Lincoln Riley watches from the sideline as Trojans beat GA SO at the Coliseum on Sept. 6. The Trojans open Big Ten play Saturday on the road against PUR. (Carlin Stiehl / LAT)
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USC addresses its Big Ten road struggles from last season with plane upgrades and changing sleep and meal times.
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Purdue OC Josh Henson previously served as Lincoln Riley’s offensive line coach and coordinator at USC.
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Key questions include settling the secondary rotation, stopping Purdue’s run game and testing the offensive line.
Ryan Kartje (LA Times) — 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+):
USC’s D.J. Harvey (2), Braylan Shelby (10) and Desman Stephens II (23) tackle GA SO’s David Mbadinga during the Trojans’ win on Sept. 6. (Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
No competition through USC’s preseason camp was closer than the one at cornerback, where defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn had five or so players who looked capable of stepping into a starting role.
But after two weeks of regular rotating, Lynn said it’s time to “cut that down some” at Purdue.
Riley said earlier this week that DeCarlos Nicholson has been the clear standout of the group, so it’s likely that he remains atop the depth chart. After that, the No. 2 spot appears to be a battle between D.J. Harvey, Chasen Johnson, Braylon Conley and Marcelles Williams. Harvey has the most experience, Johnson has been hurt, and Conley and Williams are both potential breakout candidates.
Purdue hasn’t been that serious of a threat through the air, but this should be a good chance for the secondary to jell together before other, more accomplished passers pop up on the schedule.
2) Should USC be concerned about the defensive interior?
While USC rolled over Georgia Southern last week, holding its offense to just 20 points, the Trojans defense still didn’t look all that sharp against the run.
USC gave up five runs of 10-plus yards and allowed Georgia Southern to run for nearly double the total it did the previous week against Fresno State.
“We have to coach it better,” Lynn said. “I have to coach it better. It’s just about consistency and doing it over and over again.”
Purdue running back Devin Mockobee leads the Big Ten in carries through two weeks, so he’ll undoubtedly test how well Lynn has adjusted. Stop Mockobee from establishing a rhythm and USC should be able to bring the Boilermakers’ offense to a halt.
Riley has been careful not to heap praise on his offensive line just yet, with much more vaunted defensive fronts to come. But as Riley pointed out this week, the group has been “steady” thus far.
Will it stay that way? It doesn’t hurt that all six of the linemen that have started up front were players recruited to USC out of high school, meaning they’ve been in the system for some time now.
“The longer we are able to do that and the more guys who have gone through that, you’re going to see groups of guys play more consistently, make fewer mistakes and play better together,” Riley said.
This group, which was one of the bigger question marks for USC heading into the season, has impressed thus far. Still, Riley isn’t ready to commit to the current five up front as his locked-in starters.
Micah Banuelos stepped in last week, just before the game, for previous starter Alani Noa, and Riley suggested that backup center J’Onre Reed, was also up there with the starters.
latimes.com
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This is officially the worst UCLA team I have ever seen, period.
NEW MEX, which has blown many opportunities, still leads the woeful Bruins 28-10 with seven mins to go at the silent, dumbfounded Rose Bowl.
The good news is ucla got embarrassed. The bad news is nobody was there to witness the humiliation, and Foster is now , for sure going to be fired. Hate to see him go.
The bruins can’t stop the run, and can’t run it themselves.
When I retired, it was from a global company based in Memphis, full of Volunteer fans. I wish I could talk to them now.They must be thrilled.
I’m spending about half my time in TN to be with my 93 year old Dad and I can tell you they are thrilled with the trade. And (big) IF they were to beat GA this afternoon, Nico will forgotten completely.
I just read about the game time for Michigan State game. How ridiculous, the people in Michigan won’t get to bed till around 3 am, and the fans at the game won’t get home before midnight. It is on Fox while there virtually no games on the B1G network all afternoon. I guess the schools have no say in it anymore.
New Mexico/UCLA game starts at 7pm tonight and can be found on the Big10 network. UCLA is favored by 16 at home. This is 3 straight home games to start the season. Will Nico finally show up for the bruins………………
So far they look like they might need to leave the BIG and go HS level.
Looks like they really miss D’Anton Lynn, the bruin defense gave up 450 yards. New Mexico was a 15.5 point underdog and won outright 35-10. Nico completed 65% of his passes for 220 yards, one TD and one interception. They are a mess.
Another really tight game Indiana vs Indiana St is 45 to nothing at the half.
I’am starting to think that all OOC games should be required to be against FBS.
Just a worthless exercise of boredom.
Trojans Ranked No. 3 Among B1G Teddy King (si.com) — College football analysts and ESPN’s Football Power Index helped rank each B1G school through week 2, with the Trojans earning an elevated ranking. Aug 30, 2025; Los Angeles; Lincoln Riley gestures during the game against the MO ST Bears at United Airlines Field at L.A. Memorial Coliseum. Kirby Lee-Imagn Images ESPN’s total FPI score is designed to measure a team’s overall strength and predict its performance for the rest of the season. The system is built around the idea of an “average” team, with FPI points indicating whether a team is projected… Read more »
USC has been undervalued by a lot of the pundits going into the season. But ranking them 3rd in the B1G and 5th overall is just stupid. No way SC is that good, and the team has blemishes. Tomorrows game will tell us a lot.
We should totally hammer PUR, which is why USC is a 20-point fave playing away, despite our recent troubles outside the Coliseum.
Clay Helton’s outfit exposed some lingering defensive problems with USC which many of us were at least slightly surprised to see based on heavy doses of off-season Kool-Aid and the addition of better coaches and talent.
Hopefully, D’Anton Lynn and his defensive staff have the ability to get a handle on some issues before a stronger opponent really makes us pay for them.
Well…..sit back and enjoy…..the nonsense part of the schedule is over…..although Purdue is just about Georgia Southern level……it’s away.
Funny thing is Purdue has some talent on its OL…..we’ll just have to see how it breaks out.
Mich St has improved significantly from last year…..if we beat them by 24 or more we’ll start to get believers.
Lynn has to play his starters and the substitutions need to be less starting with this game, these guys just need that time together on the field. I think the D is going to be pretty good this week. They have to keep up with the offense.
The only way we should bring up the way USC played the past two weeks is “if” the same issues occur at Purdue and come away with a disappointingly tight win or a loss. I say the last part because Riley is implying the set up in away games last year were some ways responsible for the outcomes which may be true but he continues to remain quiet that his playcalling & game management had anything to do those 4-loses. And that in itself tells me he is still being oblivious to his part in all this. I am inching… Read more »
So far in 2 games, Riley has run a balanced offense. We’ll see how he does in a tight game and especially in the last 5 minutes of a half/game. Not sure if we will see it tomorrow, Rutgers is a big unknown, new coach, 50+ new players. Odom was pretty mediocre at Missouri, better at UNLV. So far Purdue has a pretty low ESPN Power Rank at 77 compared to USC at 5, for what that is worth.
I don’t think USC will lose this week, but I wasn’t confident in their ability to beat the spread. I realize our competition has been ramping up sort to speak getting better (harder?) each game, but there’s a plus side to that. We have seen substitutions on both sides of the ball which makes me feel better about the backups. Getting players into real game situations is always good.
I wonder if we’ll see substitution at quarterback this game ( barring injury of course)
I don’t think it was totally deliberate. Miss St, Georgia S, Purdue, Michigan St, Illinois, Michigan and ND…….every game appears to be a step up with a peak with ND……
Alas, there is hope!
All four of CBS Sports’ Inside College Football experts (Aaron Taylor, Rick Neuheisel, Randy Cross and Brian Jones) pick USC to end its away game problems and beat the Boilermakers in West Lafayette!
At least USC was brought up in the program this week. Baby steps.
LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier Signs Nike NIL Contract Amid Heisman Trophy Buzz Scott Polacek (B/R) — LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier is chasing a national championship and Heisman Trophy this season. And he will be representing Nike as he does so. On Friday, Nike announced on Instagram it signed Nussmeier to a name, image and likeness contract. It posted an image of Nussmeier and the words “Bayou Built” to go with a caption that says, “Born in the Bayou. Built for the big stage. Welcome to the family.” According to On 3’s NIL valuations, Nussmeier has the fourth-highest valuation in all of college football… Read more »
It’s actually 3 time zones, Ryan.
Great hat.
Thanks for the inspiration for today’s featured photo!
You’re officially worldwide now SC Gator.
Have been for over 50 years.