down field is the linemen don’t know the rules or the play or both. A stupid VERY PREDICTABLE penalty put the nail in our coffin today and everyone knew it was coming. The “pass interference” call should have been on the offense. The replay shows the receiver holding the D-back. But the refs knew they were going to throw the flag before the ball was snapped. Not one of the penalties against USC can be excused because the Trojans should not have been in the position to earn them.… Read more »
From my vantage point the PI was called on a pass that was out of bounds, uncatchable.
Did you enjoy the game?
Bruins lose yet again
NW 17, UCLA 14
Cold comfort knowing that we pay 11million dollars a year for a glorified OC who is still learning to be a head coach. Riley is too myopic focused on his precious offense. LR will never have the global view of his team that a head coach needs to be truly great. This afternoon a great head coach would have realized that today, his defense was not up to the task of holding on to a one point lead for less than two minutes. Yes, the players let themselves down today on many occasions, But in spite of that, we were… Read more »
The only positive outcome of what has been a horrible day. Thank you Northwestern. Now I can go back to feeling miserable because our defense absolutely stinks!
Maybe D’Anton Lynn’s not gonna be the coaching target we thought he would be?
Unless he leaves on his own, but I don’t see that.
His stock is trending down, let’s put it that way.
We definitely should have beat this mediocre (really, that’s all they are) ILL team yesterday. Just a huge opportunity thrown/fumbled/mismanaged away. I have no idea if we’ll even give ORE or ND a good game? That sounds bizarre to even say such a thing, but those teams can go on the road and beat good teams. The Irish would have smashed the Illini yesterday and we all know it. Could USC have gone into Happy Valley and won like the Ducks? Maybe one out of ten times. USC still has a big football mountain to climb. It seems like we’re… Read more »
Lincoln Riley is 4-11 against ranked teams since arriving in LA.
This is a good USC team but, let’s be honest, they are light years away from being a great team. Offensively, they are a great team especially when they have all their guys in there. They’re not so bad without all of their starters. But defensively, they’re not that good at all. Their D-Line is good but with the exception of Gentry, their LB’s are not that good. They don’t cover the gaps. The secondary don’t cover anyone. They still have a good chance of winning 9 games this year. I don’t think they will beat Oregon or ND. Illinois… Read more »
I have to agree about the defensive secondary. They couldn’t cover a peanut with a tarp. There is nothing defensive about the current players.
Iowa is tied at the half with Indiana. Good game!
Ohio State is playing like they watched the Illini at Indiana and wanted to copy the effort……bad news for me.
Riley should be fired. A zebra does not change its stripes.
Our defense is really bad…..the games against nobodies were telling. Imagine if the two goal line fumbles were scores…….Illinois would have had 48 points……. Illinois that put 10 on Indiana.
Oh well…..on to next week.
Riley thinking on the Trojan’s last drive: should we run another minute or more off the clock before scoring to increase the odds for a win? Or should I go for a quick score and rely on the ineffectual defense to prevent Illinois from driving the field for a last second field goal and the two point victory? Brilliant choice. Not.
Do you really think if we had run the ball every play in the red zone, vs. a defense gearing up to stop the run, we would have scored? If SC ran it on 1st down and scored, would you be upset that the RB didn’t stop at the 5 yard line to kill more clock? Scoring a YD was going to be a struggle under those circumstances. My 1st thought was we scored too soon, and our defense wasn’t going to get a stop, but running the ball on every play probably wasn’t going to get us in the… Read more »
I said run time off the clock, not run the ball every play in the red zone. Not every play has to be a running okay to run time and score.
If you are LR which these facts do you choose to ignore?
1) Defense has been owned all day
2) DB’s have been owned all year
3) Opposing team has moved the ball with ease all day (outside of 2 costly fumbles)
4) other team has one of the best kickers in the NCAA
5) LR really wants to throw the ball.
Too soon to ask for Riley to be fired?
No
Riley is an OC and not a Head Coach.
I believe that USC’s woes is as simple as that. Not a head coach. Not really.
Riley, you are an ass. Clock F’ing Mgmt, again.
Illinois deserved the win. Lots of blame to go around.
But the mad scientist, stinkin’ Linkin still hasn’t learned clock management. Idiot!
At the end of the day you don’t put your weaker side of the ball back on the field to hold ILL out of field goal range.
defense didn’t really stop ILL today, the ILL offense turned the ball over in clutch moments in our favor. So why not keep your offense on the field as long as you can? Dammit!
this was a winnable game that we didn’t deserve to win, but Riley choked on clock management again, at $11 million a year.
Agreed. But defense is the primary culprit for today’s fiasco. I may be wrong, but I think SC only stopped IL once. IL stopped themselves with 2 fumbles. Defense did not make important stop all day.
So Riley put the defense back on the field for the most crucial 100 seconds of the game. 😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡
Hadn’t thought of it that way. A point well made.
time to give Riley the tarmac reception.
The cupcakes are gone. There are only good teams remaining on the schedule, ugly, not as talented as SC, but that will punch USC’s defense in the mouth…again…again….and again.
Here comes the post game word salad minimizing his coaching
Why run six plays from the 16 and score with seconds left when you can score immediately and leave two minutes for your opponent to get in FG range so you can lose the game.
Riley you stupid jack azzz!
illio burns clock, but Riley didn’t. That’s why we lost.
Out coached.
Absolutely.
So Riley still gets his share of his stupid salary for clock management.
So who woulda thought the refs would advance the ball for the home team?
This is the B1G, and SC is the visiting team, so yeah referees home cooking
Our DL transfers really suck
yes they do……along with the ol transfers…..no choice since we only started recruiting in the past year or so.
Shoot defense let us down
Pretty much crappy PI call there
I wish Riley burnt more clock
Damn! Salari hooked that Pat , but it went in. 😅
The rest of the game will be four down territory
There is a lot of time on the clock with 3 Time Outs. Defense is going to need to do something they failed to do all day. Stop the drive knowing it’s going to be 4 down territory. Let’s see what they’re made of.
Thank God for Gentry. Someone is fighting.
Fumble!!! Good teams find a way. ( sarcasm)
that Was gentry knocking the ball out
Yes
Gentry is gold
Come on defense.
oh crap. Not like that.
Defense has to do something good on this drive. Let’s see if Dan Lynn is worth what we’re paying him!
Defense needs to come up big on this drive
Pretty ballsy to go for two.
Offensive genius? Just proving he is not the right guy.
LR is not the problem.
Out coached, bad game plan (reoccurring issue over the years) and team not prepared. Sounds like a LR problem to me.
If that’s your assessment, then you’re not a student of the game. Quality depth has been the problem. This team is very young.
Lack of depth is the real problem.
We suck and we’ll be lucky if we go 8-4 this season. Illinois is not good. We’re not going to beat Michigan, Notre Dame, Oregon and we could lose to Nebraska too.
Now he runs it 3rd and long
I think we can retire theidea thatDAnton Lynn is a defensive genius. Defense has been thoroughly outplayed all day.
secondary is horrible. Front seven can’t get in anything done.
Truthfully Illinois has a much more dynamic and versatile offensive scheme than our offensive genius and Illinois knows the importance of discipline
Disagree. Illinois offense is pretty vanilla made better by a poorly performing defense. This defense is allowing Altmeir have a career day. We have these this show before. If SC pulls out a win it won’t be deserved.
Our DBs just suck today.
Man coverage only works when you cover your man. Just saying
Missing to many guys today. Especially in the D backfield and the OL.
we need a U of I turn over.
Not a playoff team. Not even close.
Proposed rule change: At 10 seconds on the clock the ref must move away from the quarterback whether the defense is ready or not
Team is unprepared to play, and that will always fall on the coach.
When are the refs going to play fair? Missed the holding on that TD. Missing the helmet to kneecap just atrocious refereeing.
As much as these refs do suck, this loss will not be on them.
where were the halftime adjustments? I didn’t see any.
manhandled on both sides of the line. Knee the QB would be good, where were the calls to disrupt him?
Bad game plan = bad game. We look great against the worst teams. Going to be another long season.
Lincoln Riley sucks. The lack of discipline and lack of focus and intensity is squarely on him. Next!!!!
Riley has begun his 2024 strategy of pass pass pass