Walker Lyons took his place in the slot and looked right. Lake McRee crouched on the opposite wing and looked left. The two Trojan tight ends had spent all last Saturday night moving around USC’s formations — split out wide, in the backfield, on the line of scrimmage — paving rush lanes and creating mismatches wherever they went.
Now it was third and short, early in the third quarter of USC’s win over Michigan State, and the two of them were on the field together again, forcing the Spartan defense to decide in a hurry just how Lincoln Riley planned to deploy them.
That unpredictability was precisely the point of the position. It’s why the tight end has been a critical tenet of his Riley’s offense since he started as Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator in 2015. No other position, Riley has come to believe, adds more versatility to an offense.
“It’s the one piece that really can truly do everything,” Riley said. “But it’s also the hardest piece to find.”
During his first three seasons as the Trojans coach, Riley struggled to find that unicorn for his USC offense. Let alone two — or even three — at the same time.
In his first season, in 2022, tight ends accounted for just over 3% of the Trojans’ receiving yards. That number rose to 6% in 2023, then 8% in 2024.
But through a spotless first third of this season, tight ends — and Lyons and McRee, primarily — have contributed 20% of USC’s total passing output in 2025. One reason being the availability of McRee, who has battled a multitude of injuries over his college career. Another being that Riley has used more 12 personnel, with two tight ends on the field, this season than he has before at USC.
“It keeps defenses on their toes,” McRee said. “You don’t really know what we’re going to do, run, pass, or do all of the above out of it.”
The use of 12 personnel has generally been on the rise across all levels of football, including in the NFL, where teams have used two tight end sets nearly 24% of the time through three weeks, according to ESPN. At USC, Riley has gone even further than that, utilizing two-tight end sets at least 35% of the time through four games.
It wasn’t hard to see last Saturday night why he’d lean on that particular scheme, as Lyons took off in motion from the slot. The sophomore tight end slowed just before the third-down snap, as if to prepare to run block, then took off sprinting into the flat. At the same time, McRee sprinted through the seam, taking a linebacker with him.
In the backfield, quarterback Jayden Maiava faked a handoff, forcing another linebacker to bite on the run, while Lyons sprinted into the open space the play design had created. Riley’s modern variation of a triple option would work precisely as planned, as Maiava lofted an easy pass to Lyons, who ran 10 yards for his second touchdown in three weeks.
USC tight end Walker Lyons (85) heads onto the field after talking to coach Lincoln Riley.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
It was just the sort of play that reminded what Riley was capable of as a playcaller with two talented tight ends at his disposal.
“I’ve missed it,” Riley said. “Because I love the matchups, I love what it creates. I’m excited about what that room has become for us. I think that room is just going to get better.”
When he first started as a college football coach, tight ends weren’t so much on Riley’s radar. Mike Leach, his mentor at Texas Tech, didn’t seek out or use a tight end unless he happened to have one on his roster.
It wasn’t until Riley left for East Carolina that he started to tinker more with the position.
“We started to get more creative, especially in the run game and some of the different things we could do off of it,” Riley said.
Those innovations accelerated at Oklahoma, where, as offensive coordinator, he was fortunate to inherit redshirt freshman Mark Andrews in 2015. By 2017, Sooner tight ends contributed more than 31% of the team’s passing offense. Andrews had 958 yards and eight touchdowns that season, the most of any tight end in college football. He now stars for the Baltimore Ravens.
“We started building more [at Oklahoma],” Riley said. “We started studying people. And, yeah, we got to the point where we were playing with tight ends, so much in so many ways, it became a comfort.”
He wouldn’t have the same security blanket at USC. The tight end room he took over was totally depleted of talent.
The Trojans two most productive tight ends from 2021, Malcolm Epps and Erik Krommenhoek, were out of eligibility. Their promising freshman, Michael Trigg, had transferred. McRee was the only returner with any real experience, and he’d only played in four games before redshirting.
“That room was a ways off, in terms of the depth and skillset and talent we had,” Riley said. “It’s definitely taken some time.”
Lyons’ arrival would be a major inflection point. A four-star recruit, he’d come to USC from a high school offense that regularly utilized two tight ends. He was used to having his hand in the dirt, as well as working as a receiver on the perimeter.
During his recruitment, Riley showed clips of all the different ways he used Andrews at Oklahoma. He felt Lyons could fill a similar role.
“All the things that he did with [tight ends] was definitely intriguing,” Lyons said, “and it definitely made an impact.”
The sheer amount that Riley asks of tight ends in his offense would add another hurdle in actually making that two-pronged role a reality. McRee, for instance, has technically lined up in 16 different spots through four games, according to Pro Football Focus.
“You’ve got to know protections, route concepts, run game — like, you really have to know it all,” Riley said.
Lyons admits it was overwhelming at first.
“But it’s great now,” he says.
The feeling is mutual for Riley, who knows how rare it is to have two tight ends to build an offense around.
“But when you get it,” he said, “it could be really powerful.”
As USC enters a critical stretch of its conference slate, it’s unclear if it’ll have its star wideout or starting left tackle ready to play.
Junior wideout Ja’Kobi Lane did return to practice on Tuesday after sitting out last Saturday’s win over Michigan State with an upper body injury he suffered the week before. But junior offensive tackle Elijah Paige was not seen entering or leaving USC’s practice field.
USC coach Lincoln Riley declined to provide an update on Lane or Paige on Tuesday and instead referred reporters to the Big Ten’s availability report, which is released two hours before kickoff every Saturday.
Without Lane, who is averaging almost 27 yards per catch this season, USC was forced to count on senior Jaden Richardson, who had just one catch coming into last Saturday’s game. He doubled that output against Michigan State and would presumably play a similar role if Lane is unable to play.
“He’s really created his own value here,” Riley said of Richardson. “He can play any of the receiver positions in our offense. Just does a lot of things well.”
Lane came out for early warm-ups last Saturday in shorts and a sweatshirt and appeared as if he’d try to play. But when the team returned in full pads, Lane came out of the tunnel several minutes later in street clothes.
It’s not clear how close Lane was to playing then or how seriously USC was actually considering the possibility. After the game, Riley described his injury as only “inconclusive.”
USC has a bye next week after its trip to Illinois.
“[It] was a little bit unexpected,” Riley said of Lane’s injury. “I don’t think it’ll be super long, but at the same time, I can’t sit here today and say for sure he’s going to play next week or in the coming weeks.”
Paige left Saturday’s game early in the second quarter and never returned, causing a chain reaction down USC’s offensive line. Paige was replaced by Justin Tauanuu, who shifted from left to right tackle. Tobias Raymond then moved from left guard to right tackle, while Micah Banuelos took over at left guard.
“These guys take a lot of reps at different positions throughout the week and really have throughout camp,” Riley said. “Some of the position flex we’ve built up at that position really paid off.”
Illinois is dealing with its own injury issues, but on defense. In a blowout loss to Indiana last week, Illinois was without most of its starting secondary. This Saturday, it definitely won’t have All-Big Ten cornerback Xavier Scott, who’s out for the season, and it could also be without a starting safety who is in concussion protocol. Two other key cornerbacks have yet to practice, but Illinois coach Bret Bielema expressed hope that they’d be cleared by midweek.
Even without its top red zone receiver and its steadiest offensive linemen, USC’s offense didn’t show many signs of slowing down last Saturday. It still piled up 517 yards of offense.
Makai Lemon came screaming across the center of the field, gliding past one Michigan State defender, then another, moving as if the world around him were in slow motion.
USC’s top receiver had presumably been a top-line focus of the Spartans’ game plan — and even more so after fellow wideout Ja’Kobi Lane was ruled out Saturday with an injury. But here was Lemon slicing his way through Michigan State’s secondary as if no one had bothered to tell him as much, sprinting free as a deep pass soared in his direction and hit him in perfect stride.
Most of Saturday night’s 45-31 win over Michigan State felt that seamless for USC, which moved the ball with ease on offense, racking up 517 yards in the process. But in a swirl of penalties and poor discipline from its defense, USC inexplicably found itself clinging to a one-score lead in the fourth quarter.
It was the sort of stumble that might’ve prompted flashbacks from the Trojans’ previous conference, when #Pac12AfterDark derailed more than a few seasons while the rest of America slept. Though, as late as Saturday’s game ran — with its conclusion coming just before 3 a.m. Eastern time — there would be no such comeback from Michigan State.
“We were dominating the football game,” USC coach Lincoln Riley said. “But our ability to separate back out, I thought, was just as impressive.”
USC mounted a 13-play drive with its back against the wall in the fourth quarter, at one point even converting a critical fourth down near midfield, before Lemon pushed the pedal to the floor. He went sprinting on a jet motion, took the handoff and flew into the end zone for a score the Spartans couldn’t counter.
“Any time the ball is in his hands, something big is about to happen,” USC quarterback Jayden Maiava said.
With Lane out, Lemon accounted for more than half of the Trojans’ passing output, as he finished with eight receptions for 127 yards and a touchdown, the vast majority of which came in the first half.
Maiava didn’t need to do much more through the air after halftime. He finished with a season-low 234 yards, but completed 20 of 26 passes and added three passing touchdowns, to go with another on the ground.
USC’s rushing attack ultimately made the difference, despite facing a defense that hadn’t allowed any of its opponents to rush for 100 yards.
USC running back Eli Sanders runs with the ball during a win over Michigan State on Saturday night.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
Jordan bested that total himself, running for 157 yards on 18 carries, while Eli Sanders added 84 rushing yards of his own.
But once again, the Trojans paid a serious price for their propensity for penalties.
On one third-quarter drive, USC ran into Michigan State’s kicker on a punt, was flagged for an illegal substitution and then was called for pass interference, all within a four-play stretch. For a while, it seemed the sequence might turn the tide towards the Spartans.
“Obviously we haven’t done enough,” Riley said of coaches’ efforts to reduce USC’s penalties.
That message was reiterated after the game by linebacker Eric Gentry, who stood up in front of the team to belabor the severity of their penalty problems. The Trojans were called for 10 total penalties on Saturday for a loss of 88 yards, making it three consecutive games of at least eight penalties.
Fortunately for USC, its defensive front was also able to impact the game in other ways, namely by keeping Spartan quarterback Aidan Chiles uncomfortable in the pocket.
But where the pass rush continued to look improved, USC’s secondary didn’t exactly soothe concerns Saturday. Chiles only threw for 212 yards, but 169 of those yards — almost 80% — came on just four pass plays.
Through four games, USC now ranks worst in the Big Ten in plays allowed of 10 yards or further (17).
“We’ve had about one of them a game,” Riley said, “and we’ve got to put a lid on it.”
The road only gets harder from here for USC (4-0). The Trojans’ next three games (Illinois, Michigan and Notre Dame) come against ranked opponents, and two of those games (Illinois and Notre Dame) are on the road. And while the Irish are 1-2, and the Illini were just steamrolled by Indiana on Saturday, both should provide much tougher tests than the Trojans have faced thus far.
Whether USC will have one of its top receivers back for that stretch remains to be seen. Lane, who was listed as questionable on Saturday, came out with the team for early stretches. But when the team reemerged in full pads for warm-ups, the Trojans stud wideout was wearing sweatpants.
Riley said after the game that the severity of Lane’s injury is still “inconclusive,” but his absence could extend multiple games.
“I don’t think it’ll be super long,” Riley said. “But at the same time, I certainly can’t sit here today and say for sure he’s going to play next week or in the coming weeks.”
Without one of their top targets, USC tried to lean on its backs early. Twelve of the Trojans’ first 16 plays went to either Waymond Jordan or Eli Sanders. But it was Maiava who punched in USC’s first score after he faked a handoff and sprinted 15 yards to paydirt.
Michigan State (3-1), meanwhile, took to the air to challenge the Trojans’ struggling secondary. On the Spartans’ first possession, Chiles found Chrishon McCray wide open for a 42-yard touchdown, and Michigan State took an early lead.
Chiles completed each of his first seven passes. But with their run game completely grounded, the Spartans offense came to a halt. Their next three drives accumulated a combined 66 yards.
USC started humming in the meantime, gaining at least that many yards on four of its five first-half drives. The rushing attack found a rhythm, with seven rushes of 15-plus yards in the first half alone, while Maiava moved the ball with ease through the air.
USC quarterback Jayden Maiava scores a touchdown in the first quarter against Michigan State.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
Still, despite being outgained by almost 200 yards before halftime, Michigan State was within a single score — and set to receive the second-half kick — as USC drove 88 yards down the field before half. With 37 seconds left, Maiava lofted a pass to the corner of the end zone for freshman Tanook Hines, who reeled in the well-timed, seven-yard score.
USC looked ready to speed past Michigan State in the second half as it took just four plays and less than two minutes to drive the field. Maiava hit tight end Walker Lyons for a touchdown, his second in two weeks, to make it 31-10.
But Michigan State mounted an 11-play drive, and USC’s defense chipped in with four back-breaking penalties to keep it moving. Eventually, Chiles punched in a touchdown himself, cutting the lead to two scores.
The momentum swung suddenly after that. On the first play of USC’s ensuing possession, wideout DJ Jordan lost a fumble deep in the Trojans’ territory. The turnover opened the door for Michigan State, which needed eight plays to reach paydirt and cut the lead to a single score.
But USC slammed that door shut on its next drive. And while Saturday night’s win wouldn’t go down as the most seamless of the Trojans’ season, it was still just as satisfying to Riley.
“If you’re learning lessons as you win, it’s hard not to be excited about what you see out of this football team,” Riley said. “And everything I see makes me believe that we’re going to continue to grow, learn from some of the mistakes, because there are so many positive things happening out there.”
After years of weathering the #AfterDark absurdity of the Pac-12 Conference, USC hoped moving to the Big Ten might help kick most of those bizarre midnight romps from its calendar.
Of course, geographic sense only matters so much in college football when there’s millions to be made from broadcast rights. Fox had the third choice this week among the networks and chose the best available game. That’s why USC and Michigan State will kick off at 8 p.m. Saturday. Which means, in East Lansing, Mich., the game should wrap somewhere around 2:30-3 a.m.
There were two such kickoffs in the Big Ten last season, and only one that included a team hopping three time zones to the west. USC won that 8 p.m. game against Rutgers in quarterback Jayden Maiava’s debut.
The Spartans arrived in L.A. on Thursday to give them plenty of time to acclimate. Jonathan Smith, who previously coached at Oregon State, understands what such a late kickoff requires. Still, you could understand why Michigan State might not be thrilled at the prospect of playing so late.
USC will have its own time-zone trouble to deal with next week, when it kicks off at 9 a.m. PDT in a road matchup with Illinois. This weekend, the bigger question for USC will be if the fans arrive well-rested — or at all.
“Both teams gotta deal with it,” coach Lincoln Riley said. “We gotta handle it well, our crowd needs to handle it well. At the end of the day, it’s a game, it’s being played, it’s being played in the Coliseum, and we expect to win and we expect to have a really good crowd behind us. We’re not going to make excuses about it.”
Here are four things to watch as USC takes on Michigan State:
Trojans take to the air
Few quarterbacks in college football have started the season at the breakneck pace that Jayden Maiava has managed through three weeks. Maiava is averaging more than 14 yards per attempt — the most of any quarterback in the nation by three full yards — while completing 68% of his passes, almost a 10% improvement from last season.
There’s no reason to think that trend won’t continue against Michigan State.
The Spartans rank 118th in the nation — and worst in the Big Ten — in pass defense, and that’s after playing teams like Youngstown State and Western Michigan. They haven’t seen anything yet like USC’s passing offense, and especially receiver Makai Lemon, who ranks behind only Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith in receiving yards (315-311) this season in the Big Ten.
Michigan State has been stingy this season against the run, so it could be tough to find much of a rhythm on the ground. That means a potential big game for Maiava.
Will USC’s pass rush keep rolling?
Through three games, USC’s rejuvenated pass rush actually leads the nation in sacks with 14. Michigan State, meanwhile, has allowed the second-most sacks of any Big Ten team this season.
That formula could mean a long afternoon for Spartan quarterback Aidan Chiles, who Riley said this week poses “the biggest challenge we’ve faced up to this point” at the position. The Long Beach native appears to be putting it all together as a passer, but it’s Chiles’ dual threat ability that could be especially dangerous against a front four that’s been aggressive early in the season..
He’s tied for the conference lead in rush attempts among quarterbacks at 10 per game.
“When you add in Chiles’ athleticism, that definitely adds an entirely new element,” Riley said. “So it’ll be a big focus point for us to be able to keep him in the pocket, to contain him in there.”
When under heavy pressure, Chiles has been much less effective. His completion percentage drops from 79% in a clean pocket to 48% in a pressured one.
Stud receiver status
Both teams could be without their most dynamic pass catcher on Saturday.
USC wideout Ja’Kobi Lane, last year’s Big Ten leader in touchdown receptions, is questionable after he sat out practice on Wednesday. Riley wouldn’t comment on whether he’d be available for the game.
Similarly, the status of Spartan receiver Nick Marsh was up in the air as of Friday. Marsh made the trip to L.A., in spite of dealing with a lower leg injury. He’s by far Michigan State’s most dynamic weapon on offense and his absence would be significant, if he’s unable to go.
Tanook Hines breakout game incoming?
With Lane hobbled, keep a close eye on freshman Tanook Hines, who pulled down a stunning acrobatic catch last Saturday at Purdue.
Riley raved about the freshman earlier this week.
“He goes after the ball with a unique mindset for a freshman,” Riley said. “You talk about a guy who really attacks the ball. He’s played physical. He’s a really good blocker. He’s done a good job of picking up our system. … He’s an all-ball guy. There’s no fluff to this guy. He’s an edgy, tough competitor.”
Bishop Fitzgerald was a talented high school quarterback, but a few hurdles forced him to focus on playing safety.
USC coaches like recruitng former high school quarterbacks because they boast deeper understanding of how plays develop.
Fitzgerald, who is in his first season at USC, leads the nation in interceptions with three so far this season.
Bishop Fitzgerald stood inside the 5-yard line at Ross-Ade Stadium, watching the eyes of Purdue quarterback Ryan Browne, waiting for the right moment to pounce. It was a critical third down Saturday, midway through the fourth quarter,
during Big Ten road games.
Fortunately, Fitzgerald knew exactly where the play was headed. The USC senior safety recognized it from film clips he studied of Purdue’s red zone offense. He knew not to bite on the play action fake and that the receiver would, in a matter of seconds, cut across the center of the field on his route.
He also knew to be patient, to lure the quarterback into a false sense of security. So when Browne finally did fire his third-down pass over the middle, Fitzgerald was there at just the right moment to snag his second interception of the game.
“I fell back on my training,” Fitzgerald said of the pick, “and I made the play that came to me.”
Arguably no defensive back in college football has made as many plays through three games as Fitzgerald, who leads the nation with three interceptions during that span. Coaches have raved about his instincts and marveled at how quickly he has picked up USC’s defensive scheme.
His high school coach says that’s a testament to his training. Just maybe not the training you’d expect.
“He could have been a college quarterback — and a good one,” says Tony Keiling, Sr., who coached Fitzgerald as a quarterback in youth football and at Gar-Field High School in Woodbridge, Va.
“He could make every throw. He could understand defenses. He could roll out and run. He was dynamic.”
USC defensive back Bishop Fitzgerald carries the ball after intercepting a Missouri State pass intended for Dash Luke at the Coliseum on Aug. 30.
(Luke Hales / Getty Images)
Past experience as a passer isn’t entirely unique on USC’s roster. In fact, it’s become a coveted trait in recent years for coach Lincoln Riley.
“It’s something we’ve always paid attention to,” Riley said. “That’s kind of a feather in anyone’s cap that they’ve been able to run an offense, execute plays, understand and communicate to all 11. You know they’ve had to have some understanding of all 22 and what’s going on on the field to be able to play quarterback, no matter what offense you’re in. So it’s typically a good omen.”
DeCarlos Nicholson, who starts alongside Fitzgerald in USC’s secondary, was a Mississippi state champion quarterback in high school and for one season at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College before flipping to the defensive backfield. On the other side of the ball, freshman running back Harry Dalton III boasts the most career yards (11,282) and touchdowns (160) of any quarterback to ever come out of Richmond, Virginia.
Fitzgerald may not have been as prolific as that pair. But Keiling, who coached him at quarterback since youth football, is still convinced that Fitzgerald could have continued at the position, if not for the unfortunate timing of the pandemic.
When Fitzgerald took over as Gar-Field’s quarterback as a sophomore, the team was coming off an 0-10 season. By his senior year, Fitzgerald led the Indians to a district title, the school’s first since 1994. He played almost every snap in the process, starting both under center and at safety.
But it was his play at quarterback that willed Gar-Field past Freedom High to win the district in 2021. In a 14-9 win, Fitzgerald threw a go-ahead, 97-yard touchdown pass down the seam from the shadow of his own end zone and also ran for an electrifying 39-yard score to knock off Freedom, a team Gar-Field hadn’t beaten in almost a decade.
Fitzgerald was named district offensive player of the year soon after that performance. In any normal year, that would’ve led to attention on the recruiting trail. But because of the pandemic, high school football in Virginia hadn’t started until February and most colleges had already finalized their recruiting classes.
“It was all just bad timing,” Keiling said.
Fitzgerald was dynamic with the ball in his hands. He could throw across his body on a bootleg. But realistically, at 5-foot-10, Fitzgerald didn’t have ideal size for the position at the college level. Even he figured his future was at safety, where at least his instincts as a quarterback could still be put to use.
So he spent the next two seasons at Coffeyville Community College in Kansas focusing on the finer points of the safety position. It took him a while, he said, to feel comfortable.
“It was a whole switch of mentality and culture and footwork,” Fitzgerald said. “JUCO is … a dog-eat-dog world. So I think that kind of heightened everything and the sense or urgency to learn it.”
North Carolina State’s Bishop Fitzgerald breaks up a pass intended for North Carolina’s Jordan Shipp on Nov. 30, 2024, in Chapel Hill, N.C.
(Grant Halverson / Getty Images)
Fitzgerald had seven takeaways in his sophomore campaign at Coffeyville, then added five more over two seasons at North Carolina State.
At USC, Fitzgerald has had to learn a scheme under defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn that’s entirely different than the one he knew at NC State. But so far, it hasn’t seemed like much of a learning curve.
Fitzgerald credits Lynn for his quick acclimation, while Riley has likened the safety’s offseason arrival to adding “a veteran in the NFL” to the secondary. Through three games at USC, Fitzgerald has been the highest-graded safety in college football, according to Pro Football Focus.
“He has a feel for the game,” safety Christian Pierce said. “He’s always at the right place, right time.”
Finally, it seems the timing is right for Fitzgerald, too. Though his next step from here is still uncertain. Keiling said it’s not clear, with the legal turmoil around junior college eligibility, whether Fitzgerald could get a waiver for another season at USC after this one.
But considering how quickly he’s progressed at the position, there’s no telling how fast Fitzgerald’s NFL stock will rise.
“To be doing something completely different your entire career and come and learn this in one offseason is hard,” Lynn said.
After marching up and down the field for two weeks and beating up on its first two opponents by an average margin of 50 points, USC was finally tested by a real, genuine football team on Saturday. And while it wasn’t perfect, it was certainly important, considering what awaits the Trojans during the next six weeks.
Welcome back to the Times of Troy newsletter, where we do still have some reasons for concern as the conference competition ratchets up. The secondary, aside from two Bishop Fitzgerald picks, gave Purdue’s receivers too much space and gifted them too many busted coverages. The run game didn’t always find room and the passing attack wasn’t always consistent.
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But just closing out a close game on the road in the fourth quarter was a critical step for USC this season. The manner in which it shut the door on Purdue was especially encouraging, given how similar circumstances were handled a season ago.
USC had just two fourth-quarter drives, which it turned into just three total points. On paper, without context, they might look entirely unremarkable. The Trojans averaged just 5.95 yards per play through that stretch, nearly a yard lower than they managed during the full game.
But those two drives, from a situational perspective, were precisely what USC needed in that moment.
And that’s a credit to USC coach Lincoln Riley, whose late-game management left a lot to be desired last season. On Saturday, he showed a much better grasp of how to close out a Big Ten game away from home.
Through three quarters, USC’s run game was mostly stymied, with just 91 yards in 25 carries. Still, Riley kept with it. Knowing he needed to keep the clock running, the Trojans’ coach kept his team grounded for the majority of the fourth quarter. Out of 19 plays in that final quarter, USC ran the ball 15 times.
USC racked up 87 rushing yards during those two drives — almost double its previous output — but more important, it chewed away almost 11 minutes of clock. Eventually, Purdue just ran out of time to mount a comeback.
“We knew how much time we had to chew,” senior tight end Lake McRee said. “We did what we needed to do to get the job done.”
It hadn’t always seemed so simple to USC and its coach. Last season, quarterback Miller Moss was asked to throw the ball at least 50 times in three of USC’s four road losses, all of which the Trojans led in the fourth quarter.
With that in mind, USC set out to make late-game management more of a focal point. So at practice, Riley would run the team through its “Trojan Period,” in which they’d run a sequence of plays focused on late-game situational awareness.
Most of the time, McRee said, that just meant grinding away with the run.
We saw the benefit of that work in West Lafayette. It wasn’t perfect — for instance, USC went 0 for 3 on third down — but Saturday felt, to me at least, like a sign that the Trojans and their coach may have learned the right lessons from last season and perhaps put their fourth-quarter woes in the rearview mirror.
USC defensive tackle Floyd Boucard sacks Purdue quarterback Ryan Browne in West Lafayette, Ind., on Saturday.
(Michael Conroy / Associated Press)
— USC’s pass rush progress feels legit. After its third consecutive game with four or more sacks, I think we can safely say that USC is much-improved in this area. USC not only had five sacks Saturday, but pressured Purdue quarterback Ryan Browne 31 times on 39 dropbacks, according to PFF. That’s an absurd mark. The Trojans actually lead the nation in sacks with 14 through three weeks, much of which they were able to collect without blitzing. Before this season, USC had just two games total with four or more sacks during the Riley era, both in 2023. That rate probably isn’t sustainable. But D’Anton Lynn finally has a collection of talent to rush the passer, and the results look a lot more like UCLA in 2023, when Lynn’s Bruins defense finished in the top-10 in sacks nationally, than USC in 2024.
— Penalties are becoming a real problem. Riley made clear that USC needed to cut down on discipline penalties after it drew eight penalties a week ago. But the Trojans ended up drawing their most penalties of the season Saturday (nine) and the most penalty yards of Riley’s tenure (103). They had two sideline interference calls, a roughing the passer call and a personal foul on a punt. “We know we’ve gotta do better,” Riley said.
— USC’s corner rotation narrowed, as promised. And Marcelles Williams was the main beneficiary. It wasn’t clear who would get the start opposite of DeCarlos Nicholson, and after an iffy showing from the cornerback room, there’s no guarantee that Williams will remain in the role. But Williams beat Braylon Conley, DJ Harvey and Chasen Johnson for the start Saturday, and he finished tied for second on the team in tackles (five). Williams played 45 snaps, while Harvey played 22, Johnson played 21 and Conley played 10. The problem is none of them were really up to par in coverage.
— It’s not often that USC finds itself in a weather delay. The last time was in 2012, when USC beat Syracuse at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. But before that, USC hadn’t had a football game affected by weather since 1990, when officials called the game with 2:36 left, handing a win to USC over Ohio State. The Buckeyes were … umm … not happy about it at the time.
Mark Ruffalo and Alison Oliver hold up guns as they search a street on the HBO show “Task.”
(Peter Kramer / HBO)
I was a huge fan of “Mare of Easttown” when it debuted in 2021, so I was thrilled to hear the creator, Brad Inglesby, was returning to HBO with a new crime drama. Fortunately, I can report that “Task” appears to be everything you’d want it to be if you’re looking for a fitting follow-up to one of the best shows of the past five years.
The show follows the intertwining stories of an alcoholic FBI agent played by Mark Ruffalo and a masked robber played by Tom Pelphrey. The aesthetic is dark and dour. And yet, the show is a beautiful piece of filmmaking, and I’m enjoying every minute of it so far.
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 [email protected], and follow me on X at @Ryan_Kartje. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
The unfamiliar road through Big Ten country was not exactly welcoming to USC during its conference debut in 2024. The Trojans blew a fourth-quarter lead during all four of their Big Ten road trips outside of Los Angeles last season, each defeat seemingly more devastating than the one before it.
So as USC sets out on its second swing through the Big Ten, starting with a trip to West Lafayette, Ind., on Saturday, it has tried to address that problem in ways big and small — from replacing the strength and conditioning coach to changing the team’s sleeping and meal times.
Those changes will be put to the test this week when USC crosses two time zones. Part of that new approach includes taking a totally different plane to get there, one with a bit more space to stretch out during a long flight.
“[The players are] gonna like having more leg room,” coach Lincoln Riley said with a smile. “Who doesn’t like more leg room?”
Purdue should make things a bit more uncomfortable for USC than its previous two opponents. The Boilermakers are 2-0 to start under new coach Barry Odom, who brought in 54 transfers to rebuild a team that finished 1-11, dead last in the conference, last season.
Riley may not have much of a handle on Purdue’s personnel, but he should have a pretty good idea what the Boilermakers will prefer on offense. After all, Purdue’s offensive coordinator, Josh Henson, spent the previous two seasons as Riley’s offensive line coach and coordinator at USC.
“He’s going up against us, too,” Riley said. “So those things kind of go both ways. There’s obviously going to be some things that both sides are familiar with because of that. But it’s a players’ game at the end of the day.”
Here are three things to watch as USC takes on Purdue on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. PDT (CBS, Paramount+):
When he first started spreading the word about Waymond Jordan, Mike Bennett figured the film would speak for itself. The Escambia High coach had been in the South Florida preps scene long enough to know what he was seeing from his new running back.
“Just watching him run the football for the first time, he was amazing,” Bennett said. He figured scholarship offers would roll in soon enough.
Jordan had similar expectations. Since he first picked up football, at 4 years old, he’d always told himself that he’d play at a big school, on the biggest stage. He’d come to Escambia as a senior with that in mind.
But in 2021, four years before Lincoln Riley and USC would see that same star potential, other college coaches, for whatever reason, weren’t paying much mind.
USC running back Waymond Jordan carries the ball during a win over Georgia Southern at the Coliseum on Saturday. Overlooked earlier in his career, Jordan has become a key piece of the Trojans’ offense.
(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)
Given where Jordan stands today — the top running back on one of the nation’s top rushing offenses through two weeks of the college football season — plenty of them probably regret that now.
“Every coach in the country, I sent stuff to,” Bennett said. “I mean, everybody. I sent it out to everybody.”
Some smaller schools monitored Jordans’ senior year at Escambia, keeping a close eye as he rushed for 1,225 yards and 12 touchdowns. A few schools said he could walk-on. But none of them extended a scholarship offer. Jordan couldn’t understand why.
Hutchinson Community College, a junior college in Hutchinson, Kan., was one of the only places to give him an opportunity. Hutchinson was a thousand miles from his hometown of Pensacola, and a world away from the major college football he thought he’d be playing. But the staff there knew Escambia well, and they believed in what they saw in Jordan’s tape.
If all went well with junior college, he could still get the Power Four offers he was looking for.
“He believed in himself. And he bet on himself,” said Greg Cross, the Hutchinson running backs coach. “And I would say he bet right.”
Cross figured it was a worthy bet then, before most anyone else. He could see on film that Jordan had a rare instinct for making defenders miss. In the open field, not many people could bring Jordan down on their own either. In some ways, his skillset reminded Cross a little bit of Alvin Kamara, who played the 2014 season at Hutchinson.
“But that wasn’t going to happen for him overnight,” Cross said.
USC’s Waymond Jordan stretches out to score a touchdown against Georgia Southern at the Coliseum on Saturday.
(Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
Jordan was by no means a finished product on arrival at Hutchinson. He hadn’t really learned yet how to take care of his body. He was out of shape. He needed to add muscle and change his diet. Plus, he struggled early on with pass protection.
Then his hamstrings started bothering him.
“I knew it was in the best interest for him to redshirt,” Cross said.
Hutchinson could afford to be patient with him. But it was a tough pill to swallow for Jordan.
“He went through a phase where he was kind of down,” Cross said. “We had a lot of talks. We would talk every day. I just wanted to keep him focused, keep him locked in, keep him motivated.
“So, me and him had a talk about it, and I said, ‘You can either let it get the best of you, or you can stay motivated and work 10 times as hard.’”
It was a formative chat for Jordan. Cross implored him to get serious about taking care of his body. He wanted him in the training room every day. They started tracking his meals. He began using the head coach’s YMCA membership.
From then on, Cross says, “I was grilling him, 24/7.”
He came back that second season looking like an entirely different player. He lost weight. He was stronger and more explosive. He had a full recovery routine.
But his hamstring was still acting up. Then, after appearing in two games as a redshirt freshman, Jordan suffered a minor fracture in his foot.
“It felt, to him, like he couldn’t catch a break,” Cross said.
He wore a boot for a couple of weeks. When he came back, he had to play through pain.
Even still, there were glimpses of what Jordan could be. Late in the season, in a game against No. 2 ranked Iowa Western Community College, Jordan broke out with two fourth-quarter rushing scores, one from 47 yards out, the other from 16, that helped put Iowa Western away. He finished with four carries for 99 yards and two touchdowns.
Hutchinson lost its next game to East Mississippi Community College and fell short of an NJCAA national title in 2023. But for Jordan, everything was trending upward that offseason.
“You really saw him take that next step,” said Drew Dallas, Hutchinson’s head coach. “It was just how quickly he was hitting the hole, how fast and confident he was playing. He’d trimmed down his body fat to hardly any at all. He was just this rocked-up ball of muscle who could see the field really well.”
That spring, as word got around, some smaller schools like Florida Atlantic and Florida International started asking about him.
By the end of that spring, Jordan had the scholarship offers he’d been waiting for.
Cross figured he would take the opportunity and run with it. And he wouldn’t have blamed him for doing so. In fact, he couldn’t remember anyone in his time at Hutchinson turning down an FBS opportunity to return to junior college.
But in Jordan’s case, he believed bigger offers could come.
“He told me that if I stayed, I would be able to come to places like [USC,]” Jordan recalls. “That it would all pay out in the end.”
USC running back Waymond Jordan cuts and changes direction while carrying the ball against Georgia Southern at the Coliseum on Saturday.
(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)
Jordan called Cross back with a decision just a few minutes after their conversation.
“When you leaving?” Cross remembers asking him.
“He says no, ‘Coach, I’m gonna stay. I know what I can be.’”
Cross was stunned at the time. Thinking back on that conversation, he laughs.
“He put it all on red, I guess,” he said.
But it took all of one week that season for Jordan’s bet to be vindicated. He rushed for 179 yards and two touchdowns during Hutchinson’s season opener on just 14 carries. That Sunday, Cross got a call from a coach at Michigan State. Was Jordan for real? Because, he said, they were watching closely.
It was “one phone call after another, every week after that,” Cross said. Jordan rushed for 174 yards the following week, then 175 yards and four touchdowns on just nine carries in Week 4. Over a two-week stretch in November, Jordan exploded for 348 yards and four touchdowns, prompting Missouri and Central Florida, two Power Four schools, to offer him scholarships.
He finally had the opportunity he’d been waiting for. So in December, just before the NJCAA playoffs, Jordan committed to Central Florida.
USC didn’t come into the picture until later that month, just as Jordan was named the junior college national player of the year. Other Power Four schools, like North Carolina and Mississippi, were already making their cases to Jordan. But USC had a connection to Cross through Doug Belk, the Trojans’ secondary coach.
USC didn’t necessarily have a need at running back, having already added explosive New Mexico transfer Eli Sanders to its class. But when Anthony Jones, USC’s running backs coach, spoke to Jordan on the phone, he came away convinced that “USC needed this young man.”
“Waymond checked all the boxes that we were looking for,” Jones said.
Hutchinson beat Iowa Western to win the NJCAA national title in spite of Iowa Western’s all-out efforts to bottle up the Blue Dragons’ star running back. Two weeks later, he was on USC’s campus.
As soon as Jordan called him during his visit to L.A., Cross knew he was committing to USC.
Nine months later, the same running back who didn’t have a single Division I offer as a high school senior was bursting out of the USC backfield, weaving through a crowd of defenders on his way into the Coliseum end zone, just like Reggie Bush, Marcus Allen and O.J. Simpson once did.
As he scored his first touchdown as a Trojan, Jordan looked up into the stands and saw his family.
He’d waited four sometimes-frustrating years for that moment.
“His patience, his perseverance really built him into something a lot bigger and better,” Dallas said.
“I think that’s as big of a part of his journey as anything.”
Sierra Canyon has a defense in high school football that needs comic book treatment.
Call them “The Kaboom Squad.”
At any moment, whether it’s a lineman, linebacker or defensive back delivering the blow, be prepared to be wowed.
With size, quickness and depth, the Trailblazers have shut out opponents for 12 consecutive quarters. The opponents haven’t been bad: JSerra, Oaks Christian and Honolulu Punahou.
Will they go through their 10-game regular-season schedule unscored upon? Absolutely not. But the reason they have three shutouts in lopsided victories is that the second stringers are performing as well as first stringers when coach Jon Ellinghouse clears the bench.
Their 63-0 win over Oaks Christian broadcast on Spectrum only added to the Trailblazers’ reputation.
It’s kaboom time as Sam Amuti of Sierra Canyon High prepares to level a Punahou ballcarrier.
(Craig Weston)
A combination of returnees and transfers gives the Trailblazers a defense with few weaknesses.
Nobody is perfect, and perhaps Downey and star quarterback Oscar Rios will be the first to end the shutout streak on Friday, but this is Sierra Canyon’s best defense since the spring of the 2021 COVID season when the Trailblazers put together 18 consecutive quarters of allowing zero points and gave a scare to St. John Bosco.
All the Trailblazers’ positions are filled with talented starters and quality backups. The defensive line starts with Texas commit Richard Wesley, wearing No. 99, the number of Rams great Aaron Donald. The linebackers have a smart, fearless tackler in Ronen Zamorano. The secondary has so many college-bound players that the players’ NIL deals could pay for a trip to Hawaii. Madden Riordan (USC), Havon Finney Jr. (Louisiana State) and Brandon Lockhart (USC) lead the way. And coming soon when the sit-out period ends on Sept. 29 is kicker Carter Sobel, who was a standout at Chaminade and will add to bad field position for opposing offenses.
Sierra Canyon’s Spencer Parham gets emotional for a defense that hasn’t allowed any points in 12 quarters.
(Craig Weston)
Having seen the physicality of St. John Bosco’s offensive and defensive lines last week in a 21-14 win over Baltimore St. Frances, Sierra Canyon (3-0) still needs to keep progressing to be on the same level of the Trinity League powers needed to win a Southern Section Division 1 championship.
The Trailblazers are definitely closing the gap with the Braves and No. 1 Mater Dei. They get a good tune-up for the Division 1 playoffs with a matchup against Orange Lutheran on Sept. 18, a team they lost to last season 33-26.
Chris Rizzo, a former Taft head coach, is the Trailblazers’ defensive coordinator. He wears his baseball cap backward on the sideline with sunglasses and has many options for defensive packages.
Asked if the defense has any weaknesses, Rizzo said, “We have some weaknesses. We’re not perfect by any means. We’ve got some things we have to fix and keep getting better.”
The defense is also helping Sierra Canyon’s offense improve because it’s so difficult to move the ball during practices.
“It makes our guys better,” Ellinghouse said.
Rizzo declined to reveal which unit he thinks is best. “The secondary is pretty star-studded,” he said. “The defensive line is deep. They embrace the grind and play for each other.”
Only time will tell whether this defense is as good as some think. There’s plenty of games ahead to prove if the Trailblazers are truly The Kaboom Squad.
One-hundred thirty-two points are a lot of points.
USC receiver Ja’Kobi Lane evades Georgia Southern defensive back Tracy Hill Jr. during the Trojans’ win Saturday at the Coliseum.
(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)
That’s how much USC has scored in its two games this season, including its blowout victory over Missouri State the week before.
If you want to believe the Trojans are better than they were in their previous two seasons, there are developments that could further convince you that you’re right. If you want to believe Lincoln Riley has elevated his team from mediocrity, there are statistics you could cite to support your observations.
There is also evidence to the contrary, of course.
The two games USC has played this season were more or less Rorschach tests.
The only indisputable truth to emerge was that Trojans receivers Makai Lemon and Ja’Kobi Lane would be serious problems for every one of their opponents.
Everything else remained up for debate.
When you watched the Trojans trample over former Clay Helton’s Eagles at the Coliseum, were you encouraged by how quarterback Jayden Maiava threw for 412 yards or concerned how badly he misfired on some of the handful of passes he didn’t complete?
Was your breath taken away by how Waymond Jordan changed direction in his 167-yard performance or did you gasp in horror when he fumbled on the opening drive?
Were you heartened by how USC scored every time it was in the red zone or alarmed by its three separate illegal-use-of-hands penalties on defense?
Did you see the 39-point margin of victory as an indication the Trojans are ready to take on the big boys or Georgia Southern’s four consecutive drives into their territory in the first half as a sign they will encounter trouble when the level of competition improves?
Riley was more measured in praising his team than he was a week ago.
“Definitely a lot of positives to take out of it,” Riley said.
However …
“Several things we have to clean up,” he said. “We had a couple of errors, I thought, especially with penalties where we have to be better as a football team, more disciplined as a football team.”
Riley warned his team of the consequences of failing to improve.
“It’s like I told the guys last night, there were plays we made last week that some weeks where if we’re not cleaner when we play more talented teams, the results are going to look like that,” he said. “And, so, we have to look at it through the lens of, ‘Did we do our best?’ We’re still a long ways off our best. That’s the No. 1 thing that showed up.”
Riley has sounded tone deaf at times during his three-plus years at USC, but this wasn’t one of them.
Mistakes could be punished by Michigan State, which will present the Trojans with their first real test on Sept. 20.
Mistakes could be punished by Illinois and Notre Dame and Oregon.
USC coach Lincoln Riley directs his team from the sideline during the Trojans’ win over Georgia Southern Saturday.
(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)
Mistakes probably won’t be punished by UCLA, which has been turned into a complete Dumpster fire by athletic director Martin Jarmond, but that’s another story for another day.
For what it’s worth, Georgia Southern’s coach offered an optimistic view of USC’s ceiling. Helton was the Trojans’ head coach for five-plus seasons and still follows the program.
“I’ll tell you what, it’s a better personnel team than last year, especially, I think, offensively,” Helton said.
He pointed specifically to receivers Lemon and Lane, and running backs Jordan and Eli Sanders.
“And the quarterback [Maiava] is playing really, really within himself. You can see reps and experience matter,” Helton continued. “I’ve always thought that, and the experience he had last year, you see his growth.
“They’ve got a good situation here. You can see the changes that have been made from last year’s personnel group to this year’s personnel group, and talking with Coach Riley, I know he’s happy. He’s getting the opportunity to coach a lot more, he said, and you can see it. You can see it on tape.”
Helton still considers himself a champion of USC, and what he saw the Trojans do against his team on Saturday night gave him hope for what they might be able to accomplish this season.
The most densely packed section inside the Rose Bowl on Saturday was filled with fans wearing the colors of the visiting team.
Swathed in red and white, they crammed into one corner of the century-old stadium for what amounted to a nightlong celebration.
Fans cheering for the home team were more subdued and scattered throughout a stadium that seemed about one-third full, outnumbered by empty seats, visiting fans and those massive blue-and-gold tarps covering most of each end zone. Deliberately or not, Fox cameras inside the stadium showed those watching from home only wide shots filled with graphics that obscured the paltry crowd.
By late in the third quarter, the only suspense remaining in UCLA’s 43-10 blowout loss to Utah was waiting for the announced attendance. Reporters in the press box were given a figure of 35,032, which seemed inflated given so many empty seats below them.
It was.
The scan count, a tally of people actually inside the facility, was 27,785, according to athletic officials.
Creative accounting is the norm in college football given there are no standardized practices for attendance reporting. The Big Ten and other conferences leave it up to individual schools to devise their own formulas.
UCLA defines its announced attendance as tickets distributed — including freebies — plus non-ticketed and credentialed individuals such as players, coaches, staff, vendors, cheerleaders, band members, performers and even media. Across town, USC’s announced attendance includes only tickets distributed, according to an athletic department spokesperson, which was 62,841 for the season opener against Missouri State.
In recent seasons, UCLA’s announced attendance was sometimes more than double the scan count, according to figures obtained by The Times through a public records request.
For UCLA’s home opener against Bowling Green on a sweltering September day in 2022, the announced attendance was 27,143, a record low for the team since moving to the Rose Bowl before the 1982 season.
The actual attendance was much lower. UCLA’s scan count, which represented people who entered the stadium (including the aforementioned non-ticketed and credentialed individuals) was 12,383 — 14,760 fewer than the announced attendance. The scan count for the next game, against Alabama State, was just a smidgen higher at 14,093.
Those longing for an on-campus stadium could quip that UCLA might as well hold some games at Drake Stadium given the track facility holds 11,700 and could probably accommodate several thousand more with temporary bleachers placed opposite the permanent grandstands.
Empty seats aren’t just a game day buzzkill given their correlation to lost revenue.
“Since we are now in the era of NIL and revenue sharing, where cash is king,” said David Carter, an adjunct professor of sports business at USC, “every school hoping to play competitive big-time football needs to generate as much revenue and excitement around its program as possible. But since empty seats don’t buy beer or foam fingers, let alone merchandise and parking, any and all other forms of revenue are needed to offset these chronic game day losses in revenue.”
Declining revenue is especially troublesome at a school whose athletic department has run in the red for six consecutive fiscal years. The Bruins brought in $11.6 million in football ticket revenue during the most recent fiscal year, down nearly half from the $20 million they generated in 2014 when the team averaged a record 76,650 fans at the Rose Bowl under coach Jim Mora. But one athletic official said the school in 2025 could come close to matching the $5.5 million it generated in season ticket revenue a year ago.
Low attendance is a deepening concern. UCLA’s five worst home season-attendance figures since moving to the Rose Bowl in 1982 have come over the last five seasons not interrupted by COVID-19, including 46,805 last season. That figure ranked 16th among the 18 Big Ten Conference teams, ahead of only Maryland and Northwestern, which was playing at a temporary lakeside stadium seating just 12,023.
Recent attendance numbers remind some longtime observers of the small crowds for UCLA games in the late 1970s at the Coliseum, which was part of the reason for the team’s move to Pasadena. During their final decade of calling the Coliseum home, the Bruins topped 50,000 fans only six times for games not involving rival USC.
“Now, disappointingly, it would appear that the same attendance challenges that UCLA football faced at the Coliseum in the 1970s are repeating themselves at the Rose Bowl,” said John Sandbrook, a former UCLA assistant chancellor under chancellor Chuck Young and one of the primary power brokers in the school’s switch to the Rose Bowl.
Attendance woes are hardly confined to UCLA. Sixty-one of 134 Football Bowl Subdivision teams experienced a year-over-year decline in attendance last season, according to D1ticker.com.
UCLA faces several unique challenges, particularly early each season. Its stadium resides 26 miles from campus and students don’t start classes until late September. Other explanations for low turnouts have included late start times such as the 8 p.m. kickoff against Utah, lackluster nonconference opponents and triple-digit heat for some September games.
Quarterback Nico Iamaleava said he appreciated those who did show up Saturday, including a throng of friends and family from his hometown Long Beach.
“Fan base came out and showed their support, man,” Iamaleava said. “You know, it felt great going out there and playing in front of them. Obviously, we got to do our part and, you know, get them a win and make them enjoy the game.”
On some occasions, UCLA’s attendance figures have closely reflected the number of people in the stadium, including high-interest games such as Colorado coach Deion Sanders’ appearance in 2023. For that game, the announced attendance (71,343) only slightly exceeded the scan count (68,615).
The rivalry game also gets fans to show up. The announced attendance of 59,473 last season for USC’s 19-13 victory at the Rose Bowl wasn’t far off from the scan count of 51,588.
See all those empty seats? There were fewer than 13,000 fans in attendance to see quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson, right, and wide receiver Titus Mokiao-Atimalala celebrate a touchdown against Bowling Green in 2022.
(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
Still, as traditions go, creative accounting might predate the eight-clap. Similar to fudging practices known to be widespread at other schools, UCLA officials have been known to embellish attendance figures, sometimes rounding far enough past the next thousand not to strain credulity, according to two people familiar with operations who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Additionally, according to a former university administrator who observed the practice, a member of the athletic department staff would show a slip of paper with a suggested attendance figure for basketball games at Pauley Pavilion in the 1960s and 1970s to athletic director J.D. Morgan, who would either nod or take a pen and change the number to one more to his liking. That practice continued under subsequent athletic director Peter Dalis, the administrator said.
While declining to comment for this story, current athletic administrators have acknowledged the challenge of drawing fans in an increasingly crowded sports landscape that now includes two local NFL teams. Among other ventures, UCLA has created a new fan zone outside the stadium that can be enjoyed without purchasing a ticket and will hold a concert on the north side of the stadium the day of the Penn State game early next month.
While there’s no promotion like winning, as the saying goes, there also may be no salvaging the situation for the Bruins’ next home game. UCLA will face New Mexico on Sept. 12 for a Friday evening kickoff that will force fans to fight weekday traffic to see their favorite team face an opponent from the Mountain West Conference.
Brave souls who look around and hear the announced attendance might experience inflation on the rise once more.
As a young man, he stood next to Martin Luther King Jr. as he delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech. As a college basketball coach, he blazed a trail for Black coaches and players. As an executive, he was instrumental in signing Michael Jordan to his groundbreaking endorsement deal with Nike.
George Raveling had an impact that stretched far beyond basketball, the sport which he last coached three decades ago at USC. He became a revered figure in the game, not for the number of wins he accumulated over his career, but for his role as a mentor to many.
Raveling, 88, died Monday after a battle with cancer, his family announced.
“There are no words to fully capture what George meant to his family, friends, colleagues, former players, and assistants — and to the world,” the family said in a statement. “He will be profoundly missed, yet his aura, energy, divine presence, and timeless wisdom live on in all those he touched and transformed.”
Raveling coached at USC from 1986 to 1994, the first Black coach to take the helm of the Trojans basketball program. Over his first four seasons at the school, Raveling didn’t experience much success, winning just 38 of USC’s 116 games over that stretch.
Raveling found his stride in the second half of his tenure, taking the Trojans to two straight NCAA tournaments and two NITs after that. But his overall record at USC never broke .500 (115-118). In September 1994, Raveling was in a serious car accident that eventually led him to retire. He suffered nine broken ribs and a collapsed lung and fractured his pelvis and collarbone.
After his coaching career, Raveling joined Nike as the director of grassroots basketball, later rising to the role of director of international basketball.
But his biggest contribution at Nike came out of his relationship with Jordan, whom Raveling had coached as an assistant with the U.S. national team at the 1984 Olympics. Jordan, whose deal with Nike sent the brand into a new stratosphere, credited Raveling for making it happen. In the foreword for Raveling’s book, Jordan called him “a mentor”.
“If not for George, there would be no Air Jordan,” Jordan wrote.
Across the basketball world, similar plaudits came pouring in Tuesday in light of Raveling’s death.
Eric Musselman, USC’s current basketball coach, said Raveling was “not only a Hall of Fame basketball mind but a tremendous person who paved the way on and off the court.”
Former Villanova coach Jay Wright wrote on social media that Raveling was “the finest human being, inspiring mentor, most loyal alum and a thoughtful loving friend.”
Raveling grew up in Washington D.C., during a time of segregation and hardship. His family lived in a two-room apartment above a grocery store, where they shared a bathroom with four other families on the same floor. His father died suddenly when he was 9. His mother suffered a mental health crisis a few years later and spent most of her remaining years in a psychiatric hospital. Raveling left home at 14 to attend a boarding school.
It was at St. Michaels, a mostly white boarding school in Pennsylvania, that Raveling first started playing basketball. He earned a scholarship at Villanova, where he became a captain and later an assistant coach.
But the college experience, he later said, had an even more profound impact on Raveling.
“I’ve always felt like a sprinter who’d slipped at the starting box and was 20 yards behind everybody — I’ve been in a mad dash to catch up with everybody ever since,” Raveling told The Times in 1994. “My mom worked two jobs when I was a kid. There were no books in our house. Nobody envisioned that I’d graduate from college. No one even encouraged me to go to college.”
He’d spend the rest of his life, it seems, trying to make up for lost time.
Raveling was standing just a few feet away from King on the National Mall in Washington D.C. in 1963 as he delivered his famed “I Have A Dream” speech. King actually handed Raveling his copy of the historic speech immediately after he finished.
For decades, Raveling kept it tucked inside of a book, before recounting the story to a journalist. According to Sports Illustrated, a collector later offered Raveling $3 million for his copy of the speech. But he declined and donated it instead to Villanova.
George Raveling was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., in 2015.
(Charles Krupa / Associated Press)
Raveling pioneered a path that few Black coaches ever had through his career. He was the first Black coach in the history of the Atlantic Coast Conference when he started as an assistant in 1969. Three years later, at Washington State, he became the first Black coach to lead a Pac-8 (now Pac-12) Conference basketball team.
He coached at Iowa from 1983-86 before being hired at USC. At the time, the Trojans had a roster that included Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble, who were coming off their freshman season. Raveling gave the players a firm deadline to tell him if they planned to remain on the team and when they didn’t he revoked their scholarships. Both went on to star at Loyola Marymount.
Raveling was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015. But as a “contributor”, not as a coach. Even while he was coaching, Raveling seemed to understand that his role meant more than that.
“Winning basketball games just helps you keep your job,” he told The Times in 1994. “But keeping your job helps you work with these kids about the real challenges of life, which all happen away from the court. I know there’s an enormous demand around here to win. But I don’t want someone to ask me what I accomplished in my life and for me to say that I won this amount of games or took a team to some tournament.
“If all I can say is that I taught a kid how to shoot a jump shot, well, that’s not good enough. These kids come out of underprivileged, inner-city areas, and I’m just wasting my time if I haven’t put something of substance into their lives.”
Welcome back to the Times of Troy newsletter, where I am thrilled to say we finally have an actual, genuine college football game to talk about! Even if what unfolded at the Coliseum on Saturday barely resembled a college football game at all.
USC absolutely stomped Missouri State, 73-13, in its season opener, scoring more points Saturday than it had in a game since 1930. Nine players scored touchdowns, while USC piled up 597 yards, the fourth-most in a game during Lincoln Riley’s tenure. Not exactly the warmest welcome for Missouri State to the Football Bowl Subdivision.
But for USC, this is probably what we can expect from the non-conference slate for the foreseeable future. At least, until Notre Dame gets on board with playing every September. The stance USC has taken is there’s no sense in adding another tough, non-conference opponent to the schedule, when they won’t be rewarded by the CFP selection committee for doing so.
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After watching USC win by 60, though, I’m not sure what anyone really got out of the proceedings Saturday, either, aside from some sun and some added game experience for young players.
We can’t draw many conclusions from what we saw out of USC’s season-opening smackdown. But since we’ve seen so little up to this point, let’s empty the notebook from Saturday and ask what it might mean going forward.
Jayden Maiava was in total control. He also didn’t take many risks. It was, by far, Maiava’s most efficient performance to date. He overthrew Makai Lemon on what would’ve been a deep touchdown, but that was mostly it for mistakes. He was 14 of 14 on throws under 20 yards. He made the right call to keep the ball on multiple read option plays, and he had zero turnover-worthy passes according to PFF. He just looked more in command than last season, which is a positive sign. That said, Maiava didn’t really have to do much Saturday. This was as easy as it’ll get this season. But he did exactly what he should do against an inferior opponent.
Husan Longstreet’s talent is very apparent. That’s no reason to rush him. USC’s five-star freshman quarterback got to play the entire second half against Missouri State, which was probably the most valuable part of Saturday’s game. He completed 9 of 9 passes for 69 yards and a touchdown, while rushing eight times for 54 yards and two touchdowns. He’s clearly more ready as a rusher than a passer at this point. He held the ball too long on a dropback in the third quarter, got hit and lost a fumble. You can tell the game is still slowing down for him. But when he took off to run on a few occasions, he looked like Lamar Jackson Lite darting through lanes in Missouri State’s defense. Whenever he takes over at the position, he’ll be the fastest quarterback at USC since … umm … ever?
Maybe Riley wasn’t exaggerating about this being his “most talented” running back room yet. Waymond Jordan only touched the ball six times, but that was enough for me to see what the fuss through fall camp was about. Jordan has an elusiveness and wiggle to his game that reminds me a little bit of a shiftier Marshawn Lloyd. Eli Sanders, meanwhile, looked like he was shot out of a cannon on his 73-yard touchdown catch. Even King Miller, the walk-on, ripped off a 75-yard breakaway score. The only question now is how Riley will actually deploy the run game, but a 233-yard, six-touchdown performance is not a bad way to start.
Kameryn Fountain wasted no time in making his presence felt. We told you that Fountain is on the brink of a breakout season, and he definitely made us look smart in Week 1. From the very first play Saturday, when his pressure forced a quick throw from Missouri State, Fountain consistently affected the pocket. Braylan Shelby actually led USC in sacks with a pair, but I’d still bet on Fountain to be leading the team come December.
We weren’t talking enough about Bishop Fitzgerald. USC’s new safety was an absolute menace Saturday, whether he was in coverage or in the box. He intercepted one pass and returned it for a touchdown, then two drives later, broke up a third down pass. Fitzgerald and Ramsey look like a lethal combination on their own, and Christian Pierce, as the third safety, gives USC the ability to keep three safeties on the field. The more versatility D’Anton Lynn has at his disposal, the better.
Makai Lemon was targeted eight times and caught seven passes … on just 14 routes. That’s 6.42 yards per route run! The best in the NFL last season — Puka Nacua — was at 3.61 yards per route run last season. Lemon won’t face Missouri State every week, but he’s already clearly Maiava’s most reliable target.
USC opened the game with two tight ends (12 personnel), a grouping it used just 20% of the time in 2024. Expect more of it this season. After three years of mostly ignoring the position, USC may have some potential at tight end this year. And by playing more often out of 12 personnel, with two tight ends on the field, it can use bigger fronts to establish the run, while maintaining the threat of the pass. USC’s tight ends didn’t have any touchdowns last season. They have two already in 2025.
Week 1’s three highest-graded USC players by PFF were Fitzgerald, Maiava … and freshman linebacker Matai Tagoa’i. In his first collegiate game, Tagoa’i played just 15 snaps, but managed to force a fumble in the fourth quarter. He also lined up in the slot for six of his snaps and held his own in coverage. Overall, an impressive debut for a player I thought would take a while to make his mark.
USC’s AD on revenue sharing
USC athletic director Jennifer Cohen
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
It’s been eight weeks since universities began paying their athletes directly, in the wake of the House vs. NCAA settlement. Not long enough, as USC’s athletic director sees it, to draw any larger conclusions about whether the system is functioning correctly or not.
“In college athletics, none of us have any patience,” Jennifer Cohen said. “I think in a perfect world, you’re launching a new plan, and at the same time, all the enforcement is done, all the rules are announced, it’s staffed fully, you know, and you’re rolling all at once. That’s just not where we are, but we also took on a massive undertaking. And I think that there’s as many positives as there are unanswered questions in it. I would say, locally speaking, it’s gone really well.”
The Times spoke last week with Cohen, who for the first time shared details of how USC is divvying up the $20.5-million cap that schools are now allowed to pay their athletes for NIL.
USC has NIL agreements with athletes in four sports right now: Football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and … women’s indoor volleyball. You might be surprised to hear that volleyball made that cut, but that’s actually consistent with other schools across the country.
How the money is divided is a bit more complicated this year, given how many NIL deals were struck prior to the July 1 start date for revenue sharing. But the formula most schools say they’re following calls for 75% to football (~$15 million), 15% to men’s basketball (~$3 million), 5% to women’s basketball (~$1 million) and the last 5% split among the remaining programs.
But added scholarships across other sports play a critical role in that picture. Newly funded scholarships only count against the cap up to $2.5 million, and so the programs who don’t get cut revenue share checks will be able to fund more scholarships than they would have before.
USC has a two-year plan to spread out those new scholarships, with some sports being granted more scholarships this year, and others adding them next year. The plan, Cohen said, is to fund that by endowing at least 100 new scholarships. Consider that annual costs at USC are nearing $100,000 per student, and that’s no small chunk of change to raise.
—USC still has $50 million left to raise for its football facility project. The Bloom Football Performance Center is quickly taking shape, with all signs still pointing towards opening sometime next summer. The original plan called for raising $175 million, but that number went up to $200 million and then $225 million. Not because of rising construction costs, but other capital project needs. Cohen, USC’s AD, said she isn’t concerned about closing the gap. “We’ll get there,” she said. But with all the added expenses now on the department’s budget, Cohen told The Times plainly that donor money has never been more important in college athletics. “This,” she said, “is a really big year for fundraising.”
—USC’s pregame “Drip Walk” is no more. The last few seasons, on their way into the stadium, USC’s players were encouraged to express themselves with their pregame fashion, the photos of which would then be posted on social media. But now those outfits have been traded out for a uniform, school-issued gear look. I, personally, never would’ve pointed to the “Drip Walk” as part of a culture problem. But hey, to each their own. Riley said that the players made the choice themselves. “If you ask these guys, we don’t show up to a meeting, we don’t do anything unless it’s all together.”
My Week 2 pick …
Clay Helton makes his triumphant return to the Coliseum, where he’ll be a 24.5-point underdog to his former team. USC absolutely crushed the Vegas line last week, and I have a feeling this one may not be big enough either. Georgia Southern gave up 351 yards rushing to Fresno State last week. Jordan should have a big day in USC’s backfield.
Give me the Trojans as the 24.5-point favorite. They win 42-17.
Billy Joel was a mainstay in the soundtrack of my childhood. “Piano Man” and “Vienna” are still regulars in my karaoke rotation. But I never realized how little I actually knew about Joel and his life until I watched HBO’s two-part documentary, “Billy Joel: And So It Goes.” The doc is a riveting look at Joel’s rise to stardom that doesn’t hold back in digging deep on its main subject, from his failed marriages to his drinking to his reputation among other musicians.
It didn’t hurt, of course, that I found myself singing throughout all five hours.
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 [email protected], and follow me on X at @Ryan_Kartje. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
From Ryan Kartje: Five years ago, when USC first scheduled this 2025 season opener, the plan had been to go big, to test itself with a marquee, nonconference opponent that not only bolstered the Trojans’ strength of schedule but also captured the attention of college football. So, at the time, USC agreed to a home-and-home meeting with Mississippi, when Lane Kiffin, the Trojans’ former coach, would make his much-anticipated return to the Coliseum.
That matchup, of course, never came to fruition. The entire landscape of college football was upended in the meantime. Lincoln Riley became the coach. USC left the Pac-12 for the Big Ten. And the meeting with Mississippi was canceled, the rationale from USC’s leaders being there was no sensible reason, in the age of the expanding College Football Playoff, to test your team with top-tier nonconference competition.
Which is how Missouri State, in its first-ever matchup as a Football Bowl Subdivision program, wound at the Coliseum on Saturday, watching helplessly as USC stopped just short of stealing the Bears’ lunch money in a 73-13 season-opening beatdown.
It was the most points USC had scored in a football game since 1930, when it put up 74 points on California. But how much could USC really take from trouncing a team that finished fourth last season … in the Missouri Valley Conference? Before that, Missouri State had just one winning season at the FCS level over their previous 14.
“It’s a good start,” Riley said. “It’s nothing more than that. It’s nothing less than that. It’s a really good start. It’s always great when you’re able to play a lot of guys right there in the beginning. It’s healthy for the football team.”
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From Ben Bolch: From the first snap of training camp, DeShaun Foster tightly controlled any narratives about his team.
Reporters never knew how much — or little — of UCLA’s practice sessions they would get to watch, one day being limited to eight minutes of stretching. Mostly they saw individual drills, field goals and — in recent weeks — one snap of the full offense going against the defense.
Photography and video were banned, even at a Rose Bowl practice open to spectators who faced no such restrictions. Foster preferred to let the team’s social media posts and internally produced video series suffice as the story of his team.
As of late Saturday night, the story could no longer be kept secret.
The Bruins don’t appear to be any good.
In a clunker of a season opener, they couldn’t tackle on defense or consistently move the ball on offense behind new quarterback Nico Iamaleava.
While it’s important to throw in the caveat that it’s just one game, UCLA’s 43-10 loss to Utah at the Rose Bowl represented a giant step backward after the Bruins had closed their first season under Foster with four wins in their final six games.
That was March 31, 152 days ago. The season was six games old then. No other pitcher with at least 13 major league starts has gone longer without a win this season.
Yet Glasnow was never deserving of a better fate than he was Saturday, when he took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and a shutout into the seventh, only to wind up with the loss when the Dodgers fell 6-1 to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
With the Padres beating the Minnesota Twins, the Dodgers’ lead in the National League West is back at one game.
Oswald Peraza hit a two-run single in the ninth inning to help the Angels break a three-game losing skid by beating the Houston Astros 4-1 on Saturday night.
Peraza entered the game as a defensive replacement in the seventh inning and hit a bases-loaded fly ball to deep right field that eluded the outstretched glove of Cam Smith. It was the fourth straight hit off Astros closer Bryan Abreu (3-4), who had not surrendered a run in his previous 12 appearances.
The Angels’ third run of the ninth inning scored when Mike Trout walked with the bases loaded.
From John Cherwa: Journalism, running for the first time against older horses, ran to a valiant second place in the $1-million Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Saturday. The winner was Fierceness, a multiple stakes winner who was the post-time favorite in last year’s Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic.
The race lost a lot of luster when Nysos, the 8-5 morning-line favorite, scratched from the race with a bruise to his right outside quarter hoof. It’s not a serious issue and Nysos may be pointed to the Goodwood Stakes on Sept. 27 at Santa Anita, trainer Bob Baffert told Horse Racing Nation.
Journalism, winner of the Preakness Stakes and second in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, has not finished out of the exacta this year in seven starts. In his last start he won the Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park and got a free entry to the $7-million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 1 at Del Mar.
1881 — The first U.S. men’s single tennis championships begin at the Newport Casino, in Newport, Rhode Island.
1895 — The first professional football game is played at Latrobe, Pa., between Latrobe and Jeannette, Pa. Latrobe pays $10 to quarterback John Brallier for expenses.
1934 — The Chicago Bears and the College All-Stars played to a 0-0 tie before 79,432 in the first game of this series.
1955 — Nashua, ridden by Eddie Arcaro, goes wire-to-wire to defeat Swaps, ridden by Bill Shoemaker in a match race at Washington Park. Nashua’s victory avenges his second-place finish, behind Swaps, in the 1955 Kentucky Derby.
1972 — American super swimmer Mark Spitz wraps up the Olympic butterfly double with a world record 54.27 in the 100m in Munich, having already won the 200m in world record time 2:00.70.
1977 — John McEnroe plays his first U.S. Open match and receives his first Open code of conduct penalty in a 6-1, 6-3 first-round win over fellow 18-year-old Eliot Teltscher.
1979 — Sixteen-year-old Tracy Austin defeats 14-year-old Andrea Jaeger, 6-2, 6-2, in the second round of the U.S. Open Earlier in the day, John Lloyd defeats Paul McNamee, 5-7, 6-7, 7-5, 7-6, 7-6, in the longest match by games at the Open since the introduction of the tie-break. The two play 63 of a maximum 65 games in three hours and 56 minutes.
1984 — Pinklon Thomas wins a 12-round decision over Tim Witherspoon in Las Vegas to win the WBC heavyweight title.
1985 — Angel Cordero Jr., 42, becomes the third rider in history behind Bill Shoemaker and Laffit Pincay Jr. to have his mounts earn $100 million, while riding at Belmont Park.
1991 — Houston quarterback David Klingler sets an NCAA record with six touchdown passes in the second quarter as the Cougars pound Louisiana Tech 73-3.
1996 — Oklahoma State becomes the first Division I-A team to win a regular-season overtime game, avoiding an embarrassing loss to Division I-AA Southwest Missouri State, when David Thompson’s 13-yard touchdown run gives the Cowboys a 23-20 win.
1997 — Eddie George rushes for 216 yards, the second best opening-day NFL performance, in helping Tennessee past Oakland 24-21 in overtime.
1999 — The U.S. Open loses two-time defending champion Patrick Rafter because of injury. Rafter, bothered by a right shoulder injury, retires after Cedric Pioline breaks his serve in the opening game of the fifth set. It’s the first time a defending champion — man or woman — loses in the first round in the history of this Grand Slam tournament going back to 1881.
2007 — Jeremy Wariner leads an American sweep of the medals in the 400 meters at the track and field world championships. Wariner wins in a personal best 43.45 seconds, with LaShawn Merritt taking silver and Angelo Taylor getting bronze. It’s the first medal sweep for any country in the men’s 400 at the world championships.
2007 — Exactly 28 years to the day, No. 3 Novak Djokovic and Radek Stepanek tie the U.S. Open record for most games played (63 of a maximum 65) in a match. Djokovic outlasts Stepanek 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5), 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (2), in the four-hour, 44-minute match.
2018 — Aaron Donald of the Rams becomes the NFL’s highest-paid defensive player. The All-Pro defensive tackle agrees to a six-year, $135-million deal, which surpasses Von Miller’s contract in Denver as the new benchmark for defenders.
THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY
1909 — The A.J. Reach Company was granted a patent for its cork-centered baseball, which replaced the hard rubber-cored one. This change will be particularly apparent in the National League in 1910 and 1911.
1915 — Jim Lavender of the Chicago Cubs pitched a 2-0 no-hitter in the first game of a doubleheader against the New York Giants.
1935 — Vern Kennedy of the Chicago White Sox pitched a no-hitter to beat Cleveland 5-0. Kennedy also had a bases-loaded triple.
1937 — Rudy York of the Tigers hit his 17th and 18th home runs of the month to set a major league record as Detroit beat Washington 12-3.
1950 — Brooklyn’s Gil Hodges tied a major league record by hitting four homers against the Boston Braves in the Dodgers’ 19-3 rout. Hodges also added a single for 17 total bases and drove in nine runs. Brooklyn pitcher Carl Erskine singled in the second, third, fifth and sixth innings.
1959 — Sandy Koufax struck out 18 Giants for a National League record as the Dodgers beat San Francisco 5-2.
1965 — Boston catcher Russ Nixon tied a major-league record with three run-scoring sacrifice flies in the second game at Washington. Boston won 8-5, after taking the opener, 4-0.
1974 — In a Northwest League game, Portland manager Frank Peters rotated his players so each man played a different position each inning. The strategy worked for an 8-7 win over Tri-Cities.
1990 — The Griffeys — 20-year-old Ken Jr. and his dad, Ken, 40 — made major league history, leading Seattle to a 5-2 victory over Kansas City. The Griffeys were the first father and son to play together in the big leagues.
1998 — Cubs OF Sammy Sosa ties Mark McGwire by hitting his 55th home run in Chicago’s 5 – 4 win over Cincinnati. Sosa has hit 30 of his homers at Wrigley Field, three short of Hack Wilson’s Cub record and tying him with Ernie Banks.
2001 — Pitcher Danny Almonte, who dominated the Little League World Series with his 70-mph fastballs, was ruled ineligible after government records experts determined he actually was 14, and that birth certificates showing he was two years younger were false. The finding nullified all the victories by his Bronx, N.Y., team, the Rolando Paulino Little League All-Stars, and wiped out all its records — including Almonte’s perfect game and an earlier no-hitter.
2004 — Omar Vizquel went 6-for-7 to tie the American League record for hits for a nine-inning game in Cleveland’s 22-0 victory over the New York Yankees. The 22-0 beating, was the largest loss in the history of the Yankees’ organization. Cleveland matched the largest shutout win in the major leagues since 1900, set by Pittsburgh against the Chicago Cubs on Sept. 16, 1975.
2005 — Florida’s Jeremy Hermida became the first player in more than a century and the second to hit a grand slam in his first major league at-bat, connecting in the seventh inning off the St. Louis Cardinals’ Al Reyes.
2005 — Albert Pujols hit an RBI triple in St. Louis’ 10-5 victory over the Florida Marlins, giving him 100 RBIs this season. Pujols became the first player in major league history to hit at least 30 home runs and drive in 100 runs in his first five seasons in the majors.
2010 — Cuban defector Aroldis Chapman reached 102 mph during one perfect inning, and Cincinnati beat Milwaukee 8-4. Chapman joined the Reds’ bullpen and matched the hype his first time out, throwing four pitches clocked at 100 mph or better.
2011 — Two milestone home runs — Chipper Jones’ 450th and Derek Lowe’s first — gave Atlanta the early lead and Lowe combined with three relievers on a three-hitter in a 3-1 victory over Washington. Craig Kimbrel pitched the ninth for his 41st save, setting a major league rookie record.
2019 — Minnesota Twins hit six home runs in a 10-7 loss to the Tigers to break an MLB record by hitting 268 home runs in a season.
2022 — Shohei Ohtani adds another item to his ever-growing list of achievements when he homers off Gerrit Cole of the Yankees in the 6th inning of the Angels’ 3-2 win. With that, he becomes the first player ever to hit 30 homers and record 10 wins in the same season, a feat not even Babe Ruth managed to achieve.
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 [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Jayden Maiava passes for 295 yards despite only playing in the first half as USC scores 42 first-half points on the way to a 73-13 victory.
Five years ago, when USC first scheduled this 2025 season opener, the plan had been to go big, to test itself with a marquee, non-conference opponent that not only bolstered the Trojans’ strength of schedule but also captured the attention of college football. So, at the time, USC agreed to a home-and-home meeting with Mississippi, when Lane Kiffin, the Trojans’ former coach, would make his much-anticipated return to the Coliseum.
That matchup, of course, never came to fruition. The entire landscape of college football was upended in the meantime. Lincoln Riley became the coach. USC left the Pac-12 for the Big Ten. And the meeting with Mississippi was canceled, the rationale from USC’s leaders being there was no sensible reason, in the age of the expanding College Football Playoff, to test your team with top-tier non-conference competition.
Which is how Missouri State, in its first-ever matchup as a Football Bowl Subdivision program, wound at the Coliseum on Saturday, watching helplessly as USC stopped just short of stealing the Tigers’ lunch money in a 73-13 season-opening beatdown.
It was the most points USC had scored in a football game since 1930, when it put up 74 points on California.
If the intent was merely to get off to a smooth, harmless start, then USC certainly succeeded in that regard.
Quarterback Jayden Maiava was mostly seamless, completing 15 of 18 passes for 295 yards and two touchdowns before taking a seat at halftime. The offense averaged 7.6 yards per carry, busted three plays of 60-plus yards and never punted.
USC’s defense, which had been the talk of the offseason, didn’t disappoint either. The Trojans tallied five sacks after having just 21 total a year ago. They held Missouri State to 224 yards and even put up a pick-six, courtesy of new safety Bishop Fitzgerald. A third-quarter interception, snagged on a tipped pass by reserve defensive end Garrett Pomerantz, nearly handed them another.
But as measuring sticks go, Saturday felt more along the lines of a well orchestrated scrimmage. So much so that five-star freshman Husan Longstreet played the entire second half, completing all nine of his passes and rushing for two touchdowns.
The only suspense, if you can call it that, came in the opening minutes, when Missouri State drove down the field, busted a 23-yard run through the teeth of the Trojans defense and hit a 44-yard field goal.
The Tigers took an early 3-0 lead as if to announce they wouldn’t stand by and simply be trampled.
Then, a few minutes later, the trampling began.
It took USC some time to really find its rhythm. For their first two drives, the Trojans averaged only 8.6 yards per play, a step down from its final total of 11.3 yards per play.
The dam burst by the time USC touched the ball a third time. Maiava found tight end Lake McRee over the middle on the first play of the drive. The field in front of McRae immediately opened up, and the tight end sprinted his way to a 64-yard touchdown.
It was less than 90 seconds later that Fitzgerald put the game out of reach for good, with still three quarters left to go. He picked off a pass and took it 39 yards to paydirt.
Missouri State did manage to reach the end zone once, after a miscommunication in USC’s secondary left a receiver wide open in the corner.
But from there, the Trojans would outscore them 45-3. They’d score on a 75-yard rush, from King Miller, and a 73-yard screen, to Eli Sanders. Maiava and Longstreet combined for three touchdowns on the ground.
As the Coliseum stands continued to clear, the fourth quarter became more a question of mercy than anything.
USC would fall short of its all-time scoring record. But if a smooth start was what it was looking for, it had no issue bullying its way to a win in Week 1.
The metaphor feels almost too obvious, the iron-and-brick facade of a half-finished, $200-million football palace looming over Howard Jones Field. A chorus of construction equipment cuts through the chaos of a preseason football practice, the whole scene a reminder that USC, in Year 4 of the Lincoln Riley era, is building toward something.
Where USC’s football program stands in that building process is a bit more complicated to capture. After winning 11 games in Riley’s first season as USC’s coach, the Trojans’ win total has declined in each of the two seasons since. Riley, through 40 games at USC, now has one fewer win (26) than his predecessor, Clay Helton (27), did at the same point during their tenures.
But in recent months, a groundswell of momentum has been building at USC. During the offseason, the Trojans retained top-tier defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn in spite of serious advances from his alma mater, Penn State. They added a rising star in general manager Chad Bowden, who has been an adrenaline shot to the entire program. They surged to the top of the recruiting rankings for the class of 2026 and finally began setting the pace in the NIL space, where they once lagged far behind other programs of their stature.
The only pressing questions now for USC, it seems, are on the field. Even as enthusiasm builds for 2026 , when the football facility will open and the top recruiting class lands, the upcoming season is a critical one for Riley. A third consecutive disappointing campaign would force USC to face some uncomfortable truths, some of which the school can’t afford to confront.
“I just feel great about the progress that’s been made,” USC athletic director Jennifer Cohen told The Times. “And now we’re now in a position where our expectations are high. We all know what they are and that’s to win.”
The Times spoke to Cohen ahead of the Trojans’ season opener against Missouri State to discuss that progress and the expectations that come with it, for Riley and the program.
The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Where would you say the football program stands right now?
“We’ve seen a tremendous amount of momentum, in particular this offseason, with a combination of moves and investments on the retention side of the coaches that we already had that were doing a great job within our program and culture. Just the quality of coaches overall is at an all-time high in my opinion. So that’s one big piece that’s helped with the momentum.
“The second is the front office development and just the hiring of [general manager] Chad [Bowden]. Chad being able to restructure his team and also restructure how all of our coaches work, how he supports Lincoln, how he supports the assistant coaches — he’s more than just somebody that’s developing a roster. He’s really a culture guy, and he’s been a great partner for Lincoln and the staff in football, but he’s really been a great partner for all of us, and he’s done a lot of bridging of relationships, both internally and externally. And top of all that, obviously, we’ve seen the specific momentum of their skill set from a recruiting standpoint coming to fruition in this ‘26 class.
“So that’s huge progress and has really moved us in a direction that we really needed to go in. The facility investment has obviously been exciting. Watching Bloom grow that quickly and the fact these guys know now that it’s real and they’re gonna be in it this time next year, I think that’ll help us from a retention standpoint. We’ve made so much progress this past year in NIL and how we invest in our student athletes in football, and then obviously being in this new era now where we’re entered into NIL agreements directly with students, I just feel great about the progress that’s been made, and now we’re in a position where our expectations are high. We all know what they are, and that’s to win.”
USC football general manager Chad Bowden, left, speaks with coach Lincoln Riley during a team practice.
(USC Athletics)
We’re entering Year 4 with Lincoln Riley. In each of those seasons since he’s been here, his win-loss record has declined. What is your confidence level with him as coach as we start the season?
“We’re both aligned on the expectations that we have, and that’s to win. And Lincoln knows that. I know that. You know that. Our fans — everybody knows it. I would just say we’re really embracing those expectations together. I feel really good about the support and the infrastructure and the resources that he’s been provided. I know he’s energized by it. He’s motivated by it, and there’s nobody that wants to succeed more than Lincoln. I’m really excited for us to get behind him and the guys and the staff and see those results.”
What sort of tangible results do you need to see from Lincoln and the program to maintain that confidence?
“The whole idea here, right, is that we’re going to win. Our goal and our standard here is that we win championships. That’s what we’re working towards, and that’s what we’ve invested in, and that’s what my expectation is, his expectation is, our collective expectation is as a Trojan family. We haven’t even played a game yet. My focus right now is on supporting him, supporting our coaches, supporting our student athletes and really just moving this program forward — moving this whole athletic department forward. This is a completely different era that we’re in, and we’re laser focused. And I’m laser-focused on pulling every lever that I can and we can for this program to succeed and for all of our programs to succeed.”
For college football fans, the tranquility and/or boredom of game-free weekends has officially ended.
Yes, the college football season is back today along with all of the game-day traditions: tailgating, plopping on the couch with a 60-inch screen, backyard barbecues and incessant complaining about traffic from residents near the Rose Bowl.
Hope is high for the USC and UCLA football programs, members of the Big 10 Conference (it still feels weird saying that!).
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Our L.A. Times sports team put together an amazing digital preview package for the upcoming season. The Trojans start first, hosting Missouri State at the Memorial Coliseum at 4:30 p.m. today while the Bruins welcome Utah to the Rose Bowl at 8 p.m.
Let’s sample some of that coverage and wish both teams the best of luck. And as an Alabama alumnus myself, may I add a very loud Roll Tide!
Expect a roller-coaster season from USC quarterback Jayden Maiava
My colleague and Trojans beat writer Ryan Kartje said the redshirt junior made a concerted effort over the summer to eliminate the back-breaking mistakes he struggled with last season.
Since last season, he dug deeper into head coach Lincoln Riley’s offense and worked on his mechanics with the experts at the 3DQB training academy in Huntington Beach.
But Maiava’s style has lent itself to high variance.
He loves to chuck it deep and too often throws it into coverage. That could yield some thrilling results. We’ll have to see if that will benefit USC or not.
But 4.3% of his passes last season were deemed turnover-worthy by Pro Football Focus. That was third-highest in the Big Ten and too high for USC’s offense to reach its potential.
UCLA’s defense will need big seasons from safety Key Lawrence and edge rusher Devin Aupiu.
My colleague and UCLA beat writer Ben Bolch said UCLA will look for leadership on defense.
Perhaps the most energetic player on the team, Lawrence, a Mississippi transfer, also boasts plenty of talent, speed and smarts.
Barring a setback from a minor right leg injury he sustained midway through training camp, Lawrence projects to be an opening-day starter.
He’ll need to anchor a secondary that’s replacing every starter.
As for Aupiu, UCLA’s pass rush was meh last season, generating 22 sacks to rank tied for No. 78 in the nation.
As a part-time starter, Aupiu made 4½ tackles for losses, including 1½ sacks — decent production given his limited playing time and easily the most among returning players. Getting into the backfield more often this season is a must for the redshirt senior.
Prediction time: The Bruins will be bowl-bound while the Trojans will split with their rivals.
Bolch is predicting a season full of surprises and a bowl berth for the Bruins. Does he think they’ll beat USC? You’ll have to read his preview.
Kartje is predicting a fast start for the Trojans, who will run into some bumps and bruises in the Big 10 before rallying with a flourish. Will USC topple UCLA and Notre Dame?
Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team
Jim Rainey, staff writer Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor Andrew J. Campa, reporter Karim Doumar, head of newsletters Diamy Wang, homepage intern Izzy Nunes, audience intern
From Ryan Kartje: A dozen years before he charted a bold, new path for the USC football program, Chad Bowden was living on the pull-out couch of a cramped studio apartment in Hollywood with no clue where his life was headed.
Bowden couldn’t have dreamed up the role he’d one day occupy a few miles down the street at USC, where as the Trojans football general manager, Bowden has infused the program with new energy while putting together the top recruiting class in America.
So how did Bowden rise from that couch to being held up as one of the most consequential arrivals at USC since Pete Carroll himself?
Bowden thought that he might play college football. A few small schools had offered him opportunities to play linebacker coming out of high school in Cincinnati. But Bowden’s father, former baseball general manager Jim Bowden, didn’t think it was the right move. He worried about how his son would handle the rest of the college experience.
“He felt like it was best for me, from a maturity standpoint, to go right into working,” Bowden says.
Which is what led him to the tiny apartment off Highland Avenue. He split the place with Jac Collinsworth, his close high school friend, the two of them packed like sardines into a single room that doubled as the kitchen and dining space. Neither seemed to mind the close quarters. Everything became a competition, with each of them pushing the other.
Every pump of the brakes, every maddening mile in traffic that can be more stop than go, puts him closer to hearing his dad’s voice and seeing his mom’s smile.
These are the visits that can fill a young man’s heart, not to mention his belly. During a recent trip home, the UCLA quarterback savored the family recipe of pisupo, a Samoan dish consisting of corned beef with rice.
“I’ve been getting a lot of home-cooked meals from mom and just having them. You know, an hour away has been fun, man,” Iamaleva told The Times after practice Wednesday. “You know, I’ll go to Long Beach as much as I can. But, you know, during this week, I’ve been locked in with the game plan and stuff like that.”
As he spoke, Iamaleava’s hair was tied back with a pink elastic band reading “Team Leinna.” Two years ago, Nico established a foundation to support breast cancer research and awareness after his mom, Leinna, recovered from Stage IV breast cancer.
But for their most intriguing recent draft pick, it’s also the opening day of a different kind of season.
In the 17th round of last month’s MLB draft, the Dodgers took a flier on University of Missouri pitcher Sam Horn, a 6-foot-4 right-hander with a big fastball, a promising slider and an athletic, projectable build.
Like most late-round prospects hoping to become a diamond in the rough, Horn came with questions. He pitched just 15 innings in his college career after undergoing Tommy John surgery as a sophomore. His limited body of work led to a wide range of scouting opinions.
In Horn’s case, however, the biggest unknowns had nothing to do with his potential as a pitcher.
Because, starting Thursday night, he will also be under center as quarterback for Missouri’s football team.
Rams linebacker Jared Verse shows off the team’s new uniforms.
(Los Angeles Rams)
From Gary Klein: Nothing, it seems, commands the attention of Rams fans more than the team’s uniforms.
And on Thursday, the Rams revealed a new “Midnight Mode” uniform part of the NFL’s Rivalries program.
The “near black” ensemble and helmet was designed by Nike and the Rams based on the ethos that “We work hard all night to earn the spotlight,” said Kathryn Kai-ling Frederick, the Rams’ chief marketing officer.
1885 — John L. Sullivan wins the first world heavyweight title under the Marquess of Queensbury rules when he beats Dominic McCaffrey in six rounds. The fight features 3-ounce gloves and 3-minute rounds.
1952 — Dr. Reginald Weir becomes the first Black man to compete in the U.S. Tennis Championships. Weir appears two years after Althea Gibson breaks the color barrier in the tournament and loses in four sets to William Stucki.
1962 — A.C.’s Viking, driven by Sanders Russell, wins the Hambletonian Stakes in straight heats.
1968 — Open tennis begins at the U.S. Tennis Championships. Billie Jean King wins the first stadium match at the U.S. Open and amateurs Ray Moore and Jim Osborne have upset wins over professionals. Moore beats No. 10 Andres Gimeno and Osborne defeats Barry MacKay, each in four sets.
1974 — Nineteen-year-old high school basketball star Moses Malone, signs a contract with the Utah Stars of the ABA to become the first player to go directly from high school into major pro basketball.
1978 — The USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y. opens. Bjorn Borg beats Bob Hewitt in the first match 6-0, 6-2 in the best-of-three sets.
1987 — Charlie Whittingham becomes the first trainer to surpass 500 stakes wins when he sent Ferdinand to victory in the Cabrillo Handicap at Del Mar Racetrack.
1993 — Laffit Pincay Jr. wins the 8,000th race of his career aboard El Toreo in the seventh race at Del Mar racetrack to become the second thoroughbred jockey to ride 8,000 winners.
1993 — Brandie Burton’s 20-foot birdie putt on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff edges Betsy King for the du Maurier Classic title, the LPGA tour’s final major of the season.
2005 — Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova becomes the first U.S. Open defending women’s champion to fall in the first round, losing 6-3, 6-2 to fellow Russian Ekaterina Bychkova on the first day of the U.S. Open.
2011 — Petra Kvitova becomes the first defending Wimbledon champion to lose in the first round at the U.S. Open, 7-6, 6-3 to Alexandra Dulgheru.
2013 — The NFL agrees to pay $765 million to settle lawsuits from thousands of former players who developed dementia or other concussion-related health problems they say were caused by the on-field violence. The settlement, unprecedented in sports, applies to all past NFL players and spouses of those who are deceased.
2015 — Usain Bolt anchors Jamaica to a fourth successive men’s 4×100-meter title and adds to his record-breaking personal haul of IAAF World Championships gold medals to 11.
2018 — Star quarterback Aaron Rodgers signs NFL record contract extension with the Green Bay Packers; 4 years worth $134m rising to a possible $180m with a record $103m in guarantees.
2018 — Wanheng Menayothin surpasses Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s 50-0 record, beating Pedro Taduran in a unanimous decision to improve to 51-0. The 32-year-old Menayothin (51-0, 18 KOs) won his 10th successful title defense of his WBC minimumweight belt that he won in November 2014.
THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY
1918 — The Chicago Cubs, behind the pitching of Lefty Tyler, clinched the National League pennant with a 1-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.
1934 — The Philadelphia A’s ended Schoolboy Rowe’s 16-game winning streak with a 13-5 victory over the Detroit Tigers.
1948 — Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers hit for the cycle in a 12-7 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. Robinson drove in two runs, scored three runs and stole a base.
1965 — San Francisco’s Willie Mays broke Ralph Kiner’s National League record with his 17th home run of the month in an 8-3 triumph over the New York Mets. Kiner had 16 homers in September of 1949. Mays hit a tape measure shot off Jack Fisher.
1967 — Bert Campaneris of the Kansas City A’s hit three triples in a 9-8, 10-inning loss to the Cleveland Indians. Campaneris was the first to have three triples in a game since Ben Chapman in 1939.
1971 — Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves knocked in his 100th run of the season, giving him the National League record of 11 seasons with 100 or more RBIs.
1977 — Lou Brock of St. Louis stole base No. 893, breaking Ty Cobb’s modern record for career stolen bases. The Cardinals lost to the San Diego Padres 4-3.
1977— Cleveland’s Duane Kuiper hit a one-out solo home run in the first inning off Chicago’s Steve Stone at Municipal Stadium. It was Kuiper’s only homer in 3,379 career at-bats — the fewest homers in most at-bats for any player in MLB history.
1985 — Don Baylor of the New York Yankees set an American League record when he was hit by a pitch for the 190th time in his career. Baylor was struck by Angels pitcher Kirk McCaskill in the first inning, breaking the old mark of 189 set by Minnie Minoso.
1991 — Carlton Fisk of the Chicago White Sox hit two homers to become the oldest player in the 20th century to accomplish the mark. He’ll top this by hitting two homers on October 3. Jack McDowell went the distance to beat Cleveland 7-2.
1993 — George Brett recorded his 200th stolen base in Kansas City’s 5-4, 12-inning victory over Boston to join Willie Mays and Hank Aaron as the only players with 3,000 hits, 300 homers and 200 steals.
1998 — Toms River, N.J., wins its first Little League World Series with a 12-9 victory over Kashima, Japan. Chris Cardone hits home runs in consecutive at-bats — including the game-deciding two-run shot.
2000 — Darin Erstad went 3-for-5 to reach 200 hits faster than any player (132 games) in 65 years as the Angels defeated Toronto 9-4. Ducky Medwick of the St. Louis Cardinals did it in 131 games in 1935.
2002 — Mark Bellhorn became the first player in NL history to hit a home run in the same inning from both sides of the plate, in the fourth of the Chicago Cubs’ 13-10 win over Milwaukee.
2004 — Albert Pujols hit his 40th home run and reached 100 RBIs for the fourth straight season to help St. Louis beat Pittsburgh 4-0. He’s the fourth player to start his major league career with four straight seasons with at least 100 RBIs, joining Hall of Famers Al Simmons, Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams.
2010 — Brian McCann hit a game-winning homer with help from video replay, giving the Atlanta Braves a stunning 7-6 victory over the Florida Marlins. It was the first time a game ended using a video review.
2018 — Milwaukee’s Christian Yelich went 6 for 6 and hit for the cycle and Jesus Aguilar homered in the 10th inning, powering the Brewers to a 13-12 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. The Brewers had a season-high 22 hits and rallied to take the lead four different times.
2021 — Taylor, Michigan wins the Little League World Series with a win over Hamilton, Ohio.
2022 — Aaron Judge of the Yankees hit home run #50 of the season, to stay just ahead of the pace set by Roger Maris when he hit 61 homers to set the team and American League record in 1961.
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 [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
A dozen years before he charted a bold, new path for the USC football program, Chad Bowden was living on the pull-out couch of a cramped studio apartment in Hollywood with no clue where his life was headed.
Bowden couldn’t have dreamed up the role he’d one day occupy a few miles down the street at USC, where as the Trojans football general manager, Bowden has infused the program with new energy while putting together the top recruiting class in America.
So how did Bowden rise from that couch to being held up as one of the most consequential arrivals at USC since Pete Carroll himself?
Bowden thought that he might play college football. A few small schools had offered him opportunities to play linebacker coming out of high school in Cincinnati. But Bowden’s father, former baseball general manager Jim Bowden, didn’t think it was the right move. He worried about how his son would handle the rest of the college experience.
“He felt like it was best for me, from a maturity standpoint, to go right into working,” Bowden says.
USC football general manager Chad Bowden looks across the field during preseason camp.
(William Liang/For The Times)
Which is what led him to the tiny apartment off Highland Avenue. He split the place with Jac Collinsworth, his close high school friend, the two of them packed like sardines into a single room that doubled as the kitchen and dining space. Neither seemed to mind the close quarters. Everything became a competition, with each of them pushing the other.
“Both of us were highly motivated guys,” says Collinsworth, whose father is the famed commentator, Cris Collinsworth. “Plus we had [Chad’s] dad in our ear.”
So every morning, they would wake before sunrise to race each other to L.A. Fitness. After, they’d race back up the hill to devour the usual breakfast of egg whites — sometimes mashing in bananas for sweetness. Some days, they’d throw in a motivational video on YouTube to get the blood pumping again, before racing off to try to be the first in the office.
They were both staying up late, getting up early, grinding all day in between. But after a while, it felt to Bowden like he was running in place. He’d tried an internship with a sports agency, only to realize the agency life wasn’t for him. Then he sold Google ads for a company called Linktech, whiling away his days cold-calling strangers who weren’t exactly happy to hear from him. It gave him perspective, he says. But not much else.
It was important to Bowden to find his path as soon as possible. He’d always planned for success at a young age, Jac Collinsworth says. His father, after all, was hired by the Cincinnati Reds as the youngest GM in baseball history back in 1992, and Bowden had practically grown up in that Reds clubhouse. He rode in Ken Griffey Jr’s Lamborghini. He was in the draft rooms, the trade talks, the contract negotiations. Once, he even called out a Reds player’s lack of hustle on the basepaths — and ended up stuffed in a garbage can.
His childhood was intertwined with the game. Even dinnertime could turn on a night’s result. When the Reds won a game, father and son would go out to a local steakhouse for dinner. When they lost, Chad says, they would only eat Triscuits and cheese.
“[Chad] knew that he was going to have to work twice as hard to get that respect from his dad,” Collinsworth says.
As hard as he was working, Bowden didn’t seem to be getting any closer to finding his way in L.A. Evan Dreyer was worried about him.
Dreyer had coached Bowden as a freshman football player at Anderson High in Cincinnati, and they’d stayed in touch since. So when Dreyer was out in L.A., he checked in on his favorite former player.
“Chad needed somebody to look him in the eye and say, ‘What the hell are you doing?’” Dreyer says.
He called Bowden back soon after and offered him a job as his defensive coordinator at Western Brown High, back in Ohio.
Bowden was just 20 years old. He had no coaching experience, aside from filling in for a few weeks as an assistant baseball coach for Dreyer at 14. But Dreyer knew how much Bowden loved football. And he had no doubt that Bowden was bound for great things. He saw it in Bowden even before high school, as early as the fifth grade, when all of the kid’s energy was zeroed in on being the best possible water boy he could be. He sprinted full speed down the sideline to retrieve a loose ball. He didn’t care for school, but memorized the stats of opposing players. It was clear he took pride in the job.
USC general manager Chad Bowden, center, attends a team practice.
(USC Athletics)
But that was when football first swept Bowden up. Now, years later, Dreyer was offering him a chance to get his foot in the door.
“He called me and was like, ‘What are you doing with your life? Football is everything to you.’” Bowden says. “I just kind of sat there and said, ‘What am I doing?”
So took Dreyer up on the offer. The only problem? He had no idea what he was doing as a defensive coordinator.
The team went 1-9. The next year, he followed Dreyer to another high school, and it didn’t get much better. He dialed up blitz after blitz, just hoping for the best. One night, his defense gave up almost 80 points, and a frustrated Bowden was ejected from the game.
Still, he wasn’t one to sit idly by, waiting on a problem to solve itself. Even if there was no obvious — or rational — solution. One week, when his defense gave up over 400 rushing yards, he responded by buying huge tubs of peanut butter, convinced more sandwiches could be the key to bulking up his defensive front.
Once, he babysat for Dreyer’s 3-year old daughter and upon finding out she loved school buses, set out to stop one in the street in order to give her a ride.
There were no half-measures with Bowden, on or off the football field. He preferred to take matters into his own hands if he had to.
“That’s the best way to understand Chad,” Collinsworth said. “He will move a mountain to make something happen.”
He seemed to be in constant motion, attending school at the University of Cincinnati in addition to coaching.
After two seasons coaching high school football, Bowden decided to try a new direction. A friend of his father helped hook him up with an opportunity to shadow the senior vice president of the Miami Dolphins, who eventually helped connect him with Brian Mason, the new recruiting coordinator at Cincinnati.
Mason hired Bowden as a student intern, helping out with Cincinnati’s recruiting. It didn’t take long for him to make an impression on the rest of the staff.
Some staffers, Mason says, were admittedly “thrown off a little bit by his energy” when they first met him. But there was no doubting Bowden’s work ethic as an intern. When Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell gave him a task, coaches remember Bowden sprinting down the hallway to complete it.
“We had to tell him to leave the office, even as a student intern,” Mason said. “He’d go 100 miles per hour to get things done.”
Mason played a critical role helping Bowden focus that energy. He surrounded him with structure and taught Bowden how to be better organized without tamping down his enthusiasm.
“I owe a lot of what happened in my life to Brian Mason,” Bowden says. “Brian did such a great job of understanding that I was crazy. But he also saw the good in me.”
Mason connected Bowden with Marcus Freeman, who at the time was Cincinnati’s defensive coordinator. Bowden asked if he could sit in on meetings with Freeman and Fickell to absorb as much knowledge as he could.
Bowden didn’t stay quiet in those meetings for long. “I never shut up after that,” he says.
It was out of that back-and-forth banter that Bowden and Freeman formed a close bond. Both, according to their fellow coaches, seemed uniquely suited for keeping the other in balance. Where Freeman was the more measured and thoughtful of the two, Bowden was bold and daring. He would push the envelope, and Freeman would rein him back in if need be.
“Like yin and yang,” said Mason, who also worked with both at Notre Dame.
Bowden quickly rose through the ranks at Cincinnati, from defensive quality control assistant to recruiting director. Along the way, there was “tough love” from Freeman that, Bowden says, was exactly what he needed to hear.
Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman and his team line up to enter the field against USC at the Coliseum on Nov. 30.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
“He gave me what I needed to be the best version of me,” he said. “‘If this is what you want to be, this is what you need to do.’”
When Freeman left in 2021 to be Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator, he brought along Bowden, who took a lesser role in South Bend. A year later, Freeman was promoted to head coach and Bowden became his recruiting director and right-hand man.
The recruiting operation quickly took on Bowden’s personality.
“We were flying fast,” says Chris O’Leary, who coached safeties at Notre Dame. “Whether it was offers, calling kids, it was rapid fire all the time. Every day was life or death.”
When it came to talking to recruits, Gerad Parker, who coached tight ends at Notre Dame, likened Bowden to “the crazy uncle at the birthday party.” During official visits, he orchestrated NBA style entrances for recruits and their families. Sometimes he showed up in costume. He memorably dressed up as a leprechaun, another time as an FBI agent.
A leprechaun costume at Notre Dame might seem silly, but Parker said Bowden owned it.
“It’s like going into character when you’re working at Disney,” Parker said. “Those people don’t roll their eyes because they’re in a Cinderella costume. They are Cinderella.”
Of course, not all of his ideas got past the cutting room floor. For one, Freeman refused Bowden’s request to jump out of a helicopter to impress recruits.
“He might bring a list of five ideas, right? And four of them are crazy,” Mason said. “He brought up helicopters on multiple occasions.”
Whatever others thought of his methods, Bowden’s approach was working. He was relentless in building relationships. Recruits raved about his impact. Notre Dame pulled in a trio of top-12 classes that would serve as the bedrock of a run to the national title game.
Michigan had already pursued Bowden to be its general manager before that 2024 run. He turned it down, in order to continue on with Freeman.
By the following January, Bowden decided to change directions. Four days after Notre Dame lost to Ohio State in the national championship, he was named USC’s new football general manager.
At the time, Bowden called the decision “a no-brainer.” While talking with reporters in March, he said “some things that were out of my control” at Notre Dame.
But to those who once worked with both Freeman and Bowden, it was unexpected..
“That had to weigh heavy on Chad,” said Parker, the Irish tight ends coach.
“[They were] like brothers,” said O’Leary, the safeties coach. “I know there’s a lot of layers behind it. But yeah, I was surprised to see him leave Notre Dame.”
By choosing USC, Bowden was once again striking out on his own, walking away from the world he knew best for the promise of building something bigger and better. Fittingly, it would bring him back to the city where his search for a career began.
In seven months at USC, he has completely revamped the front office operation with his hand-picked staff, repaired relationships with local coaches and power brokers and reinvigorated USC’s entire recruiting strategy. The Trojans’ 2026 class has soared to the top of the national recruiting rankings, with 32 commitments and climbing. And boosters are buying in, once again crowding the sidelines of football practices.
Staff members will tell you that Bowden’s impact in that short time at USC runs deeper. That his energy and his willingness to test limits and challenge norms has set a tone for the entire department.
When USC athletic director Jennifer Cohen approached Bowden during a recent football practice, she found him busy scribbling down notes.
“He had 15 things from that practice that he noticed or ideas that he had,” she said.
“He’s the eyes and ears of a program in a way that really takes the pressure off of everyone. He’s just been great within the university community, within the athletic department, with donors, with former players. We could not be more pleased with the progress that he’s made and his team has made and the impact that he’s having on USC football.”
After all the transfer portal trackers and the Lincoln Riley Finebaum rants and the landscape-altering, paradigm-shifting changes to the sport, it’s finally game week here at the Times of Troy.
We’re at the doorstep of a new USC football season, which means there’s no better time to subscribe to this newsletter and ensure you get the best USC analysis — not to mention TV recs, Big Ten betting picks, Midwest travel tips and more — delivered to your inbox every Monday morning.
For this week, it’s time for the Times of Troy to get down to business. We’ve told you what the best-case scenario would look like for Lincoln Riley and the Trojans this season. We’ve told you the worst case. So now, let’s talk about how we actually think this season will unfold at USC.
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Aug. 30 vs. Missouri State: USC was supposed to welcome Lane Kiffin back to the Coliseum in this one. Instead, they get a team playing in its first game as a Football Bowl Subdivision team. Missouri State had just six winning seasons in this century at the FCS level. Its record over the last five years (26-31) is the worst of any team making the FBS transition ever. The Bears have a quarterback with some potential in Jacob Clark, but that won’t be nearly enough.
Prediction: USC wins, 52-10
Sept. 6 vs. Georgia Southern: Clay Helton’s return to the Coliseum could be an uncomfortable affair, if only because Georgia Southern might actually be one of the best teams in the Sun Belt Conference. At the very least, they return a lot of experience on both sides of the ball. That shouldn’t trip up a team with the talent of USC. But don’t be surprised if the Trojans come out tight. A big mistake from USC makes things interesting before the defense clamps down in the second half.
Prediction: USC wins, 33-20
Sept. 13 at Purdue: It’s tough to know what to expect from a team that brought in 54 (!!) transfers, but I’ve seen enough of Purdue in recent years to not expect all that much. Barry Odom worked magic at Nevada Las Vegas, but it won’t be nearly that simple in West Lafayette, with a Big Ten schedule ahead. For USC, this is as smooth of a Big Ten road opener as they could hope for. It should be noted the Trojans did lose a game like this — to Maryland — a year ago. This time, USC takes the opportunity to prove it can push down the gas pedal late.
Prediction: USC wins, 38-13
Sept. 20 vs. Michigan State: Entering this game at 3-0 is essential because the road gets much rockier from here. If quarterback Aidan Chiles can make the leap in his second year with Jonathan Smith, the Spartans could make this interesting. But this is still a Spartan offense that ranked 123rd of 134 teams in points per game last season. They won’t be that bad in 2025, but this early in the season, I don’t see the Spartans keeping up. Especially with USC’s defense eager to make a statement.
Prediction: USC wins, 30-17
Sept. 27 at Illinois: I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say the direction of USC’s entire season could be determined in Champaign, Ill., in late September. A win could catapult the Trojans into playoff contention. A loss could start a monthlong slide. They’re not the only ones with a lot on the line here, though. Illinois has its own playoff ambitions. Plus, the Illini return 18 starters, including quarterback Luke Altmyer, who’s already one of the best in the conference. I toiled over picking this game, but ultimately couldn’t get USC’s struggles on the road last season out of my head.
Prediction: USC loses, 24-23
Oct. 11 vs. Michigan: We know that Michigan will have a top-tier defense, but on offense, so much rides on a relative unknown, albeit one with a rocket right arm. True freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood looks the part of a Vince Young clone, but will he be able to handle a hostile atmosphere and keep his composure? Michigan will have already faced Oklahoma (at home) and Nebraska (in Lincoln) by this point, so this isn’t Underwood’s first rodeo on the road. The Coliseum will be rocking, and USC will be eager to avenge last season’s loss. But the Trojans offensive line will struggle to stay intact. And in a grind-it-out kind of game, I favor Michigan and its defensive front.
Prediction: USC loses, 28-24
Oct. 18 at Notre Dame: After back-to-back difficult defeats, USC travels to South Bend for arguably the toughest game of its season. We don’t know yet what to expect out of C.J. Carr and the Notre Dame passing attack, but that’s pretty much where the questions stop. The Irish have the best run game USC will face all season, led by Heisman candidate Jeremiyah Love, and probably the best overall defense, too. Unless Jayden Maiava has a star turn or USC’s defense creates turnovers, it could be a long trip for the Trojans.
Prediction: USC loses, 27-17
Nov. 1 at Nebraska: The bye comes at a critical time here for USC, having lost three in a row. In this scenario, we might be talking about whether or not Riley should continue with Maiava at quarterback. But traveling to Lincoln is no walk in the park. The Huskers have one of the more hostile environments in the Big Ten and could be primed for a leap this season. That said, I do think USC will exorcise its road demons somewhere on this schedule. The calls for five-star freshman Husan Longstreet might have gotten pretty loud by this point, but Maiava comes up big while the Trojans’ backs are against the wall.
Prediction: USC wins, 34-31
Nov. 7 vs. Northwestern: The short week after an emotional win leaves USC primed for a letdown, and the Wildcats should be improved with a passable quarterback in Southern Methodist transfer Preston Stone now under center. But the gap between these two teams is just too significant for Northwestern to bridge on the road. USC’s defense dominates, and Maiava continues to roll.
Prediction: USC wins, 41-16
Nov. 15 vs. Iowa: I think Iowa will surprise people this season, now that it finally has a quarterback in Mark Gronowski capable of slinging it. Kirk Ferentz will always have the Hawkeyes playing good defense, and they could make life difficult on Maiava and USC’s passing attack if the Trojans get behind. It’s just the sort of game where Riley’s coaching and in-game management will play a critical role. So, too, will D’Anton Lynn’s defensive prowess. I think his group comes up big in this one, giving Lynn another showcase for NFL teams looking for their next coordinator.
Prediction: USC wins, 24-17
Nov. 22 at Oregon: After so much roster turnover and with a new quarterback at the helm, Oregon is a big question mark to me. Between the two of USC’s toughest road tilts — Notre Dame being the other — this game feels more winnable to me. That said, I have a tough time envisioning USC heading into Autzen in late November. We just haven’t seen Riley’s teams win games like this yet. New Oregon running back Makhi Hughes will continue his surge as one of the Big Ten’s best backs, and the Ducks defensive front, led by Matayo Uiagalelei, will give USC’s offensive line fits.
Prediction: USC loses, 38-31
Nov. 29 vs. UCLA: Count me as someone who doesn’t buy the sudden hype for a Bruins offense led by Nico Iamaleava. For one, the weapons around Iamaleava aren’t nearly of the caliber as they were last season at Tennessee. UCLA’s defense was able to keep Maiava in check last season, but that was a full year ago. USC has a big day with its downfield offense, and the Trojans take the crosstown rivalry for the third time in four years.
Prediction: USC wins, 42-24
Official Times of Troy record prediction: 8-4
It’s only right, I guess, that after suggesting USC could go anywhere from 6-6 to 10-2, I end up settling right in the middle. USC’s defense is going to take a step forward this season — I feel confident about that much. But there are still too many questions on offense, namely along the offensive line, for me to trust the Trojans to beat teams like Illinois, Nebraska, Notre Dame or Oregon on the road. It’s up to Maiava to make me eat my words.
Matt Leinart led USC to the national title in 2004.
(Los Angeles Times)
—With DJ Wingfield not suiting up this fall, the starting offensive line that makes the most sense to me … has Tobias Raymond at left guard, and Justin Tauanuu at right tackle. Riley has harped for years about having his best five linemen, regardless of position, playing up front. Tauanuu has more pedigree and experience, both in practice and in games, than Micah Banuelos. Plus, when Redmond was being recruited, USC told him they saw him as a future NFL interior lineman. The bigger question may be at center, where Kilian O’Connor has kept even with transfer J’Onre Reed all camp.
—Count receivers Tanook Hines and Corey Simms as freshmen who could contribute. Ja’Kobi Lane and Makai Lemon will get the lion’s share of targets this season, but beyond them, the receiver room is wide open. Prince Strachan will presumably start the season on the outside opposite of Lane, while Zacharyus Williams and Jay Fair will factor in on a rotational basis. But before season’s end, don’t be surprised if either of these two works their way into a role.
—USC will once again pick its captains weekly. Most fans I’ve talked to didn’t love this setup last season, but Riley thinks it gives players an incentive to prove themselves every week. I think the real answer is probably that it doesn’t impact much at all. Players know who the team leaders are, whether they’re announced as captains or not.
—The SEC is finally adopting a nine-game league schedule. Which the Big Ten has been pushing for, publicly and privately. But while the Big Ten got what it wants in this case — and what’s best for college football, I might add — the SEC wouldn’t make this move for equity’s sake. My guess is that this compromise eventually leads the Big Ten to accept the SEC’s preferred model for the College Football Playoff. The Big Ten has held out to this point on a system with four automatic qualifiers for themselves and the SEC, the rest of the power conferences, including the SEC, want a format with five conference champions and 11 at-large bids.
—Auburn has decided to claim the 2004 national title for itself. L-O-L. The record books may say that USC vacated the 2004 national title. But let’s set aside that technicality for a moment to marvel at the audacity of claiming a championship more than two decades after the fact. And not just that, but claiming a championship that rightfully belongs to one of the greatest college football teams of the 21st century. That Trojans team set out to “leave no doubt” during that season after sharing the title in 2003, and they proceeded to go wire to wire at No. 1 in the AP poll, beating their opponents by an average net margin of 25 points per game. No one doubted who was the champion then, and no one doubts it now. No matter what the NCAA or Auburn happens to claim.
Seth Rogen has been on an absolute heater lately — “The Studio” is probably my favorite show of 2025 to date — and his role in “Platonic” is just another feather in his cap. I could watch Rogen and Rose Byrne banter for hours on end, which is pretty much the premise of this Apple comedy about two platonic forty-something friends grappling with their lives. What we’ve seen of the second season so far is letting other members of the cast cook, too, which is always a great sign for where a comedy is headed.
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 [email protected], and follow me on X at @Ryan_Kartje. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
