USC

Welcome back to the Times of Troy newsletter, where we are just deep enough into USC’s fall football camp to ask the same question we ask every year around this time:

Might this be the year that Lincoln Riley actually fields a good defense at USC?

Under D’Anton Lynn, the Trojans had unequivocally improved on that side of the ball. Lynn took the disaster that was USC’s defense under Alex Grinch and turned it into a respectable outfit, albeit one with limitations. There was no dominant, or even consistent, pass rusher. The run defense was regularly run over by good teams. And too often, in the biggest moments, there were mental lapses or self-inflicted mistakes on the back end of Lynn’s defense.

At the time, he pointed to the team’s youth as the problem.

“This team is more talented, but they’re just young,” Lynn said last November. “It’s just guys who haven’t played before. There are certain mistakes you have to live through.”

Almost a year later, USC has a new defensive coordinator. And kind of the same problem.

There are two things I think we can safely assume about this defense, compared to its 2025 counterpart: That Gary Patterson, as a newly minted College Football Hall of Famer, should be a significant upgrade from Lynn. And that the influx of five-star talent on USC’s defense should be too.

Because the hard truth, from the past four seasons, is that the Trojans just haven’t had enough talent on defense. Say what you will about the defensive coaching — and it has ranged from above average to horrendous during Riley’s tenure — but outside of Tuli Tuipulotu, who was only with Riley in 2022, USC just hasn’t had any true difference-makers capable of blowing up drives or taking over games on that end.

That’s beginning to change. The 2025 class had one defensive player I believe to be truly special in defensive tackle Jahkeem Stewart, plus a couple others who have flashed some potential, such as defensive back Alex Graham and defensive tackle Floyd Boucard.

The 2026 class could be a different animal, if early reviews are to be believed. Five-star Luke Wafle already looks the part of a dominant defensive end and doesn’t have much standing in his way if he decides to take over this season. Elbert “Rock” Hill should be a starting cornerback in short order, either this season or next, and guys such as linebacker Talanoa Ili and defensive tackles Tomuhini Topui and Jaimeon Winfield look like future starters too.

But are any of those players poised to make a difference this season? They may have to, if USC has any hope of taking a real step forward on that side of the ball.

Otherwise, the Trojans are going to need some other defenders to make the leap in their second or third seasons, guys such as linebacker Desman Stephens or defensive linemen Jide Abasiri and Kameryn Crawford who have the potential but have never delivered on it consistently. They’re also going to need the secondary to stay healthy and top corners Jontez Williams and Chasen Johnson to live up to their billing from the portal.

But while all that might seem like reason to believe USC’s defense won’t be better in 2026, I actually think there are more such reasons than in recent years.

The front is clearly deeper, and if Wafle and Stewart can break through, USC could have two difference-makers along the defensive line for the first time in years. The secondary has two possible shutdown corners for the first time too.

The main cause for concern comes at linebacker, where USC still doesn’t have much in the way of high-level options. But if Stephens and Jadyn Walker can stand up better against the run in their third seasons, which Patterson seems convinced they can do, then those long standing problems could be at least somewhat mitigated this season.

The truth is there’s no real way of knowing how USC’s defense will look when it rolls out later this month. Patterson hasn’t coached since 2021. He has told us on several occasions that his defense will look different, blending concepts from other schools he observed and from USC’s previous defense.

But on paper, at least, the potential is at least there for Patterson to put together the best defense Riley has had as USC’s coach, complete with difference-makers in the defensive front and defensive backfield. Which, when paired with a top-10 offense, could be a pretty powerful thing.

The USC Bloom Football Performance Center.

(Allen Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

It’s extremely … functional. I know that’s not the sexiest answer. But it’s not the sexiest building.

And I mean that as a compliment!

It’s clear how much the design reflects the input of Riley and his staff, as well as others who understand what USC has been dealing with for years at the John McKay Center. Eighty percent of that facility was underground. So it’s notable when you see the natural light pouring in through the atrium from the ground floor or the 30-foot garage doors opening from the weight room to the practice field.

Amenities such as pickleball courts or infrared saunas or sensory deprivation tanks are cool, but I was more impressed by the heavy emphasis put on player recovery. Which was something else that Riley trumpeted in talking with reporters after our tour. The players themselves said that their favorite part so far was the zero-gravity recliners at their lockers.

The most impressive part, to me, is how everything withing Bloom feels so big, even as space had for so long been seen as a major problem on USC’s campus. For years, administrators told me and other reporters that they’d never be able to build a new facility on campus. But Bloom checked in at three floors and 163,000-square feet and at no point does any of it feel cramped.

In fact, there’s extra space in the building. Designed for the program to have room to grow.

“My goal with this building,” Riley said Thursday, “is I hope 50 years from now, when I’m really, really, really old, that whoever is in this thing, it’s still one of the top facilities and still is the home of USC football and still gives this program every possible advantage it could.”

USC’s starting center from 2025 is out for the season. What now?

Fifth-year senior Kilian O’Connor went down with a non-contact injury last Wednesday, ending his season and presumably his tenure with the Trojans. On an emotional level, it’s a tough pill for the team to swallow.

“[He’s] certainly one of the leaders and kind of heartbeats of this program,” Riley said Thursday of the former walk-on.

But from a football standpoint, the offensive line is one of the few places where USC may actually be able to weather a loss such as O’Connor. It’s possible that he might not have started the whole season at center, anyway.

With O’Connor out, Tobias Raymond, who took reps at center in the spring, could shift there full time. That would open up another spot at guard, where the best combination of Alani Noa, Hayden Treter, Breck Kolojay or even Justin Tauanuu could fit in.

There are options. Which is not a luxury USC has at a lot of other positions. It has offensive line coach Zach Hanson to thank for that.

—USC transfer center Eric Reibe is out for the foreseeable future after foot surgery. A Trojan transfer with high expectations got hurt before playing a single game at USC? You don’t say? Once again, USC starts a season stricken with the worst injury luck. It wasn’t clear yet this week how long Reibe will be out, but I expect it’ll be a while. The Trojans have already been in the mix for former Villanova center Duke Brennan, who got an extra, fifth year of eligibility after the NCAA changed its rules, and they could go after others if he goes elsewhere. USC only has one other true center on the roster, freshman Darius Ratliff. And while he — and his brother — are very talented, the ideal trajectory for both would’ve been to bring them along slowly behind more established players.

—Alani Noa was away from the team last bowl season “to deal with some personal stuff” at home. But the Trojans incumbent starting guard said last week that “there was never a question whether I was going to play at USC” and that the staff was totally supportive at the time. Whether Noa is able to return his starting spot at guard may be another story. As noted above, he’ll have a lot of worthy competition.

—Lincoln Riley has offered a quarterback from the 2028 class. Riley doesn’t usually offer more than one, meaning his choice for 2028 is Lone Star (Texas) High dual threat Trey Wright. Wright is 5 foot 11, 180 pounds as a sophomore and already has offers from the likes of Oregon, Oklahoma and Michigan, among several others.

What I’m Watching This Week

Robert Pattinson and Zendaya in a scene from “The Drama.”

(A24)

Robert Pattinson is on a truly epic run this year, and after recommending one of his films last week (“The Odyssey”), I’m bringing us back to the Pattinson well this week with a very, very different movie and very, very different role for the long-ago Twilight vampire.

“The Drama” stars Pattinson and Zendaya as a couple on the verge of getting married, who decide, one night, to confess with their two closest friends the worst thing they’d done in their lives. One of their answers, let’s just say, isn’t received all that well. And what follows is a cringy, funny, tense, propulsive roller coaster that’s definitely worth your time. Especially since it’s now available on HBO Max.

In case you missed it

USC’s Gary Patterson out to prove college football hasn’t passed him by

From napkin sketch to crown jewel: Inside USC’s ‘magical’ football training center

New NCAA eligibility rules should help USC — and its No. 1 freshman class — flourish

USC, Notre Dame rivalry series renewed with key detail Trojans would not compromise

Until next time …

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at ryan.kartje@latimes.com, and follow me on X at @Ryan_Kartje. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

As an aspiring young quarterback at Muleshoe High in the early 2000s, Lincoln Riley attended a football camp at Texas Christian University, run by a coach known even then as a mastermind of defense, a man whose ideas and 4-2-5 scheme would one day be disseminated across college football.

Gary Patterson had just been elevated from defensive coordinator to head coach at TCU, a job he would occupy for the next two decades. Around the same time, his staff saw something in Riley. They talked briefly about giving him a shot at safety on Patterson’s vaunted TCU defense.

“Needless to say,” Riley told The Oklahoman in 2018, “it didn’t turn out.”

But a quarter-century after first crossing paths at that camp, it’s now the young quarterback giving the old ball coach a chance to prove himself.

When USC announced it was hiring Patterson as Riley’s defensive coordinator in January, ears perked up across college football. On one hand, Patterson, 66, is a freshly minted College Football Hall of Famer and one of the great defensive minds of the modern era. On the other hand, he hasn’t led a college football team since 2021, when he was forced out at TCU, and a lot has changed in the sport since. Not to mention it’s been more than 25 years since Patterson last served as a coordinator.

Those were fair concerns, considering all that’s riding on Riley getting it right with Patterson, his third defensive coordinator in five seasons. But after seven months with him on the job, you won’t find anyone at USC — players, coaches or administrators alike — with an ounce of distress over Patterson’s stamina.

“I think I would have had more reservations had I not known him,” Riley said. “But that fire still burns very, very hot.”

That much was obvious in the spring when Patterson jumped into the middle of a tackling circuit to teach proper technique, and ended up running through the whole drill. He even delivered a blow at the end.

“He knocked the guy back,” said safeties coach Paul Gonzales, who coached with Patterson for a decade at TCU. “For a 60-year old guy, he still got some pop.”

USC defensive coordinator Gary Patterson watches practice in March.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Riley is betting big on that translating to the Trojans’ defense this fall. Over his four seasons as USC’s coach, there’s no mistaking what’s held Riley back from reaching the same heights at USC as he had at Oklahoma. The Trojans finished 124th, 104th, 87th and 65th in yards allowed per play during those years.

At TCU, Patterson’s defenses finished No. 1 in yards allowed five times during a 10-year stretch. Yet in the second half of his tenure at TCU, there was a noticeable decline, as his defenses finished in the top 25 of that same category just twice.

It was during that time that Riley’s offense went toe-to-toe with Patterson’s defense on numerous occasions. Riley, who was in his first head coaching job at Oklahoma, got the better of Patterson in each of their four meetings, piling up at least 498 total yards each time out.

“There was never anyone who was more of a pain to gameplan for or try to move the ball against than this guy,” Riley said.

During his five years away from coaching, Patterson said he actually spent more time studying the game than he had at TCU, where he was often consumed with other responsibilities. After consulting briefly at Texas and Baylor, Patterson took a job with an Amazon college football show, he says, primarily for the subscription service that came with it. Every Sunday morning, he’d watch whatever college game he wanted, just to stay fresh.

When he did return to coaching, Patterson didn’t just want to install the same scheme he used at TCU. So he closely studied Ohio State and Indiana’s defenses, which gave up a combined 32 touchdowns last season — seven fewer than USC’s defense (39). He took cues on how both clamped down better than anyone else in the red zone, where they each allowed opponents to convert touchdowns just 37% of the time.

“All I did was do football,” Patterson said. “I mean, it’s like getting married. I mean, it’s like I got nothing else. I wasn’t doing anything else.”

Those habits haven’t changed at USC. When other assistants took time for vacation this summer, Patterson stayed in the facility. He wanted to hone in on how to install his defense for a second time this fall. So he came in every day before 7 a.m., in a mostly empty office — just to beat the traffic.

“You want to change things, it’s a full-time job,” Patterson said. “It’s not one of those things that you do 70 or 80% of your time.”

It also gave him time to get to know his new players, each of whom have been summarily stunned by their veteran coach’s vitality.

“I don’t know how old he is, but he‘s out there like he’s 30,” linebacker Desman Stephens said. “He‘s still being active with us. He’s showing us drills. Like, if he want it done right, he gonna show you the exact way how to do it.”

So far, at USC, Patterson has had his hands on just about every detail of the defense. Which is precisely what Riley envisioned after watching him coach at TCU — and why he wasn’t worried about the game passing Patterson by.

“He was such a hands-on head coach,” Riley said. “He wasn’t a head coach just kind of doing a practice schedule, doing the speech, getting out early. He didn’t just straight CEO this thing, right? He was still calling defense, still game planning. He was very involved in every aspect of that program through all those years.”

USC defensive coordinator Gary Patterson fist bumps linebacker Desman Stephens during practice on Aug. 5.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

He won’t have to do that at USC. And Patterson seems perfectly fine with that.

But while others still wonder if he can make a successful return to college football, with a scheme that hasn’t been tested since 2021, Patterson is pretty confident his decades of experience count for something, too.

“It’s an advantage for me compared to somebody that’s 30 years old and doesn’t have kids, never been married, doesn’t know what it’s like to grow somebody up and raise a family and do things,” Patterson said.

“This is, I think, my 45th season. … “There’s not a lot of guys in this profession of the age where you can go back to all the things that I’ve learned through all the years.”

The initial concept for USC’s Bloom Football Performance Center was first born on the back of a napkin. It was late November 2021, and Lincoln Riley was on a plane to Los Angeles, where he was slated to be introduced as USC’s coach.

The then-hypothetical facility had been a critical contingency for Riley, who never toured USC’s facilities, but knew — like most people around college football — that the Trojans were seriously lacking in that department. For years, USC officials had resisted doing anything about it. The John McKay Center hadn’t even been around a decade, they’d inevitably say. Plus, there was the not-so-insignificant problem of where to build a new facility on campus.

Riley knew that. And he asked anyway.

“That was a little bit, in that moment, my way to test how committed SC was,” Riley said Thursday. “This honestly was probably the biggest test of commitment for, ‘How invested are we to get this program back?’ When that was met with no hesitations, that was a pivotal part of me taking this job. I think it’s fair to say, if that commitment hadn’t been made, I probably wouldn’t be here.”

The Bloom Football Performance Center on the campus of USC.

Almost five years later, the plans Riley sketched out that morning have been brought to life in one of college football’s finest facilities, the towering jewel of a $225-million capital project at USC that also includes a new baseball stadium (Dedeaux Field) and a women’s soccer and lacrosse field (Rawlinson Stadium).

The three-story, 163,000-square-foot football-only facility opened Wednesday night, with Riley reflecting back on that napkin and marveling at how far the program had come since. But this gleaming building and its array of amenities had far exceeded his initial expectations, he said.

He called it “magical.”

“You can say or promise that you’re gonna build a facility, and then you can halfway do it or you can do it right and just go over the top and just really not hold back in any way, and that’s what our university has done,” Riley said. “I’m proud and thankful for the university for making this happen.”

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1. Bronze plaques of previous USC players adorn the wall of the Mark and Mary Stevens Trojan Legacy Wall at the USC Bloom Football Performance Center. 2. The weight room of the USC Bloom Football Performance Center. 3. A wall of USC players drafted by NFL teams at the Bloom Football Performance Center. 4. Trophies won by the USC football program on display at the Bloom Football Performance Center.

The real magic was that it happened at all, considering all that changed or had gone awry. The athletic director who first agreed to Riley’s facility request, Mike Bohn, resigned. The university president who signed off on it, Carol Folt, retired.

The cost of doing business in college football also went up exponentially with the advent of revenue sharing, all while the university was going through a financial crisis. None of which helped when it came to asking for $200 million in private donations.

Then there was the matter of physical space. The only option to build the facility was to demolish the Trojans’ longtime baseball field and displace the program for multiple seasons.

Hot tubs at the USC Bloom Football Performance Center.

“Think of what Coach Stank and the baseball team, what they had to give up to make this work,” Riley said. “The importance of just getting everybody together and on the same page and pushing in the same direction, this building is one of the first real signs of that. Because this took everybody.”

Riley, in particular, proved to be “very influential” in the process, according to Jeff Fucci, USC’s senior associate athletic director for capital projects.

“Coach was tireless in making sure that this was something that was not going to just be a vision and something that was talked about and not followed through on,” Fucci said.

It also took endowing just about every physical space in the facility to raise the necessary $200 million to build it, from the “Peets Family Atrium” to the “Al Cowlings Defensive Tackles Room” to a hallway labeled as the “Mark and Mary Stevens Legacy Walk.” Even some of the bathrooms bear plaques from donors eager to get their name somewhere in the building.

The locker room at the USC Bloom Football Performance Center,.

“This has been a huge, huge investment from the university,” Fucci said.

The result is a facility that stands in stark difference from the John McKay Center, which cost $70 million when it opened in 2012. That building was “80% subterranean”, according to Fucci — with not nearly enough space to contain the football program, let alone the other sports programs that used it.

Natural light pours into Bloom Center, by contrast. Thirty-foot glass doors open up onto the Trojans’ practice field from a 12,000-square-foot weight room with towering vaulted ceilings. From above, an outdoor terrace is outfitted especially for hosting recruits or other luminaries, complete, for the time being, with basketball courts and pickleball.

“I love coming to the weight room in the morning,” said offensive lineman Tobias Raymond. “The sun is coming up, and you can see it, and you open the doors and you get the fresh air blowing in.”

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1. Jeff Fucci, USC senior associate athletic director, leads the media on a tour of the Bloom Football Performance Center on Thursday. 2. USC players make their way to the locker room. 3. Mannequins on display with USC football uniforms outside of the on-site cafeteria at the Bloom Football Performance Center. 4. The cafeteria at the Bloom Football Performance Center. 5. The weight room opens near the practice field.

Riley wanted the facility to put a special emphasis on recovery. So now, players have access to infrared beds, sensory deprivation tanks and AI-led massage chairs. There are hot tubs and cold tubs and a players-only sauna, while every locker is outfitted with a leather zero gravity chair. There’s even a barbershop.

“It’s hard to get our players out of here,” Fucci said.

Riley has been no different. Shortly after moving in, with his family out of town, the coach said he hunkered down for five straight days in the facility.

Before, that would’ve meant barely seeing the sun. But now, as the sun poured through the third-floor atrium of the Bloom Center, Riley couldn’t help but point out the symbolism of such an ambitious undertaking actually coming to life.

“They said it couldn’t be done,” Riley said. “But here we are.”

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1. The football practice fields next to the Bloom Football Performance Center. 2. The rooftop deck, an event-ready space at Bloom Football Performance Center. 3. USC football coach Lincoln Riley, left, speaks to the media in the team room at the Bloom Football Performance Center on Thursday. 4. The lobby of the Bloom Football Performance Center.

Injury update

Projected starting center Kilian O’Connor suffered a non-contact injury during USC’s camp practice Wednesday and will be out for the rest of the season, Riley announced.

“Tough one for the guys to see,” Riley said. “A great reminder for all of our guys just how nothing in this game is ever guaranteed. We’re fortunate to have enough depth on the O-line that we’ve been working on to continue to push forward.”

During his eight seasons as a head college football coach, Lincoln Riley often faced a frustrating conundrum when it came to playing freshmen: Were a handful of plays at the end of a blowout really worth burning a whole year of eligibility?

“I can remember at times going to a player in the game,” Riley said Tuesday. “‘We can probably play you like five to 10 plays at the end of the game. But if you do that, we can’t play you anymore, or we’re going to have to take your redshirt.’ We’re having to talk about that in-game. … You had to be ready to adjust on the fly.”

But after years of meticulously monitoring that playing time, those adjustments will no longer be necessary, after the NCAA adopted new eligibility rules in June. The new model gives athletes a blanket five years to compete, effectively eliminating the need for redshirts or special waivers. It also could alter how rosters are constructed.

Riley has been calling for the rule change since shortly after he became USC’s head coach. And it is now being implemented at the best possible time for his Trojans.

With so many highly touted freshmen from USC’s No. 1 recruiting class sure to see the field this season, there’s no need now for Riley or his staff to look four years into their future while deciding when and how to give them game-day snaps.

“Now you can just make the best decision in the moment,” Riley said. “I think that’s great for the player. … Just play the guys who deserve to play.”

For USC, it means that a fleet of first-year players are sure to see the field, not just during the nonconference slate but beyond, as Riley and his staff feel out which members of the Trojans’ 2026 class could contribute when the schedule suddenly stiffens in late September.

“Any opportunity that we get a chance to play these guys, however it comes out,” Riley said, “you love the fact to be able to do it.”

Some schools could land veteran roster reinforcements as a result of the rule change after a judge granted an injunction allowing anyone in the class of 2022 who would’ve used the fifth year of eligibility to return to claim it. The decision is being appealed by the NCAA. Former USC wideout Jay Fair has indicated on social media that he intends to pursue that route, but as of Tuesday, Fair hadn’t rejoined the program.

The Trojans stand to benefit more than most from the new eligibility rules this season. But Riley does have one issue with the new rule. It currently stipulates that a player’s eligibility clock begins with either their full-time enrollment or the academic year following their 19th birthday, whichever occurs first.

Trent Mosley smiles while leading Santa Margarita to a Division 1 title. Mosley is among the freshmen at USC who will benefit from new eligibility rules.

(Craig Weston)

So as it stands, any freshman with a birthday prior to Sept. 1, 2006, is left with one fewer year to play than their freshmen counterparts.

At USC, that affects two members of the 2026 recruiting class — wide receiver Trent Mosley and safety Madden Riordan.

For Mosley, a former Rancho Santa Margarita star, a fifth year may not ultimately matter. He’s already 20 years old and on track to potentially start in the slot as a freshman.

But USC’s coaches were quick this week to note that the Trojans’ freshmen, no matter how talented, still had some acclimating to do.

“Age is really just a number,” inside receivers coach Chad Savage said of Mosley. “When you’re a freshman and you come into college, there’s a big learning curve, right? Whether it’s playbook, whether it’s everyday life, whether it’s the weight room, whatever it may be, um, I think from a maturity standpoint, he is very mature, but it’s just one step in front of the other, every single day with Trent.”

Tanook Hines, USC’s top returning receiver, was a bit less restrained in his evaluation.

“Trent Mosley definitely stands out,” Hines said. “He seem like a vet, like he’s already been here.”

Riordan, meanwhile, is older than some of the vets on USC’s defense, including junior starting linebacker Desman Stephens, who already has 26 games under his belt at USC. It follows then that Riordan’s football IQ has made an impression with coaches early on.

He’s one of the several freshmen who might have been on the brink of a redshirt, given his weight. But Riordan added almost 15 pounds during the summer to hit 180 and could push for a place in USC’s defensive back rotation.

Riley said he believes Mosley and Riordan — and any other freshmen, for that matter — should get the chance to play all five seasons. No matter how old they are when their college careers start.

“We have a few guys that we are in the process of seeking some clarification and potentially getting some relief on that,” Riley said of the age restrictions. “Our belief is if they’re five for five coming out of high school, they should be five for five. We should keep it simple.

“Hopefully we get to that point.”

USC coach Lincoln Riley said he is glad to have the Trojans’ annual rivalry game with Notre Dame back without compromising the Trojans’ biggest need.

The schools announced they agreed to a four-year series starting in 2030 during Week 1 of the season at the Coliseum. The following year the teams will play in Week 1 at Notre Dame Stadium. The 2032 and 2033 games will be played during Week 1-3 of the season.

“We felt like the best thing for our program was to play this game early in the season,” Riley said. “As I’ve said publicly, we’re a part of a conference. We have a conference schedule to answer to. We don’t make our own schedule, we don’t choose our own kickoff times. And so with that, we have much less flexibility and so it made more sense for us to play this game in a traditional nonconference window.”

Riley, who took many jabs locally and nationally for letting one of college football’s most prestigious rivalry series expire, has been steadfast in noting the inequity between USC playing Notre Dame amid a grueling Big Ten schedule and independent Notre Dame’s ability to surround the contest with less taxing matchups to aid its College Football Playoff push.

Ultimately, both schools said they valued the rivalry and they found a way to reach an agreement announced Monday.

USC owns a 37-53-5 all-time record against Notre Dame, excluding the Trojans’ 2005 victory, which was later vacated due to NCAA sanctions (original record: 38-53-5). Riley is 1-3 during his Trojans tenure against the Irish. The teams battle for the Jeweled Shillelagh.

“I think this benefits everyone,” Riley said. “I think this benefits USC. I think this benefits Notre Dame. I think this benefits college football. This is important. We know its important to our fan base, we know it’s important to alumni, we know it’s important to former players and coaches.”

At the start of his fifth fall camp at USC, Lincoln Riley found himself enamored with all that felt new around him. Namely the state-of-the-art, $200-million facility towering over one end of the Trojans’ practice field, with all the luxuries any football coach could ask for.

“This building is magical,” Riley said. “It’s hard to explain how different, how fantastic it is.”

On the field, in front of that gleaming facility, the Trojans also were breaking in something entirely new on Saturday: their receiving corps.

USC opened training camp this week without the services of its top returning wideout, Tanook Hines, after the sophomore underwent an offseason surgical procedure that has yet to revealed. Riley said the injury affecting Hines, who missed the spring, isn’t “overly serious” and that he’s expected back for the start of the season. But his absence leaves the Trojans with a totally new and unproven group to catch passes; many of them are getting their first experience of college football, and of quarterback Jayden Maiava.

“A lot of new bodies. Fortunately he had spring and all summer with all these guys to start developing that chemistry and that confidence,” Riley said of Maiava. “But that’s going to be something we have to work at every single day.”

Among those new players is a host of top receiver recruits expected to contribute right away. Partly, out of necessity.

Freshmen wideouts Trent Mosley and Kayden Dixon-Wyatt already made a strong impression and should immediately step into roles on offense. Tron Baker is another who presumably could carve out a place. And joining them this week at practice, after just enrolling this summer, is a freshman wideout who some believe will be the best of the bunch, top-60 recruit Boobie Feaster.

It may take Feaster time to get up to speed. Hines stepped into a similar position last season, having just arrived on campus for the summer. He proceeded to start eight games anyway.

But Hines was 19 years old by the start of his freshman season. Feaster just turned 17 in late May — and presumably would be one of the youngest players ever to suit up for USC.

Receiver isn’t the only position at which the Trojans are trending young. USC should get key contributions out of freshmen at tight end (five-star Mark Bowman), on the defensive line (five-star Luke Wafle), in the secondary and, at some point, on the offensive line.

That sort of impact should be expected after bringing in a 35-player class that ranked No. 1 in the nation. It also helps, Riley said, that so much of that class has been enrolled for seven months.

“Having as many midyears made a massive difference; I mean, there’s no question about it,” Riley said. “You can feel some of the confidence level.

“And so the less that we can have new as we go on, the more these guys settle in off the field, the better they play.”

That’s the primary goal over the next four weeks of fall camp. One that Riley already has spent plenty of time focused on, while breaking in the Bloom Football Performance Center

“These first few days in here have honestly been a little bit of a dream,” Riley said. “It’s honestly been hard to get players to go home. I haven’t left this place in five days. I haven’t left the compound.”

The L.A. billboard magnate whose name hung over the entrance to USC’s practice football field for a quarter century is suing the school for building a new, $200 million facility over top of it.

Brian Kennedy, a former whose company Regency Outdoor Advertising owns billboards all over Los Angeles, claims in the lawsuit that USC breached its contract by demolishing the practice field to build the Bloom Football Performance Center, which is set to open early next month. The arrival of the state-of-the-art facility and erasure of a field that featured the name of Kennedy and one other donor, according to a complaint obtained by The Times, has caused him “reputational harm,” “embarrassment” and “humiliation.”

“For more than two decades,” the complaint states, “the Field stood as a visible acknowledgment of [Kennedy’s] extraordinary contributions to [USC] and the lasting relationship between [Kennedy] and the University.”

Kennedy was one of USC’s most visible and vocal boosters during its glory years under football coach Pete Carroll. In recent years, Kennedy had also used his billboards to demand the return of former USC running back Reggie Bush’s Heisman Trophy.

But his relationship as a big-time donor to Trojan athletics really began in 1998, when USC was desperate to build a new practice field for new football coach Paul Hackett.

Kennedy told The Times in 2023 that the school came to him after it had trouble finding another wealthy booster to foot the bill. To that point, he’d only made smaller contributions, primarily to the club hockey and golf teams. But eventually, the school convinced Kennedy to fork over $400,000 for the field, under the condition, he said, that he control all aspects of the construction. He also later paid to add turf and an electronic scoreboard to the field.

He also later paid to add turf and an electronic scoreboard to the field.

Kennedy and USC officially entered into an agreement to construct the field in April 1998. According to the complaint, the original agreement to name the field “and any expansion of it” after Kennedy was intended to remain in effect “for the life of the field.”

The original agreement, according to Kennedy, was for the terms of the agreement to remain “for a period of 50 years.” But that language, the complaint notes, was struck from the agreement before the final agreement was drafted a week later.

How the “life” of Howard Jones and Brian Kennedy Field is defined will be especially important to the case. USC has made changes to the practice field and reconfigured it since its original construction. A person familiar with the school’s thinking but not authorized to speak publicly told The Times that the school plans to argue the field had outlived its usefulness.

USC defensive coordinator Gary Patterson directs players during a practice at Howard Jones and Brian Kennedy Field on March 10.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

Kennedy did meet with USC officials at one point to try to find a “a mutually acceptable means of preserving and honoring the recognition previously afforded and promised to [him].” But he ultimately felt that USC wasn’t offering “comparable recognition” to his original investment in building a field he saw as part of his legacy.

Now, he’s suing USC for promissory estoppel, fraud, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing and negligent misrepresentation. Kennedy says in the filing that righting the wrong would mean “enforcement of USC’s promises” as well as “appropriate relief for the plaintiff.”

Even with the new facility opening, the plan at USC, according to a person familiar with the situation, had been to keep the west entrance to the practice field which bears Kennedy’s name, known as Goux’s Gate, untouched. The school also plans to add a plaque to the facility that denotes that it stands on the ground where Brian Kennedy Field once stood.

That wasn’t enough for Kennedy, who says the school has acted “willful, malicious, oppressive, fraudulent” and “despicable” as it planned its facility improvements.

During interviews with The Times in 2023 and 2024, Kennedy expressed a deep love and affection for his alma mater. But for more than a decade, his relationship with USC has been complicated, to say the least.

It first soured over a decade ago, during the tenure of athletic director Pat Haden. Where Kennedy was close to his predecessor, Mike Garrett, he did not get along with Haden. Kennedy was a major proponent of former Trojan assistant Ed Orgeron, who led USC on a magical, late-season run as interim coach in 2013 — and who was infamously passed over for the job in favor of Steve Sarkisian.

Kennedy told The Times he also clashed with Haden’s successor, Lynn Swann, over pledged funding for the Galen Center.

His complaint states that Kennedy, in total, has contributed over $4 million to USC.

Former USC athletic director Mike Bohn made inroads with Kennedy, meeting with him for lunch multiple times. But Kennedy told The Times he felt the same effort hadn’t been made by Bohn’s successor, Jennifer Cohen.

The practice field naming rights proved to be the last straw in what was already a fraught relationship with USC.

LeBron James didn’t have a speech prepared.

“I’m just speaking to y’all from the heart,” the NBA’s all-time leading scorer told the audience Thursday night at the Time 100 Sports gala in New York.

In James’ heart and on his mind at that moment was his oldest son Bronny James, who nearly three years ago suffered sudden cardiac arrest as an 18-year-old rising freshman while practicing with the USC basketball team. He later was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect but eventually was able to resume his basketball career.

James and his son ended up becoming Lakers teammates for two seasons before the 23-year veteran became a free agent this summer. Bronny James is entering his third season with the Lakers after contract became fully guaranteed earlier this month.

“Obviously, if it wasn’t for the coaching staff and the medical team and everybody at USC being there in a timely fashion, we’d possibly be sitting here without our oldest son,” said James “So thank you to everybody and all the efforts when it comes to cardiac arrest.”

In June, Time magazine released its inaugural issue highlighting the 100 most influential people in sports, with James on the cover as “athlete of the century.”

James was one of the featured speakers at the gala honoring those individuals, as were fellow Time 100 Sports list members New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson, Olympic gold medalist skater Alysa Liu, Invictus Games founder Prince Harry and women’s soccer legend Alex Morgan.

Savy King and Damar Hamlin speak onstage during the Time 100 Sports gala July 16 in New York.

(Jemal Countess / Getty Images for TIME)

Earlier in the evening, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin and Angel City FC defender Savy King gave a presentation on their experiences as athletes who suffered cardiac arrest while playing in games for their respective teams.

Like Bronny James, they were both young athletes at the time of their incidents — Hamlin was 24; King was 20 — and both were fortunate to have trained medical staff members on hand to perform CPR and use defribulators to save their lives.

Their message hit home for James.

“Guys, take that serious,” he said. “If you got kids in elementary, you got kids in middle school, kids in high school, colleges. Make sure they have these devices available where you can get them, practice them. It’s very important, super, super important. Obviously, we know how important it is to our family, so we’re a big advocate of that.”

The Swoosh is staying at USC for the foreseeable future.

USC and Nike agreed this week to a 10-year extension of their all-sports apparel deal through 2036, the school announced on Tuesday.

Their partnership was already among the longest-running apparel deals in college athletics. Now it’s ensured to carry into its fifth decade.

“USC and Nike have grown together for more than 30 years,” athletic director Jennifer Cohen said in a statement, “and we are thrilled to continue one of the great partnerships in college athletics.”

At the time that USC first signed exclusively with Nike, such corporate sponsorships were a relatively new revenue stream for the school. Now, in the revenue-sharing era, they’ve become a ubiquitous — and essential — part of operating an athletic department.

This new deal should look a bit different than the last few times that USC extended their apparel deal with Nike. For one, it includes an NIL component, with select top-tier Trojan athletes slated to score their own NIL deals with Nike.

As part of the extension, USC’s new Bloom Football Performance Center will become the first facility in the nation fully outfitted with Nike strength equipment. Nike also agreed to design “custom uniform collections” for the USC men’s and women’s basketball programs and to renovate the USC Bookstore.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Other Big Ten schools signed with Nike signed during a stretch between 2015 and 2016 that became an apparel arms race around college football. Ohio State signed a 15-year, $252-million deal with Nike in 2016, while Michigan inked an 11-year, $174-million deal with Nike and Jordan Brand.

Continuing my summer observations looking back at memorable moments in covering high school sports since 1976, you can’t find a better, more beloved action-packed night than Feb. 24, 2017, at USC’s Galen Center when you got to see two great high school basketball games for the price of one in the Southern Section Open Division semifinals.

Anyone who was there remembers the long lines to get in, the sold-out crowd and drama involving Sierra Canyon against Bishop Montgomery and Mater Dei against Chino Hills.

Enjoy the memories from the video looking back.

Welcome back to the Times of Troy newsletter, where we’re just one month out from fall camp and the start of Lincoln Riley’s fifth season at USC. Soon enough, we’ll have actual football to discuss and not just the existential crises surrounding it.

But while the college sports calendar remains dormant for the moment, summer basketball practice is in full swing at USC. The Times was there at Galen Center last week to get an idea of where the Trojans stand heading into a critical third season for Eric Musselman as coach. And I came away feeling like this is the most talented team the Trojans have had in quite some time.

What that will mean come March, I wouldn’t even attempt to speculate at this point. It’s June. This team has been together only a couple of weeks. Plans are bound to change. And injuries are bound to happen.*

*I do feel safe in assuming whatever ancient curse or voodoo hex was cast long ago on USC basketball can’t possibly derail another season like it did the last one.**

**OK, so transfer center Eric Reibe aggravating an injury in June and sitting out the summer isn’t … ideal. And sure, neither is the fact that transfer guard KJ Lewis won’t be cleared from the ankle injury he suffered in February until “hopefully mid-to-late September,” per Musselman. But still no freak car accidents, sudden cardiac incidents or bizarre player dismissals to date …

But Musselman has all the makings of a roster that should — read: must — make it to March.

The difference isn’t so much in what USC added to its roster, but rather in who Musselman and his staff managed to retain from the previous one. That was USC’s primary focus coming into the offseason.

Instead of having to rebuild an entire team from scratch like in Musselman’s first two seasons, which proved much more difficult than expected, the Trojans brought back their three top returning players: Rodney Rice, Alijah Arenas and Jacob Cofie.

“Those three are a great start for us,” Musselman said last week, and alluded to losing two transfers last year. “We learned with Wes [Yates] and [Desmond Claude], that hurt us.”

The continuity is significant. At least two of those returners will be starters, with a full year in Musselman’s system, and all three could be drafted next spring if they have strong seasons.

It starts with Rice, the guard who through six games last season looked like a bona fide rising star. His shoulder injury ended up totally changing the Trojans’ trajectory. His return should be equally impactful.

“I can play at a high level, an All-American level,” Rice said. “I have all the confidence in the world still.”

Musselman and his staff feel the same way. And all parties involved concur that the makeup of this roster will better maximize Rice’s skills. He’ll be able to play more off the ball, with other options like lightning-quick Colgate transfer Jalen Cox able to handle more of the load as a floor general.

Rice won’t return to full go until after summer practice, but that’s more of a precaution than anything. He could be on the brink of a big season, if all things break right.

I’m less confident in the spring emergence of Cofie, the forward who played his way into an NBA scouting combine invite in May. When he first signed with USC, Musselman told me he thought Cofie was a future first-round pick. But considering the expectations, I thought his first season as a Trojan was mostly underwhelming.

Musselman thought Cofie “didn’t really have a stamp on the roster” last season. But so far this year, “He’s kind of a different guy.”

Cofie has made a point to expand his game to the perimeter. Just 27% of Cofie’s shots last season came from behind the arc, and he made just 31% of them. But any added spacing would be welcomed on a roster with potential to get bogged down inside the arc.

“You’ll see me shoot a lot more threes,” Cofie said last week. We’ll see how that factors into the lineups that USC is able to deploy this fall.

The most intriguing of the Trojans’ trio of returners is Arenas, given the wide range of possible outcomes in front of the guard this season. After arriving last year as one of the most-hyped hoops prospects in school history, he returns with a chance to basically redo his ill-fated freshman year.

The challenge for him as a sophomore is to be a more efficient player, after shooting just 34% from the field and 21% from three-point range. Arenas also uncharacteristically struggled finishing at the rim and with his shot selection, two skills that previously were seen as strengths.

He has all the tools to bounce back. Arenas’ ability to create space and find his own shot, in particular, is special. The question is how those tools best fit USC with so many more options around him.

When he debuted in January last season after missing the start because of knee surgery, Arenas immediately shouldered the load and dominated the ball. It was too much to ask of a freshman in that situation. But that’s no longer necessary with Rice healthy and Cox able to handle the point. Arenas will benefit from being off the ball more often.

Adding three McDonald’s All-Americans should go a long way with this team as well, if only because there will be real talent at the back end of the rotation. And unlike last season, USC should be able to bring its freshmen along at their own pace.

The potential is obvious with Darius and Adonis Ratliff, but both presumably would benefit from that time. Christian Collins, on the other hand, looks primed to make an impact right away, if needed. Watching him knife through the lane on his way to the hoop last week, I found myself wondering if he might be a lottery pick by next spring.

“Christian has been very impressive,” Musselman said. “We knew the intangibles and the length and the reaction to loose balls, but he has scored the ball, you know, [really well] for a freshman at this early stage.”

It’s far too early to draw any conclusions about the upcoming season. But after watching just one practice, it’s not hard to see why Musselman and his staff are feeling especially sunny this summer.

New eligibility rules

Back in October 2024, days after two USC defenders announced they were sitting out the football season to preserve their eligibility, a frustrated Riley offered what he felt was a reasonable solution to a growing problem.

“Guys should have five years to do whatever you want,” Riley said. “I think it should be that plain and simple. Then nobody has to worry about any of this other crap like how many games you’ve played.”

Almost two years later, the NCAA is finally on board with the coach.

The Division 1 Cabinet voted last week to implement major changes to the NCAA’s eligibility rules, giving athletes five years of eligibility to play five seasons. That means no more redshirts, no more medical waivers, no more eligibility questions. All eligibility clocks start the academic year after an athlete’s 19th birthday, and the only exceptions, per the NCAA, are for pregnancy, active-duty military service and religious missions.

Any athlete who wants to state their case for an extra year of eligibility has until the end of next month. But after that, the word “redshirt” officially can be retired from the college football vocabulary.

USC pitching coach Sean Allen talks to Gavin Lauridsen during a Super Regional game last season.

(Kara Durrette / For The Times)

—Musselman has yet to have one of his USC players selected in the NBA draft. But that will change next season. I’d expect, by next spring, we will be talking about as many as three Trojans who could be selected in 2027. Collins and Arenas are five-star talents, and while Collins’ stock is higher at the moment, Arenas easily could return to draft darling status with a strong start to the season. Then there’s Cofie, who balled his way into a draft combine invite this spring, and Rice, whose name will be known in draft circles soon enough.

—Fourteen USC baseball players entered the transfer portal. That group includes two promising young pitchers in Diego Velazquez (who also plays infield) and Gavin Lauridsen. Both were highly touted prospects and looked slated for bigger roles next season. USC also lost its starting catcher to the portal again, with Isaac Cadena committing to Clemson. Losing the young pitchers is a blow, but without the backing to match the name, image and licensing offers of some ACC and SEC teams, this sort of exodus is just inevitable.

What I’m Watching This Week

Tatiana Maslany in “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed.”

(Apple TV)

Apple has been on an absolute heater, and “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed” is yet another unique and worthy entrant into its growing library of prestige TV. It stars Tatiana Maslany as Paula, a divorced mom and magazine fact-checker whose only solace is returning to a webcam boy who turns out to be scamming her. Her life is unraveling, but when she takes matters into her own hands, it only descends further into chaos.

“Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed” is an absolute thrill ride and one of the more surprising shows I’ve seen this year.

In case you missed it

USC freshman linebacker Talanoa Ili joins lawsuit seeking to upend new NIL system

USC paid Lincoln Riley nearly $12 million in lackluster 2024 season

Until next time …

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at ryan.kartje@latimes.com, and follow me on X at @Ryan_Kartje. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

From Ryan Kartje: She’d been out for more than a year, her long, arduous recovery from a season-ending knee injury kept almost completely under wraps. But as JuJu Watkins took her place in front of a microphone for the first time since returning to practice this summer, the USC superstar barely could contain her gratitude.

Asked Monday what the best part about being back has been so far, a big smile crept across Watkins’ face.

“Honestly everything,” Watkins said. “Like I don’t even know, the smallest stuff just gets me excited.”

Watkins’ return is a momentous mile marker for a Trojans team that has serious national title aspirations this season. Her status remains uncertain, and reporters in attendance Monday were told not to inquire further about Watkins’ recovery timeline. But she did say she’s already been able to scrimmage during USC’s summer practice and that she’s “feeling back like myself.”

“It’s just been a long time coming,” Watkins said. “I’ve just been working out and grinding every day so that I could be in position, so to see all of that hard work pay off right now, it’s really fulfilling.”

Continue reading here

Monday’s World Cup results

Round of 32
Brazil 2, Japan 1
Paraguay 1, Germany 1 (Paraguay wins on PK’s, 4-3)
Morocco 1, Netherlands 1 (Morocco wins on PK’s, 3-2)

Today’s World Cup TV schedule

All times Pacific
10 a.m., Ivory Coast vs. Norway, Fox, Telemundo
2 p.m., France vs. Sweden, Fox, Telemundo
6 p.m., Mexico vs. Ecuador, Fox, Telemundo

World Cup round of 32 schedule, results

Canada 1, South Africa 0
Brazil 2, Japan 1
Paraguay 1, Germany 1 (Paraguay wins on PK’s, 4-3)
Morocco 1, Netherlands 1 (Morocco wins on PK’s, 3-2)

All times Pacific
Tuesday
Ivory Coast vs. Norway, 10 a.m., Fox, Telemundo
France vs. Sweden, 2 p.m., Fox, Telemundo
Mexico vs. Ecuador, 6 p.m., Fox, Telemundo

Wednesday
England vs. Congo DR, 9 a.m., Fox, Telemundo
Belgium vs. Senegal, 1 p.m., FS1, Telemundo
U.S. vs. Bosnia-Herzegovina, 5 p.m., Fox, Telemundo

Thursday
Spain vs. Austria, noon, Fox, Telemundo
Portugal vs. Croatia, 4 p.m., Fox, Telemundo
Switzerland vs. Algeria, 8 p.m., FS1, Telemundo

Friday
Australia vs. Egypt, 11 a.m., Fox, Telemundo
Argentina vs. Cape Verde, 3 p.m., Fox, Telemundo
Colombia vs. Ghana, 6:30 p.m., Fox, Telemundo

Round of 16 schedule

Saturday
Canada vs. Morocco, 10 a.m., Fox, Telemundo
Paraguay vs. France or Sweden, 2 p.m., Fox, Telemundo

Sunday
Brazil vs. Norway or Ivory Coast, 1 p.m., Fox, Telemundo

Dodgers defeat the Athletics

From Bill Shaikin: Teoscar Hernández was back from a hamstring injury, and a little bit humble. He was about to play his first game in a month for the Dodgers.

“I don’t think they really need me in the lineup,” he said, with a hint of a smile.

Hernández hit 58 home runs over his first two seasons with the Dodgers, each of which ended in a World Series championship, so of course they need him. But, in his absence, the Dodgers had more than doubled their National League West lead.

Hernández is back, but Will Smith and Kiké Hernández still are out. So are Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell and Edwin Díaz.

No matter: The Dodgers boosted their division lead to 11 games Monday with a 9-4 victory over the Athletics. Shohei Ohtani, Max Muncy and Andy Pages homered to highlight a 17-hit attack.

Continue reading here

Dodgers box score

MLB standings

Angels lose to Mariners

Cole Young hit two home runs to back eight strong innings from George Kirby as the Seattle Mariners came from behind to beat the Angels 6-2 on Monday night.

Dominic Canzone also went deep to help Seattle (43-43) get back to .500 and stay a half-game behind the first-place Texas Rangers in the American League West.

Zach Neto doubled to center field leading off the game against Kirby (7-7), and Denzer Guzman singled two pitches later for a 1-0 lead. Neto hit his 18th home run in the third — a two-out shot that made it 2-0.

Continue reading here

Angels box score

MLB standings

Who is coming back to the Lakers?

From Broderick Turner: As LeBron James dominated the news cycle regarding his future on the eve of NBA free agency, another member of the Lakers’ starting lineup returned.

Deandre Ayton is picking up his contract option for $8.1 million, according to people not authorized to publicly discuss the decision.

The 7-foot Ayton averaged career lows in points (12.5), rebounds (8.2) and minutes per game (27.2) in his first season with the Lakers, but played a career-high 72 games and shot a career-best 67.1% from the field. He averaged 10 points and 9.6 rebounds in the playoffs.

Lakers guard Marcus Smart declined his option of $5.9 million and will become an unrestricted free agent, according to people not authorized to publicly discuss the decision.

Smart is expected to have several teams pursue him in free agency, with the Houston Rockets reportedly among them.

He was the Lakers’ best defender and averaged 9.3 points and 3.0 assists last season, also his first with the team.

As for James, he’s an unrestricted free agent who earned $52.6 million last season. Lakers president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka said during his season-ending news conference in May that they would give James time with his family to decide his future.

Continue reading here

Former Lakers Malik Beasley and Ed Davis accused of illegal gambling, wire fraud and money laundering

This day in sports history

1909 — Jack Johnson fights Tony Ross to a no decision in 6 rounds at Duquesne Gardens, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to retain his heavyweight boxing title.

1916 — Amateur Chick Evans Jr. wins the U.S. Open with a record 286 total.

1929 — Bobby Jones beats Al Espinosa by 23 strokes in a 36-hole playoff to win the U.S. Open.

1962 — Murle Lindstrom wins the U.S. Women’s Open by two strokes over Jo Anne Prentice and Ruth Jessen.

1965 — The NFL grants Atlanta a franchise. Rankin Smith Sr., an Executive Vice President of Life Insurance Company of Georgia, pays $8.5 million for the franchise. It’s the highest price paid in league history at the time.

1975 — Muhammad Ali retains world heavyweight boxing crown by beating Englishman Joe Bugner by unanimous points decision in a re-match in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

1991 — Wimbledon breaks 114 years of tradition by playing on the middle Sunday of the tournament, a move forced by a huge backlog of matches caused by rain earlier in the week.

1991 — Meg Mallon sinks a 10-foot birdie putt on the final hole to break a tie with Pat Bradley and Ayako Okamoto and win the LPGA Championship.

1993 — NBA Draft: Michigan center Chris Webber first pick by Orlando Magic (traded to Golden State).

1994 — Diego Maradona is kicked out of the World Cup by FIFA for failing a drug test after Argentina’s June 25 victory over Nigeria in Foxboro, Mass.

1994 — Tonya Harding is stripped of her national title and banned for life from the U.S. Figure Skating Assn. because of her role in an attack on Nancy Kerrigan.

1996 — UEFA European Championship Final, Wembley Stadium, London, England: Oliver Bierhoff scores his second goal in extra time as Germany beat Czech Republic, 2-1.

1999 — NBA Draft: Duke power forward Elton Brand first pick by Chicago Bulls.

2002 — Ronaldo scores both goals to lead Brazil to a 2-0 victory over Germany for the team’s record fifth World Cup title.

2012 — Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan becomes the first player in a Grand Slam tournament to win every point of a set on her way to beating French Open runner-up Sara Errani 6-0, 6-4 in the third round of Wimbledon.

2013 — Inbee Park wins the U.S. Women’s Open for her third straight major this year. Babe Zaharias is the last player to win three straight majors on the calendar, but that was in 1950 when that’s all there were.

2013 — NHL Draft: Halifax Mooseheads (QMJHL) center Nathan MacKinnon #1 pick by Colorado Avalanche.

2015 — The United States defeat Germany 2-0 in semifinals at Women’s World Cup. Carli Lloyd converts a penalty kick for Team USA and a 1-0 lead. Substitute Kelley O’Hara scores in the 84th minute off a Lloyd cross to seal the U.S. team’s 2-0 victory.

2018 — FIFA World Cup: Kylian Mbappé (19) becomes only 2nd teenager (Pelé 1st 1958) to score twice in a World Cup match as France eliminate Argentina 4-3 in Kazan.

2020 — FC Barcelona’ Argentine soccer player Lionel Messi scores his 700th career goal in a 2-2 draw with Atletico Madrid.

Compiled by the Associated Press

This day in baseball history

1908 — Cy Young of the Boston Red Sox pitched the third no-hitter of his career at age 41, an 8-0 win over the New York Highlanders.

1948 — Cleveland’s Bob Lemon pitched a 2-0 no-hitter against the Detroit Tigers for the first American League no-hitter at night.

1962 — Sandy Koufax of the Dodgers struck out 13 New York Mets en route to the first of four career no-hitters, a 5-0 victory at Dodger Stadium.

1970 — Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati was dedicated, but Henry Aaron spoiled the show for the crowd of 51,050 with a first-inning homer off Jim McGlothlin to send Atlanta past the Reds 8-2.

1978 — Willie McCovey became the 12th player in major league history to hit 500 home runs. His shot off Atlanta’s Jamie Easterly wasn’t enough, with the Braves beating the visiting San Francisco Giants 10-5 in the second game of a doubleheader.

1986 — 1985 Heisman Trophy winner Bo Jackson makes his pro baseball debut with the Memphis Chicks of the double-A Southern League and goes 1 for 4 with two strikeouts.

1995 — Eddie Murray of the Cleveland Indians became the second switch-hitter and the 20th player in baseball history to reach 3,000 hits when he singled against the Minnesota Twins. Murray joined Pete Rose, the career hits leader with 4,256, as the only switch-hitters to get 3,000.

1997 — Bobby Witt of Texas hit the first home run by an American League pitcher in a regular-season game in almost 25 years, connecting off Ismael Valdes in the Rangers’ 3-2 interleague victory over the Dodgers.

1998 — Sammy Sosa hit his 20th home run in June, extending his major league record for most homers in a month with an eighth-inning shot for the Cubs against Arizona.

2005 — Chad Cordero earned his 15th save in June in the Washington Nationals’ 7-5 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. He tied a major league record set by Lee Smith in 1993 and matched by John Wetteland in 1996.

2006 — Adam Dunn hit a grand slam with two out in the bottom of the ninth inning off closer Bob Wickman to lead Cincinnati to a 9-8 victory over Cleveland.

2008 — Nick Swisher homered from both sides of the plate, hitting his second grand slam in four games and adding a solo shot to lead the Chicago White Sox past Cleveland, 9-7.

2009 — Nick Markakis hit a two-run double off Boston closer Jonathan Papelbon to complete the biggest comeback in Baltimore Orioles history for an 11-10 win. Baltimore trailed 10-1 before scoring five runs in the seventh inning and five more in the eighth.

2016 — Coastal Carolina capitalized on two errors on the same play for four unearned runs in the sixth inning, and the Chanticleers won their first national championship in any sport with a 4-3 victory over Arizona in Game 3 of the College World Series finals. The Chanticleers became the first school since Minnesota in 1956 to win the title in its first CWS appearance.

2020 — Minor League Baseball officially announces the cancellation of its season as Major League Baseball will keep a “taxi squad” of eligible players that can be added to the roster if needed.

2021 — Washington Nationals shortstop Trea Turner ties the major league record by hitting for the cycle for the third time in his career in a 15-6 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

She’d been out for over a year, her long, arduous recovery from a season-ending knee injury kept almost completely under wraps. But as JuJu Watkins took her place in front of a microphone for the first time since returning to practice this summer, the USC superstar could barely contain her gratitude.

Asked Monday what the best part about being back has been so far, a big smile crept across Watkins’ face.

“Honestly everything,” Watkins said. “Like I don’t even know, the smallest stuff just gets me excited.”

Watkins’ return is a momentous mile marker for a team that has serious national title aspirations this season. Her status remains uncertain, and reporters in attendance Monday were told not to inquire further about Watkins’ specific recovery timeline. But Watkins did say that she’s already been able to scrimmage during USC’s summer practice and that she’s “feeling back like myself.”

“It’s just been a long time coming,” Watkins said. “I’ve just been working out and grinding every day so that I could be in position, so to see all of that hard work pay off right now, it’s really fulfilling.”

Watkins was a two-time consensus All-American and the Associated Press Player of the Year in 2025, when her knee buckled that March during a breakaway in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The injury, a torn ACL, wouldn’t just derail a possible title run for USC that season, but also upend the Trojans’ trajectory for the next one.

Facing one of the toughest schedules in the nation, USC missed Watkins dearly. The Trojans finished their frustrating campaign 18-14 before losing in the Round of 32.

As she sat out, Watkins said she struggled to keep still. Patience didn’t necessarily come naturally. She found herself leaning on others, she said, like Dallas Wings point guard Paige Bueckers, who went through her own ACL recovery.

“She was constantly checking up on me, sending me texts, encouraging me,” Watkins said of Bueckers. ‘I really appreciated that.”

Coaches suggested she pour that energy into her teammates. So she took solace in doing the little things, like arranging the locker room chairs during pre-game.

“Just to watch her take something that was so difficult and pour herself into everything that went into last year was something I’ll never forget,” coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “I really do take a lot of inspiration from it.”

The silver lining, coming out of a season without their superstar, was the emergence of freshman Jazzy Davidson, who came to USC to play alongside Watkins. Instead, she ended up winning National Freshman of the Year and becoming a rising star in her own right,

This month, Watkins and Davidson were finally able to take the floor together, just as Gottlieb had once envisioned. She’d waited quite a while for that pairing, she reminded Monday. But Davidson, she thinks, will be all the better for having survived her freshman season without Watkins.

“You just come back with a different level of confidence,” Gottlieb said. “I hope she brings with her every experience she had because who had more experience than Jazzy in terms of a freshman year where she handled so much?”

Now, with Watkins back and Davidson set to take another step forward, there won’t be so much pressure on the Trojans’ newest top recruit.

Saniyah Hall marks the third straight No. 1 overall prospect to sign with Gottlieb and USC, but she steps into a decidedly different scenario than the other two did. In addition to Watkins and Davidson, the Trojans also brought in two other top freshmen in Sitaya Fagan and Sara Okeke, as well as two priority portal adds in Ryann Bennett and Pania Davis.

“With the talent that’s on the team,” Hall said, “I think it could be something that’s very special.”

That starts with Watkins, who, in spite of a year away, apparently hasn’t skipped a beat in her return.

“I feel like she’s back like she never left,” guard Kennedy Smith said.

The first serious legal challenge to the House settlement will come courtesy of a USC freshman linebacker.

Talanoa Ili, a top-100 recruit in the Trojans’ vaunted 2026 class, joins Stanford quarterback Charlie Mirer as one of two lead plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit that takes aim at the system implemented since the settlement ushered in a new era of direct payment from universities to athletes. The suit, which was filed Tuesday, accuses the NCAA, the Power Four conferences and the enforcement arm they created — the College Sports Commission — of participating in a “conspiracy” by creating a system of policies that have “direct anti-competitive effects, including the suppression of [name, image and likeness] compensation below competitive levels.”

Those policies, their attorneys argue, violate state laws in California that prohibit restrictions on NIL rights, as well as federal antitrust statutes. They’re seeking monetary damages, as well as an injunction that would upend the enforcement structure created to determine whether individual NIL deals over $2,500 meet criteria, including whether they have “a valid business purpose” or fall within a reasonable range of market value.

The clearinghouse, NIL Go, was created with the hope of eliminating an influx of booster-funded NIL deals that were basically direct payments from donors to the program. But since its inception, the system has been more restrictive and worked less efficiently than some schools and athletes might have hoped. As of last month, according to Yahoo Sports, more than $125 million worth of NIL compensation that had been promised to athletes had been rejected by the clearinghouse or was still under review.

In Ili’s case, the complaint states that he received a “substantial multi-year offer” from USC’s House of Victory collective in 2024 that led him to commit to the Trojans, only to have the offer disappear after approval of the House settlement.

“Absent the NIL Restrictions on Direct Pay NIL Compensation, Ili would have received more for his NIL rights than he now receives,” the complaint states. “The Agreement has thus injured Ili.”

Mirer, meanwhile, claims that he has received no NIL compensation from Stanford’s collective or revenue-sharing money from the university since 2024 as a result of the settlement.

Stanford quarterback Charlie Mirer during a game last season.

(Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)

“The [CSC agreement] has suppressed, deterred, and effectively terminated the economic relationships that had produced his prior NIL compensation,” the lawsuit says.

Even the plaintiffs in the House settlement, which created the CSC, are in the process of challenging the current system. On Wednesday, plaintiff attorney Jeffrey Kessler will argue in a hearing that school-affiliated businesses such as multimedia rights holders or corporate sponsors, should not be subject to the CSC’s rigorous criteria for NIL deals. That decision could also open the floodgates, with schools using those entities to circumvent the cap.

Two U.S. senators are hoping to pass legislation they believe would bring more stability to college athletics and thwart legal challenges. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Texas) spoke with presidents and chancellors from the Big Ten Conference on Tuesday about a bipartisan bill, the Protect College Sports Act, which would codify some of the CSC’s policies into federal law.

His 7-6 record at USC in 2024 would go down as the worst mark of Lincoln Riley’s career as a head football coach. But in his third and rockiest year at the helm of the Trojans, Riley was still compensated like one of the kings of the sport.

Riley was paid more than $11.8 million in total compensation during the fiscal year 2024, according to USC’s latest federal tax returns, which were obtained by The Times. That total includes a $100,000 bonus and $10.4 million in base pay, believed to be more than all but three college football coaches that season: Georgia’s Kirby Smart, Clemson’s Dabo Swinney and Ohio State’s Ryan Day. All three have won a national title.

For Riley, his pay in 2024 marks just a slight increase from the 2023 season, when USC paid Riley more than $11.5 million in total compensation. The coach’s base pay increased by $145,143 between fiscal years 2023 and 2024, slightly less than it rose following his debut season in 2022 ($168,000).

At least in 2024, USC only had to pay one football coach, after paying Clay Helton a combined $9 million not to coach over the two previous years.

The school would, however, have to pay up a bit to bring in a new men’s basketball coach.

After Andy Enfield left to coach Southern Methodist after the 2023-24 season, USC shelled out more than $6.1 million total in 2024 to lure coach Eric Musselman from Arkansas, according to the university’s latest federal tax records. One million of that was paid to Arkansas to buy out Musselman’s contract.

That puts Musselman at a reported $5.1 million in total pay and benefits from the school in 2024, according to the school’s tax records. That total likely includes additional costs unique to a coaching change. But altogether, it would have ranked Musselman among the highest-paid coaches in the Big Ten for the 2024-25 season.

Musselman didn’t exactly deliver on that investment during the 2024-25 season, as USC bottomed out during its first Big Ten men’s basketball slate. The Trojans finished 17-18 and 7-13 in the Big Ten.

After including her information in tax forms from the previous year, the university did not disclose compensation figures from 2024 for USC athletic director Jennifer Cohen. Federal tax returns filed last May had credited Cohen with more than $3 million in reportable compensation in her first year on the job, $1 million of which was used to buy out Cohen from her Washington contract.

Welcome back to the Times of Troy newsletter, where USC baseball’s charmed season came to a devastating end in the bottom of the ninth of a decisive Super Regional matchup with North Carolina on Sunday. But no matter how brutal it may have been in the moment — with black-stained tears streaming down Trojan cheeks in Chapel Hill — the fact that USC was in position to have its heart broken at all is a testament to what Andy Stankiewicz has built in his four seasons at the helm.

It was barely a year ago that I sat with Stankiewicz in an unfinished concrete dugout at new Dedeaux Field, discussing the importance of building a foundation for a program that had lacked one for so long. The metaphor wrote itself at the time. His team was on the cusp of clinching its first NCAA berth in a decade, just as its new stadium was finally rounding into form. But as triumphant as that tournament invite would be when it finally happened, Stankiewicz was already thinking bigger.

“We want to build this thing for the long haul,” he said then. “And to build a home, you have to build a strong foundation so it can withstand the weather. The same thing applies here. I want to be here for a long time. This is where I grew up. This is where I’d love to be.”

A year later, the foundation hasn’t just been built. The house is finished. The front door is open. All that’s left is for the Trojans to walk through it.

They had their chance Sunday in Chapel Hill. Andrew Johnson twirled another postseason gem. The Trojan bats, again, delivered in big moments, with clutch solo shots from Kevin Takeuchi and Andrew Lamb. Through 8.2 innings, USC had given up just a single run.

But the bullpen, which had been one of the Trojans’ few weak points all season, couldn’t finish the job. Sax Matson came in for just a single pitch and was pulled. Adam Troy faced three batters, walked one who scored and was pulled in the middle of a 3-0 count for another. Chase Herrell faced four batters after that, walked one and gave up two other hits, including the walk-off winner.

Just two outs stood between the Trojans and a trip to Omaha. At one point, all they had to do was catch a fouled pop fly to send the game to extras.

“That was a tough one,” Stankiewicz said after. “As best we can, we’re gonna move forward. But again, I got some disappointed young men in our dugout. As the head coach, you think, ‘Dang it, what could I have done differently?’”

Surely, the Trojans coach might be thinking all season about how close his team was to reaching that next rung as a program. The truth, though, is it’s a wonder they got here this fast in the first place. USC won 48 games, its most in a quarter century. It had to climb its way back from the loser’s bracket in its regional, then, on the road in Chapel Hill, it took one of the national title favorites to the brink.

Not only that, but USC rose to that level in a still-unfinished stadium, without anything resembling the NIL firepower that other college baseball teams, particularly in the SEC and ACC, are wielding. USC has tried to make up for that by funding more scholarships, but when other teams are handing kids hundreds of thousands more in NIL offers, it makes competing with the Joneses especially difficult.

Stankiewicz has managed to make it work, anyway. And as more talent rolls into Troy, there’s every reason to believe that we’ll look back on this moment, not as a devastating end, but the start of something particularly special for USC baseball.

“We got to the finals of the Regional last year. Now the finals of a Super Regional,” Stankiewicz said. “We’re not going away.”

Calling all questions …

With the summer here and college sports now on hold for the next two months, it’s a perfect time to answer any questions you have about the upcoming year at USC. So please send anything on your mind about Trojan sports to ryan.kartje@latimes.com. When the newsletter returns in a couple of weeks, I’ll answer the best ones in this space.

USC pitcher Andrew Johnson.

(Laura Wolff / For The Times)

—A standing ovation for Johnson, whose pitching performance through the postseason was nothing short of Herculean. Johnson spent most of the season as the Trojans’ forgotten No. 3 option in the rotation, with Mason Edwards and Grant Govel ranking among the best pitchers in the nation. But it was Johnson who came up the biggest in the postseason. Twice he pitched well in relief, only to throw seven-plus innings two days later. This felt like a breakthrough moment for Johnson, who should pair with Govel to give USC an outstanding 1-2 punch on Fridays and Saturdays next season.

—There’s been talk about alternate jerseys at USC over the last several years. The conversation about alternates actually dates back to before Jennifer Cohen took over as athletic director. But as was the case before, the conversation has been tabled for the time being. Athletic departments are always looking for added revenue these days, but the juice just hasn’t been worth the squeeze to date, considering the many fans that would surely be offended by changes to the Trojans’ classic uniforms.

Olympic sports spotlight

After going on a tear to close out the season, USC women’s golf was on the precipice of snagging the school’s second national title this year … before it ran into a buzzsaw in No. 1 Stanford.

But an NCAA runner-up finish is still a great result for a program that hasn’t won an NCAA title since 2013. The Trojans have now finished second six times in their past 38 seasons, which is to say they’ve been the runner-ups basically 15% of the time over the last four decades.

That’s a lot of years being the bridesmaid, not the bride. But there’s no reason to think that Justin Silverstein, the Big Ten’s Coach of the Year in 2026, shouldn’t have this program back in the mix as soon as next season.

What I’m Watching This Week

Matthew Rhys and Stephen Root in “Widow’s Bay.”

(Apple)

If you’re in the mood for something creepy, boy do I have the content for you. “Widow’s Bay” on Apple TV follows Mayor Tom Loftis, played by Matthew Rhys, who’s desperate to revive his struggling island community of Widow’s Bay. But the locals on the island are convinced the town is cursed, and don’t necessarily approve of bringing tourists into the mix.

As you might imagine, the locals appear to be right. And Loftis finds himself in some horrifying situations. Enough to convince me that maybe this isn’t the best show to be watching alone, late at night. But if that’s in your wheelhouse, then this is as good as it gets.

In case you missed it

USC’s College World Series hopes shattered in heartbreaking loss to North Carolina

Q&A: As costs rise, AD Jennifer Cohen says USC is well-positioned amid college sports chaos

Ed Orgeron is returning to LSU as member of old USC pal Lane Kiffin’s staff

Until next time …

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at ryan.kartje@latimes.com, and follow me on X at @Ryan_Kartje. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — USC’s 2026 baseball season will be defined by two words — progress and pain.

Just two outs away from reaching the College World Series for the first time since 2001, USC suffered a devastating 4-3 loss in game three of the Chapel Hill Super Regional, as North Carolina rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth and snatched the trip to Omaha away from the Trojans on Owen Hull’s walk-off RBI double into the left-center gap.

“I’m proud of our boys,” USC coach Andy Stankiewicz said. “I’m disappointed in the results, but I’m never disappointed in our guys. They did something pretty special this year.”

Andrew Johnson did everything possible and then some to get USC (48-18) across the finish line. After already throwing 3 ⅔ innings of shutout baseball to close Game 1, Johnson went a season-high 7 ⅔ innings with two earned runs surrendered to get the Trojans to the doorstep of victory. He glided through North Carolina’s lineup for most of the day, at one point retiring 15 out of 17 batters.

North Carolina’s Cooper Nicholson celebrates during his team’s ninth-inning rally to beat USC in their super regional finale Sunday in Chapel Hill, N.C.

(Laura Wolff/For The Times)

He ended the super regional with 133 pitches thrown in a little over 48 hours, on top of the 145 pitches he threw across two appearances in the College Station Regional for a total of 278 tosses in 22 ⅓ innings with five earned runs given up in a heroic postseason stretch.

“The goal from the beginning of the season is Omaha,” Johnson said. “We’re definitely not just happy that we made it to supers and moved past the regional, but for it was a great season and we can be proud of what we accomplished.”

A first inning run off a Caden Glauber balk, plus Kevin Takeuchi and Andrew Lamb’s solo home runs accounted for all the offense on a day when the Tar Heels (50-12-1) had their own star pitcher going. Atlantic Coast Conference freshman of the year Caden Glauber held the Trojans at bay for most of the game, striking out a career high 11 batters in 7 ⅓ innings.

USC coach Andy Stankiewicz talks to his players after their season-ending loss to North Carolina.

(Laura Wolff / For The Times)

Glauber’s work was enough to hold his team in the game, but USC still had a 3-2 lead heading to the fateful bottom of the ninth. After closer Adam Troy retired the first batter, a long, loud foul ball seemed to spark North Carolina.

Third baseman Cooper Nicholson crushed a ball more than far enough for a home run, but just foul into the left field corner. But the near-miss seemed to rattle Troy, who walked Nicholson after getting ahead 0-2 in the count and fell behind 3-0 to nine-hole hitter Carter French.

Stankiewicz made a pitching change mid at-bat, going to Chase Herrell. French lined a 3-2 single through the right side, leadoff hitter Jake Schaffner tied the score on a sacrifice fly and Gavin Gallaher drew a walk, bringing Hull to the plate with the series’ winning run at second.

USC appeared to survive at least with extra innings when a Hull foul ball looked ticketed for the third out, but it dropped with three fielders in the area to give him an extra life. Hull pounded his fourth double of the game, prompting mass hysteria from the 3,913 Tar Heel fans and ultimate heartbreak in the other dugout.

Stankiewicz has built his program in stages, finally making the NCAA tournament last year and then going a step further this year.

But he also knows these opportunities are never guaranteed, and it will take a lot of work to return to the super regional stage.

“It’s a step,” he said. “Things take a moment. Sometimes we want things to happen overnight as humans I guess, but sometimes it takes a moment. We’ve been at this thing for awhile now, and we feel like we’re certainly building it and folks are taking notice. Now we just can’t go backwards. This thing’s got to continue moving forward.”

A positive season, but a nightmare ending sure to haunt the Trojans until they finally return to Omaha.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Grant Govel was good, but Jason DeCaro was almost perfect.

USC baseball lost 4-0 in Game 2 of the NCAA Chapel Hill Super Regional, meaning its season and quest to break a 25-year College World Series drought will come down to a single game on Sunday.

North Carolina (49-12-1) turned to DeCaro with its season on the line, the seventh career NCAA tournament start for the veteran right-hander. DeCaro delivered a complete-game masterpiece, allowing just two hits — singles in the first and fifth innings — with eight strikeouts and one walk on a career-high 117 pitches.

Outside of giving up a solo home run to Colin Hynek in the second inning, Govel had a strong performance. After throwing 153 pitches across two appearances in the NCAA regionals, including 64 pitches in Monday’s clinching win over Texas A&M, he gave up just five hits and struck out three over five innings and 83 pitches to keep the Trojans in the game. His final pitch was a crucial one, inducing an inning-ending double play with runners on the corners to hold the game at 1-0.

But for all of his great work, the day was all about DeCaro’s dominance.

North Carolina found success against the Trojans’ bullpen in the sixth. Erik Paulsen hit a 339-foot home run over the left-field corner wall to double the Tar Heels’ lead, just the second home run given up by USC’s Sax Matson all season. The Tar Heels added two more on sacrifice flies in the sixth and seventh innings, but failed to drive in more with the bases loaded in the seventh and ninth innings.

Game 3 will be Sunday, with time and broadcast information still to be determined.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Dean Carpentier popped up with the biggest swing of his life, and the Trojans won their biggest game in more than two decades.

USC baseball stormed back to defeat No. 5 overall seed North Carolina 9-5 in Game 1 of the Chapel Hill Super Regional, a loud start to the program’s first appearance on this stage since 2005.

Carpentier smoked a go-ahead grand slam off North Carolina (48-12-1) reliever Walker McDuffie in the sixth inning, turning a 5-2 deficit into a 6-5 lead and shutting down a previously charged-up Boshamer Stadium. The swing was Carpentier’s first career grand slam and just his 10th home run in his 132-game collegiate career, the defining moment of the day as USC (48-16) tied its largest comeback victory of the season.

“I was sitting on a slider,” Carpentier said. “He’s a slider guy. I got a good pitch to hit, put a good swing on it and it found a way out of here.”

Ace Mason Edwards struggled through his shortest outing of the season, yielding three earned runs in just three innings with four walks. But the Trojan bullpen picked him up, and kept the game close enough for the offense to rally. Chase Herrell, Ben Cushnie and Andrew Johnson gave up just one run over six innings, with Johnson retiring the first eight batters he faced.

USC’s Adrian Lopez (5) celebrates during Game 1 of an NCAA super regional against North Carolina on Friday in Chapel Hill, N.C.

(Laura Wolff/For The Times)

“He’s done that now a couple of times with the bases loaded where he strikes out the side and gets out of it,” USC coach Andy Stankiewicz said of Edwards’ first inning. “It’s in there. That was huge. It was a big momentum swing to get out of that. Unfortunately it’s taxing though; it made him jump up in his pitch count a little bit.”

His successful but ultimately draining first inning led to UNC scoring four in the next two innings, knocking the Trojans into a huge hole and forcing its bullpen to stem the tide. But eventual winning pitcher Herrell picked up two innings with just one earned run given up. Cushnie retired the only batter he faced and the offense went to work from there.

“The job that Chase Herrell did, the job he did in College Station, it’s two back-to-back outings where he has been tremendous for us,” Stankiewicz said. “It’s always Mason and Grant [Govel] — which is great, they deserve all the recognition — but there’s more guys down there that are doing it.”

With the lead and all of the momentum after Carpentier’s grand slam, Stankiewicz pushed his chips to the middle of the table knowing the importance of winning the opener of a best-of-three series. He brought usual Game 3 starter Johnson in out of the bullpen, and he delivered a sensational performance.

Johnson retired the first eight batters he faced and ended up getting the final 11 outs of the game with just two singles allowed, slamming the door shut for his first save of the season.

“You saw the job that he did over in College Station,” Stankiewicz said of Johnson. “It was a big moment, and we needed that again today. He throws strikes, he’s unafraid, he attacks the strike zone and we felt like he was going to make the pitches.”

Johnson’s dominance meant the go-ahead grand slam would have been enough, but USC added three more runs in the seventh. Isaac Cadena drove one in with an RBI groundout, Jack Basseer plated one on on a fielder’s choice and Andrew Lamb — who started the scoring for USC with a solo home run off Ryan Lynch back in the third inning — tacked on one more with a perfectly executed squeeze bunt.

The Trojans have outscored opponents 64-19 during their five-game NCAA tournament winning streak. And are one win away from advancing to the College World Series for the first time since 2001. Game 2 is set for 11 a.m. PDT Saturday on ESPN.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — As USC baseball coach Andy Stankiewicz noted the next additions that will be made to USC’s refurbished baseball stadium, he paused Monday night as a train rumbled loudly behind Blue Bell Park.

Stankiewicz, 61, smirked at the fitting metaphor after the Trojans clinched their first NCAA super regional berth in 21 years. He, after all, has rebuilt the USC program over his four seasons as head coach.

“Now we have a beautiful stadium,” he said of Dedeaux Field. “We’re going to have a beautiful clubhouse next year, batting cages and all that.”

As Stankiewicz attempted to utter another sentence, the train’s ear-piercing horn sounded.

USC baseball coach Andy Stankiewicz has guided the Trojans to the NCAA super regionals for the first time in 21 years.

(USC Athletics)

“That’s appropriate because we tell people the train’s moving,” Stankiewicz said. “Now we have a train honking its whistle. The train’s moving. We’re certainly excited to see where we’re going.”

The Trojans are definitely going places these days thanks to many players who believed in Stankiewicz’s vision despite knowing their on-campus stadium would be under construction for at least two seasons.

The Trojans had six players on the College Station Regional’s All-Tournament Team. Three of them — Abbrie Covarrubias, Kevin Takeuchi and Andrew Lamb — are upperclassmen who could have been tempted to transfer after they learned that they would be without a home field for two years. Junior shortstop Dean Carpentier is another upperclassman who believed in Stankiewicz.

“You talk about just kind of cornerstones,” Stankiewicz said. “Abbrie and Takeuchi … and Dean Carpentier and Andrew Lamb, these guys, they could have left. … They got here when we had a field, and they chose to stay.

“That’s something that I’m grateful for. It just tells you the quality of young men that they are. They’re here. They got two feet in and said, ‘I’m not going anywhere. I want to help build this program. Then to see the success that, not just Abbrie, but all of them have had, they’re great leaders. They lead by example.”

While Dedeaux Field was under construction, the Trojans played most of their home games in 2024 and 2025 at Irvine’s Great Park, 47 miles and another county away. They practiced at East L.A. College.

Yet, they still reached a regional final in 2025. They have gone a step further this year by climbing out of the losers’ bracket in the regional to eliminate Texas A&M and reach a super regional for the first time since 2005.

The Trojans didn’t just climb out of the losers’ bracket. They rumbled through like a runaway train, dominating with 55 runs over four losers’-bracket wins. They scored 21 of those runs over two victories against SEC power Texas A&M in the regional final.

The Trojans made themselves at home while playing in one of the SEC’s most hostile environments. It was as though the Trojans have grown accustomed to making themselves at home on the road in recent years.

Although parts of Dedeaux Field are still under construction, the Trojans were 32-1 there for the best home record in school history. USC (47-17) eclipsed the 40-win mark for the first time since 2005.

“Obviously being able to play at home this year has been a blessing,” designated hitter Augie Lopez said after he was named the Most Outstanding Player of the College Station Regional. “But the last couple of years we’ve just kinda showed up every day — whether that was in Irvine or East L.A. Community College for practice — just with the same mentality of we’re going to show up and put our work in and dominate no matter where we are.

“Just showing up every day and punching that time card and going to work and just putting your head down and knowing that no matter where you are (or) what home field you have or you don’t have a home field, we’re going to get it done and play quality baseball.”

USC pitcher Grant Govel throws to home against Texas State during an NCAA regional on May 29.

(Sam Craft / Ap Photo/sam Craft)

The 12-time national champions will face North Carolina at the Chapel Hill Super Regional in hopes of reaching their first College World Series since 2001. No player on the current roster was alive when the Trojans won their last national title in 1998.

Only a few were even born when USC made its last super regional appearance in 2005 at Oregon State.

“With the history that this program has, it’s been an honor to wear the Trojan brand on the front of my chest,” Lopez said. “Honestly just knowing that this team is the team to bring USC back to the super regional it’s incredible.

“Honestly, it hasn’t hit me until right now, but we’re just feeling absolutely grateful. I’m super blessed.”

You don’t need to hear the horn to realize USC’s train is moving in the right direction in Stankiewicz’s fourth season at the helm.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — As Augie Lopez trotted around the bases late Monday night, the small contingent of USC fans could finally be heard at Blue Bell Park. With one towering blast to right field, the Trojans’ designated hitter silenced Texas A&M’s rowdy 12th Man.

Lopez’s three-run home run helped push the Trojans over Texas A&M 7-1 to reach the NCAA super regional for the first time in 21 years.

Lopez silenced most of the sellout crowd of 7,042, making it easy to hear USC fans serenading him during the College Station Regional Final.

“Augie! Augie! Augie!” USC fans chanted after Lopez returned to the dugout. After the win, he was named the regional’s most outstanding player.

It took a while, but the offense showed up to propel USC (47-16) to the Chapel Hill Super Regional against North Carolina.

Until Lopez’s blast, Texas A&M right-hander Clayton Freshcorn had slowed down a USC offense that had scored 48 runs combined while winning three consecutive games out of the losers’ bracket, including 14 on Sunday night against Texas A&M (41-16), to force the winner-take-all final.

USC right-hander Grant Govel, who had thrown 89 pitches over 5⅔ innings on Friday, retired the first seven Aggies before Bear Harrison hit a solo home run to left-center field in the third.

The Aggies ran out a threat in the fourth. Chris Hacopian drew a leadoff walk. Ben Royo kept the inning alive with a two-out single to left. Jorian Wilson followed with a single to shallow right-center field. Second baseman Abbrie Covarrubias was positioned perfectly to field the ball in the outfield, but his throw to first wasn’t in time.

Fortunately for the Trojans, Adrian Lopez alertly threw home to easily nail Hacopian by several feet to end the inning.

Covarrubias tied the score 1-1 with an RBI single to left-center in the fifth. One out later, Covarrubias stole second. Augie Lopez broke the tie with a single to right-center.

Two innings later, Lopez crushed his three-run blast.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Two days after failing to capitalize off numerous scoring opportunities against Texas State, USC battered the Bobcats early and often to remain alive in the College Station Regional.

Third baseman Kevin Takeuchi set the tone with a grand slam in the first inning as USC beat Texas State 15-4 Sunday afternoon before a crowd of 6,885 at Blue Bell Park

With the victory, the Trojans (45-16) advance to the regional final against Texas A&M on Sunday night. The Trojans must beat the Aggies to force a winner-take-all game Monday at a time to be determined.

The Trojans avenged the 5-4 loss they suffered against Texas State on Friday night in the regional opener. In that loss, USC stranded 13 runners, struck out 12 times and left men in scoring position in each of the first seven innings.

The Trojans have been on a tear ever since. They crushed Lamar 19-6 on Saturday and then battered Texas State. The Trojans wasted no time jumping on the Bobcats in the rematch.

Abbrie Covarrubias led off with a single. Texas State sophomore right-hander Cade Smith then hit Adrian Lopez with a pitch and walked Augie Lopez to load the bases. Takeuchi followed with his grand slam to center.

“It just helped me pitch with freedom,” USC freshman starter Diego Velazquez said of the grand slam. “A pitcher always feels good when you’re in the lead, especially with a grand slam. It just keeps everyone positive, so it definitely helped very much.”

Velazquez gave up two runs on three hits and three walks with three strikeouts in 3 1/3 innings. He was relieved by fellow freshman right-hander Gavin Lauridsen, who failed to retire a batter while giving up two runs on two hits and two walks. Freshman left-hander Sax Matson then pitched 3 ⅔ scoreless innings of relief to earn the victory.

Isaac Cadena made it 6-0 in the third with a two-run home run to right field. With one on and two outs in the fourth, Augie Lopez hit an RBI single in the fourth to give the Trojans a 7-0 lead. Reliever Alec Beversdorf then walked Takeuchi and hit Cadena to load the bases. Jack Basseer drew a walk to plate another run to give USC an 8-0 lead, prompting Texas State to make another call to the bullpen.

Texas State countered with four runs in the bottom of the fourth, highlighted by Coy DeFury’s two-run home run.

Lauridsen relieved Velazquez with one out in the fourth, but he couldn’t retire a batter. Brady Boles greeted Lauridsen with a single up the middle. After Jackson Cotton walked, Manny Salas cut USC’s lead to 8-3 with an RBI single through the right side.

Clayton Namken followed with a walk, prompting USC coach Andy Stankiewicz to call on Matson, who took over with the bases loaded.

“I felt good about Diego on the mound here being able to compete and give us quality innings, and he did that,” Stankiewicz said. “I think he’d probably say he wanted to give us a little bit more, but he gave us three quality innings.

“And then Sax Matson came in and did a fantastic job. He came in and made some big, big-time pitches to get us out. It could have been a little dicey there.”

Both teams were retired in order in the fifth, but USC’s offense got back on track with a run in the sixth, two in the seventh and four more in the eighth.

“I think it just shows the type of bond we have all together,” Velazquez said. “We’re all pulling the rope for each other. I think it just shows how strong we are and how we’re able to pull off miracles and stuff.”