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.
Welcome Times of Troy readers, to a special middle-of-the-night edition of this newsletter. It’s now just before 3 a.m. as I sit at my dining room table, cursing the greed of the TV executives who conceived of the 8 p.m. kickoff as a concept in the first place. My utmost respect goes to the diehards outside of the Pacific time zone who went the distance in USC’s 45-31 win over Michigan State. May your body clocks recover better than mine surely will.
Until about 1:30 a.m. Eastern time, early Sunday morning, it looked like USC might roll to another resounding victory. The Trojans were up 31-10, a few minutes into the third quarter. They’d piled up twice as many yards as Michigan State.
“We were dominating the football game,” coach Lincoln Riley said.
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USC’s defense had forced one three-and-out to open the half, and it was on its way to another quick stop when, on a fourth down, linebacker Ta’Mere Robinson came flying around the edge and clipped Michigan State’s punter as he booted a kick.
Faced with a 4th-and-2 after the penalty, the Spartans decided to go for it. Quarterback Aidan Chiles was flushed from the pocket, and his pass fell incomplete … but another flag was thrown. USC inexplicably had 12 players on the field.
The back-to-back penalties, while troubling, weren’t totally back-breaking at the time. USC was still well in control, with a three-score lead intact. But what happened from there would hint at a larger issue, one that USC will have to iron out in a hurry with the hardest stretch of its schedule looming.
Twice, in the next eight plays, it seemed USC forced Michigan State into a decisive 3rd-and-long, only for a penalty flag to wipe away the stop.
The penalties would kick the door open for Michigan State. And in less than 10 minutes, they’d cut the USC lead to just a single score.
It wasn’t so much the season-high 10 penalties that was most concerning, but rather the lack of discipline on defense that inspired those mistakes. (Though, ranking 129th in the nation in penalty yards per game certainly isn’t great.) Of the defense’s eight penalty calls, there were two illegal substitution flags, an unsportsmanlike conduct and an illegal hands to the face call for the fifth time in three weeks.
Riley said after that he doesn’t want to discourage his defense from playing aggressive. But those aren’t penalties of aggression. They’re self-inflicted wounds. And if USC’s defense continues to make them a habit, they will eventually pay for it.
“We definitely thought we’d be better from that standpoint,” defensive tackle Devan Thompkins said. “Going forward, playing these Big Ten games, we have to reduce those penalties for sure.”
There are plenty of reasons for Riley to be encouraged by the progress of USC’s defense. The pass rush is actually disruptive. The run defense is giving up just three yards per carry.
The problems on that side of the ball are no longer about the quality of players. Linebacker Eric Gentry, in the midst of an All-American season, ranks first in the Big Ten in tackles for loss, third in sacks and fifth in tackles. The defensive line is so deep that five-star freshman Jahkeem Stewart played just 17 snaps on Saturday, despite dominating almost every one of them.
Which is what makes the discipline breakdowns so disappointing. USC, for the first time in Riley’s tenure, has the talent to compete on defense. The question now, as the Trojans enter their toughest stretch of the season, is whether that will be enough.
Huge shoes to fill
When Lindsay Gottlieb set out to rebuild USC’s roster in the spring, she knew there was no way to make up for their most important loss from last season.
“No one is filling JuJu’s shoes,” she said. “Those are unique shoes.”
Watkins tore her anterior cruciate ligament in March. She’s “doing great”, according to Gottlieb. “But there’s still no timeline for her return. If she comes back at all this season, I can’t imagine it would be until late in the calendar. Her absence from the lineup is no less than a gaping void.”
But when losing a generational superstar, it sure helps to have another No. 1 prospect in the pipeline.
Enter freshman Jazzy Davidson.
“The fact that Jazzy can step into our program and already just make a really unique and incredible impression on everybody is pretty wild,” Gottlieb said. “She’s really, really good. I’ll start with that. She’s next-level good.”
“Her impact on the basketball court just comes in a lot of different ways. She glides. She’s very fluid. She can score it. She can pass it. She impacts the game defensively. She comes in ready in a way that’s very unique for someone her age. So we’re super excited. We know that we’ve got something special with her.”
We know much less about what to expect from the new-look Trojans frontcourt, which lost a WNBA All-Star in Kiki Iriafen and an entrenched team leader in Rayah Marshall. Replacing their production means counting on transfers Yakiya Milton and Dayana Mendes, Lithuanian import Gerda Raulusaityte or returners Vivian Iwuchukwu and Lauren Williams to fill the void.
“We knew that size and the frontcourt was going to be important,” Gottlieb said. “I don’t think any of us said we have to find one person to get us 18 and 10 like Kiki. As a group, we need production in different ways.”
Ja’Kobi Lane makes a catch in front of Purdue defensive back Hudauri Hines.
(Michael Conroy / Associated Press)
—Ja’Kobi Lane’s absence couldn’t come at a worse time. Riley said that the unspecified ailment became an issue unexpectedly in the middle of last week, but that Lane sustained the injury sometime during the Trojans win over Purdue. Lane didn’t have a catch in the fourth quarter of that game. Riley didn’t offer much more information than that and even called the injury “inconclusive”. But he left the door open for Lane to miss more games. If he’s saying that already, I’d expect that’s a serious possibility. USC’s next opponent, Illinois, just lost six of its top seven defensive backs, so maybe it won’t be so much of a problem next week. But against Michigan, in a critical game at the Coliseum, USC could really use its top red zone target.
—USC lost its left tackle for more than half the game yesterday. The offensive line still held up well. Elijah Paige isn’t expected to be out long term, according to Riley, but the fact that USC only allowed three pressures all game in spite of his injury is a good sign. Michigan State doesn’t have a fearsome pass rush exactly, but that’s a strong performance against any Power Four opponent. Tobias Raymond, who played at both guard and tackle Saturday, continues to live up to Riley’s rave reviews from the offseason. I also thought right tackle Justin Tauanuu looked good switching between the right and left sides after Paige went out.
—New point guard Jordan Marsh is receiving rave reviews in preseason. USC knew that Marsh could step in as a scoring threat, after he averaged almost 19 per game at North Carolina Asheville last season. But the transfer guard looks like more of an all-around impact player than anyone anticipated. “He’s hands down one of the fastest guards I’ve ever played with,” said forward Ezra Ausar. He’s also a deceptively feisty defender for as small as he is. The question now is how well Marsh can orchestrate the offense. Could he allow for Rodney Rice to play some on the perimeter? Regardless, early indications continue to be Marsh will play a key role in USC’s rotation.
—Remember when Trojan fans wanted Luke Fickell to take over as head coach? Well, I’m sure Wisconsin would happily trade places now. The Badgers were blown out at home this week by Maryland, and fans chanted for Fickell to be fired. It’s an important reminder that coaches don’t always fit in new situations in the way we expect them to. It’s only getting worse from here for Wisconsin, with Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon, Illinois and Indiana all upcoming.
We are closing in on spooky season, which is the one time of year my wife will agree to watch a scary movie with me. The selection process for that single horror flick every year is usually extensive. But this year, it was an easy choice.
“Weapons” is one of the most talked-about horror movies in recent memory, and I’ve spent the last several months somehow dodging spoilers at every turn. What I do know: A classroom full of kids mysteriously disappears in the middle of the night one night, leaving a community to reckon with who or what is behind it all.
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: 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.
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.
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NBA
Former NBA and UCLA basketball star Reggie Miller rides along a road in the Gypsum Canyon Wilderness.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
From Kevin Baxter: Early on a muggy Saturday morning, seven dozen riders lined up five and six abreast and aimed their mountain bikes toward a narrow, rocky trail leading away from the 91 Freeway and into the wilderness of Anaheim’s rugged Gypsum Canyon.
In their white helmets and monotone synthetic racing kits, the riders were more an indistinct mob than a collection of individuals. But in the middle of the pack, perched on a pricey, Santa Cruz Blur XL, one cyclist stood out if for no other reason than, at 6-foot-7, Reggie Miller was a foot taller than most of the people around him.
Miller is also, it should be noted, a basketball hall of famer and five-time NBA All-Star who seamlessly transitioned into a career as one of the sport’s most-respected TV analysts. He has earned fame and riches most will never know and competed at a level few have ever achieved.
Yet on the day before his 60th birthday, he was about to pedal his way along 19 miles of treacherous trails, swallowing the dust kicked up by cyclists a third his age. And he couldn’t have been happier because bike racing has not just given Miller a competitive outlet, it’s provided an avenue for addressing issues of importance to him, among them equality, inclusion and social justice.
“You see so many retired football, baseball, basketball players turn to golf. That’s their vice,” he said. “Mine is cycling.”
Except, perhaps, fantasy football players who drafted Adams.
“That’s not in the forefront of my mind,” Adams, chuckling, said this week. “I know they think it is. I’m just out here trying to win games and contribute and make plays when I can.”
Nacua brushed off a cut above his eye that required stitches and caught 10 passes for 130 yards. Adams, making his Rams debut, caught four passes for 51 yards.
Exhausted to the point of collapse and parked in the driveway of his Oakland Hills home, he briefly allowed himself to close his eyes — was it for a minute? An hour? — before jolting awake at 4 a.m. in a foggy panic. Had he just returned from his round-the-clock job with the Oakland Raiders, or was he supposed to be on his way back?
Here he was, a first-round pick from Michigan, a 15-year NFL veteran, and now a coaching grunt for the Silver & Black, ready to do whatever was asked.
“I always remember him with the hair all over his head going everywhere,” recalled receiver Tim Brown. “The veteran guys on the team were saying, ‘Jimmy, you don’t have to do this, bro. There’s other ways you can make money. You don’t have to be in here.’ Because he was literally the guy printing the papers, working the copiers. We were like, ‘All right, if that’s what you want to do with your life then OK.’”
Angels star Mike Trout hits a solo home against the Seattle Mariners on Thursday night.
(John Froschauer / Associated Press)
From the Associated Press: Rookie pinch-hitter Harry Ford drove in the winning run with a sacrifice fly in the 12th inning and the Seattle Mariners beat the Angels 7-6 on Thursday night to move into a tie with Houston atop the AL West.
It was the second straight walk-off victory in extra innings for the Mariners, who extended their win streak to six games. Leo Rivas hit a two-run homer in the 13th inning Wednesday night to complete a series sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals.
Mike Trout launched his 399th career home run for the Angels, tying it 4-4 in the fifth inning after they fell behind 4-0 in the second.
Sparks guard Kelsey Plum, right, tries to shoot over Las Vegas center A’ja Wilson during the Sparks’ loss on Thursday night at Crypto.com Arena.
(Harry How / Getty Images)
From Anthony De Leon: Being out of postseason contention didn’t make the Sparks’ season finale meaningless.
It was a chance to avoid finishing with a losing record for the first time since 2020. An opportunity to foil the Las Vegas Aces’ push for the No. 2 seed in the playoffs while derailing a 15-game winning streak. And, above all, a matter of pride.
But just as with their season-long goal of reaching the playoffs, the Sparks fell short of their goal, as A’ja Wilson and the Aces dominated in a 103-75 victory at Crypto.com Arena.
From Chuck Schilken: Retired NBA player and former Harvard-Westlake star Jason Collins is undergoing treatment for a brain tumor, the NBA said Thursday in a statement released on behalf of Collins and his family.
“Jason and his family welcome your support and prayers and kindly ask for privacy as they dedicate their attention to Jason’s health and well-being,” the league said.
A 46-year-old native of Northridge, Jason Collins and twin brother, Jarron, led Harvard-Westlake to state Division III titles in 1996 and 1997, with the former being named the state Division III player of the year both seasons. His 1,500 career rebounds stood as a CIF state record until 2010, when Hemet West Valley’s Joe Burton finished his career with 1,721 rebounds.
1895 — Defender wins three straight matches from the British challenger Valkyrie II to defend the America’s Cup for the United States.
1936 — Fred Perry becomes the first foreign player to win three U.S. men’s singles titles when he defeats Don Budge, 2-6, 6-2, 8-6, 1-6, 10-8. Alice Marble ends the four-year reign of Helen Jacobs as U.S. women’s singles champion, with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory.
1955 — Tony Trabert wins the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association championships with a victory over Ken Rosewall. Doris Hart wins the women’s title.
1966 — Australia’s Fred Stolle beats countryman John Newcombe to win the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association championships. Stolle wins in four sets, 4-6, 12-10, 6-3, 6-4.
1976 — Jimmy Connors beats Bjorn Borg in four sets to win the U.S. Open.
1979 — Carl Yastrzemski reaches 3,000 hits off of NY Yankee pitcher Jim Beattie.
1981 — Tracy Austin wins her second U.S. Open singles title, edging first-time finalist Martina Navratilova, 1-6, 7-6, 7-6.
1982 — Jimmy Connors wins the U.S. Open, defeating Ivan Lendl, 6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
1984 — N.Y. Met Dwight Gooden sets rookie strike out record at 251.
1988 — 1st NFL regular-season game played in Phoenix; Dallas beats Arizona.
1995 — The Harlem Globetrotters’ 24-year, 8,829-game winning streak is stopped. It ends in a 91-85 loss to a team led by basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who scores 34 points in a competitive, unscripted game in Vienna, Austria.
1998 — Lindsay Davenport captures her first Grand Slam tournament singles title, defeating Martina Hingis, 6-3, 7-5 at the U.S. Open.
1999 — Andre Agassi comes back from two-sets-to-one down to win his second U.S. Open singles title. Agassi, who never loses his serve, defeats Todd Martin, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-2. It’s the first five-set U.S. Open final in 11 years.
2004 — Roger Federer becomes the first man since 1988 to win three majors in a year, thoroughly outclassing Lleyton Hewitt 6-0, 7-6 (3), 6-0 to add the U.S. Open title to those he took at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.
2005 — Mark Messier announces on ESPN radio that he will retire from the NHL.
2010 — Houston running back Arian Foster rushes for a franchise-record 231 yards and three touchdowns in the Texans’ 34-24 victory over the Indianapolis Colts. Foster is the first player in NFL history to rush for at least 200 yards and three touchdowns for an opening weekend.
2011 — Tom Brady passes for a team-record 517 yards and four touchdowns, including a 99-yarder to Wes Welker, and the New England Patriots beat the Miami Dolphins 38-24.
2011 — U.S. Open Men’s Tennis: Novak Djokovic wins his first US title; beats Rafael Nadal 6-2, 6-4, 6-7, 6-1.
2014 — Diana Taurasi and Candice Dupree score 24 points each and the Phoenix Mercury, playing without star center Brittney Griner, beat the Chicago Sky 87-82 to complete a three-game sweep of the WNBA Finals for their third championship.
2015 — Kent State dominates Delaware State in the Golden Flashes’ home opener, 45-13, but it’s overshadowed by a single point-after kick in the second quarter by April Goss. Goss, a four-year member of the Kent State team and a former high school soccer player, becomes the second female to score in a Division I game in NCAA history. Katie Hnida kicked a pair of extra points for New Mexico in 2003.
2015 — David Ortiz homers twice to become the 27th player in major league history to reach 500 homers, and Boston beats Tampa Bay 10-4.
2018 — Breanna Stewart leads the Seattle Storm to their third WNBA title, scoring 30 points in a 98-82 victory over the Washington Mystics in Game 3 of the best-of-five series.
2020 — Naomi Osaka of Japan wins her second US Open title beating Victoria Azarenka of Belarus 1-6, 6-3, 6-3.
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.
We are now two weeks into the college football season, and here at the Times of Troy newsletter, we can confidently say that … we’re not really sure what to think of USC’s football team. The Trojans are an emphatic 2-0, having outscored their first two opponents by a combined margin of 99 points. They put up more yards against Georgia Southern (755) than they had in a game since at least 1972, when statistical records were first available.
(History lesson: That was still well off the program record of 978 yards, set almost exactly 100 years ago, when USC pummeled Pomona College 80-0 at the start of the 1925 season.)
And yet, for all the fireworks, I still have most of the same questions that I did before the season. Has Jayden Maiava taken a leap? Will the offensive line hold up? Is the defensive line better? Has the pass rush improved? All are trending in a positive direction at this point, but we still can’t answer any definitively. Not after two wins over completely overmatched opponents.
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But for all my skepticism, I feel certain about one thing from the last two weeks, no matter how small the sample size: USC’s clearest path to the Playoff this season is through its backfield.
Through two games, USC leads the nation in yards per carry (8.6). It ranks second in the country in rushing touchdowns (10) and ninth in 20-plus yards runs (six), while exactly one in every three rush attempts by USC this season has gone for a first down.
None of those insane statistics are sustainable, of course. But Lincoln Riley told us that this was “the most talented backfield” of his tenure at USC, and so far, regardless of the competition, it seems clear that’s the case. What we don’t know for sure yet is how Riley will deploy his backfield through the Big Ten gauntlet that awaits at the end of this month.
He certainly shouldn’t need much more convincing that Waymond Jordan is capable of carrying USC’s offense. The junior college transfer’s ability to elude tacklers and change directions on a dime is truly unlike any back Riley has had at USC.
Early in the third quarter on Saturday, Jordan burst from the backfield like he was shot out of a cannon, stutter-stepped just enough to shake off two defenders, then turned on the jets. What might have otherwise been a seven- or eight-yard gain, instead became a 36-yard score.
Jordan isn’t alone in his explosiveness. Senior Eli Sanders is just as capable of breaking off a big play, like he did in Week 1, when he caught a screen pass and took it 78 yards to the house, sprinting at one point at a speed of 21 mph. Jordan served as more of a bell cow against Georgia Southern, but he still had three plays of his own of 10-plus yards.
Together, they appear to be a perfect duo in Riley’s offense. So will he let them lead the way?
Riley’s history might suggest otherwise. He has irritated fans for his reluctance to lean on the run, and rightfully so. You could make the case better clock management could have flipped a few of the one-score losses USC suffered a year ago.
This season, that could be even more important. The more Maiava throws the ball, the more likely he is to make the sort of big mistakes that could swing the game.
It happened more than once last season with Miller Moss. In three of USC’s six losses, Moss threw the ball 50 times. Enough that even Riley recognized that he should have run the ball more.
That can’t happen this season. Not with all that USC now has to work with in its backfield. And not with a season of experience in the Big Ten under Riley’s belt.
Riley has seen what it takes to make it through a Big Ten slate. Now it’s time to apply what he’s learned …
… and run the damn ball.
Tyran Stokes celebrates after a slam dunk earlier this year while playing for Sherman Oaks Notre Dame.
( Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
—Micah Banuelos got the start at right guard over Alani Noa. Banuelos was in the thick of the competition to start at one of the guard spots, so this is less of a surprise on his end. But Noa being bumped after one week could be an interesting development. When Riley was asked about it, he only said that it was an “inside-the-walls decision”. Could this be Banuelos being the guy going forward? I didn’t think either really separated from the other at the position.
—Jahkeem Stewart lined up all over the defensive line in his first game action. The five-star freshman only played in a dozen football games at the high school level — and hadn’t played one in a while before Saturday. So Riley expected some rust. But even in his first game back, USC didn’t hold back on moving him around. Stewart played pretty much every position on the defensive line, including nose tackle. He played 23 snaps, fifth-most among USC linemen, and tallied two tackles. “He’s a really talented guy that I think is going to really impact our defense positively this year and in the future,” Riley said.
—A one-time transfer portal window is imminent. But there’s no perfect option. The NCAA Football Oversight Committee voted last week to get rid of the spring window, and while the change hasn’t been formally adopted, it’s heading in that direction. I agree with Riley that it’s ultimately progress. But if the 10-day window opens on Jan. 2, as Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger reported, that means coaches in the final four of the College Football Playoff will have to contend with players hopping into the portal mid-playoff run. Opening after the Playoff, meanwhile, might mean missing the beginning of an academic semester. “I don’t know that there’s a right answer,” Riley said. “You’re going to give up something either way.”
—The No. 1 basketball recruit in the country just visited USC. Sherman Oaks Notre Dame star forward Tyran Stokes took his official visit with Eric Musselman and Co. over the weekend. Stokes has already visited Kentucky, Kansas and Louisville, but USC is still in the thick of the race. He’s not the only top prospect who’s visited with the Trojans recently, either. Bellflower St. John Bosco stars Christian Collins (eighth overall) and Tajh Ariza (14th) had official visits at USC the weekend before Stokes. There’s no denying USC’s hustle on the recruiting trail during an absolutely critical year for recruiting in L.A. Now they just need to close with one of these top recruits.
—Tennessee and Penn State both just signed massive apparel deals to switch from Nike to adidas. Could USC follow? USC’s previous long-term deal with Nike is up next year, and the school is looking into all of its options. When Mike Bohn was athletic director, he complained to me multiple times about how bad USC’s current deal was with Nike. That’s not to say USC is looking to leave. But you can count on the size of the next deal making a much bigger difference, and adidas has shown a willingness to take big swings. For what it’s worth, in 2018, current USC athletic director Jennifer Cohen negotiated an identical switch, signing a huge apparel deal to flip Washington from Nike to adidas.
Big Ten travel tip
The most critical thing to know when traveling to Indiana from Los Angeles is that there are no direct flights into Indianapolis. So you can catch me flying into Chicago for each of the Trojans’ next three road trips.
But when it comes to fueling up before USC’s Big Ten opener in West Lafayette, Ind., next weekend, I’ll be checking out Triple XXX Family Restaurant. Once you get over the confounding/awesome name, it looks like just the sort of Midwestern diner that shouldn’t be missed. I’m a sucker for a diner burger. Especially when it’s named after a famous alum.
I was skeptical when I heard that NBC was making a spinoff of “The Office” based on a Midwestern newspaper. I didn’t want it to sour my deep adoration for the original. But given the fact that it fits my algorithm to a frighteningly precise degree, of course I was going to give “The Paper” a shot.
And predictably, the plight of the newspaper — let alone one set 45 minutes from my hometown — was enough to get me hooked. It’s not a perfect show yet by any means, but neither was “The Office” when it first started. What I do know is Domnhall Gleeson is a joy, and there’s a kernel of something that could work here. I’ll subscribe.
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.
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.
Basketball usually took a backseat in early conversations between Eric Musselman and prized recruit Alijah Arenas.
On one side was a teenage phenom navigating an early jump to college. On another was a USC men’s basketball coach seemingly more interested in other aspects of Arenas’ life, including his mood, when he woke up and how he made sense of the people and the world around him.
So when USC’s coach stood in front of the Galen Center’s vibrant new scoreboard Friday morning — two days after it was announced that Arenas would miss six to eight months with a knee injury — Musselman found himself stammering, stitching together the words to encapsulate what the freshman meant to him.
“I probably feel closer to him than anybody that I’ve coached in a two-month span since he’s been on campus,” Musselman said.
The bond has already weathered more than most would in four years.
First came the reclassification — Arenas skipped his senior year of high school to join USC. Then came the rush course into collegiate basketball as he prepared spring practice. Then, on April 25, Arenas was in a serious car crash that led to him being placed into a coma.
After recovering from his injuries, Arenas was barely two weeks back from being medically cleared to practice when he sustained a slight meniscus tear and bone bruise.
But even in those 14 days — and just one full practice with Musselman present — Arenas proved enough to be the centerpiece of his coach’s vision for USC.
“We built the roster around some of the stuff that he could do, and knowing that he could play the one and the two, and when he played the one, would have great length,” Musselman said. “And I told people from the beginning of the recruiting process what a great passer he was.”
At 6 feet 7, Arenas averaged 30.9 points and 7.8 rebounds per game at Chatsworth High before landing 13th in ESPN’s Class of 2025.
In Arenas’ absence, Musselman said he has weighed adding a 14th player to the roster, but would do so only if it “could help us.” The bigger hurdle, the coach added, would be revenue-sharing limits.
Arenas will still be traveling, learning and rehabbing alongside USC. And he’ll continue to shadow Musselman in a role the coach never had to explain to him.
“To some people during the recruiting process, you call them and you can’t wait to get off the phone, and you’re just kind of calling them to try to develop a relationship,” Musselman said. “The reason that Alijah and I are in such a good spot is because he picked up the phone when I called him.
He added: “We already had a built-in trust before he got here.”
Etc.
Musselman said Friday that Terrance Williams II (wrist), whose injury he called “one of the weirdest injuries I’ve seen,” will return Aug. 25 when the Trojans report for practice on the first day of the academic year. … Musselman noted that Jordan Marsh has been the team’s “biggest surprise” of the summer, while Rodney Rice will take over as the Trojans’ primary ball handler.
LAS VEGAS — While the rest of the college football world spent the summer whipped into a frenzy, swept up by the specter of revenue sharing or congressional intervention or one of the many other landscape-altering changes looming over the sport, Lincoln Riley was able to actually step away and take a breath.
In four years as USC’s coach, Riley hasn’t had many chances to really unplug. There was the sprint ahead of his first season, and the heavy portal push ahead of his second. The third came with a new conference, new defense, new expectations, new pressure.
The fourth, by comparison, is starting on a more relaxed note than Riley is used to. There were no phone calls taking up half a day of his family vacation. His fly fishing went mostly unbothered. He even golfed at Pebble Beach in May.
“I’d say I’m feeling as refreshed and recharged as I’ve been in a long time,” Riley said Thursday during Big Ten media days.
Never mind that the pressure for Riley to win at USC has perhaps never been so high, coming off a 7-6 campaign in which the Trojans needed a comeback bowl win to scrape past .500. The path to winning has arguably never been so uncertain, either, with the advent of revenue sharing completely upending how championship rosters are constructed.
In spite of that backdrop, this past summer still felt less daunting to Riley than the rest. He says he didn’t feel the offseason chaos that some of colleagues have described in the wake of the House settlement. Some of that added calm he credits to Chad Bowden, USC’s new general manager, and his handpicked front office, who have taken personnel matters largely off Riley’s plate. Immediately laying claim to the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class for 2026 hasn’t hurt in building that trust, either.
But it’s more than that, according to Riley.
“There are less big fixes going on right now, you know?” he said. “It’s like you’ve got the house built, and it’s kind of all about the finishes now. You’re not trying to put up a wall or anything like that.”
Whether USC is actually that close to being a finished product is up for debate. The Trojans’ win total has declined in each of Riley’s first three seasons, during which his record is worse than that of his predecessor, Clay Helton. Now the Trojans enter his fourth with a raw, unproven commodity at quarterback, a threadbare linebacker room, and an inexperienced offensive line that could already be down a projected starter.
There’s also the matter of their fourth-quarter issues last season, which saw the Trojans inexplicably cough up leads in five of their six losses.
But Riley looks at it differently.
“It’s the first time where we had an opportunity at the end of the game to win every single game that we played,” he said.
“The really good teams separate in a lot of their games, and they win the close games they end up in. That’s typically how it happens, and that’s what we’ve got to become. And so the way to do it, every part of your program has to be pretty strong.
“We’ve graduated from being way behind in this area, and being pretty decent in this area to, like, every right now is either good or pretty darn good. Now it’s just about taking those small steps in all those areas to, I guess, hypothetically push you over the hump.”
USC defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn walks on the sideline during a game against Nebraska at the Coliseum in November.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
The biggest leap in that regard could once again be on defense, where USC went from one of the worst units in the nation in 2023 (121st in scoring defense) to respectable (56th) under defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn.
That was no small feat, considering where they came from. And the Trojans have added considerable talent to its defense since. The front seven should benefit greatly from the return of linebacker Eric Gentry and defensive end Anthony Lucas from injury. And on the interior, USC brought in two massive transfers on the interior, as well as a five-star freshman.
“I think the depth, the talent level, and the size of the defensive line, I mean, there’s honestly really no comparison to this time 12 months ago,” Riley said.
But the Trojans’ path will inevitably, at some point, come down to their quarterback. Riley reiterated his confidence in Jayden Maiava as the Trojans’ starter, even as he once again heaped praise on five-star freshman Husan Longstreet.
Left tackle Elijah Paige said Thursday that he has seen a major change in Maiava since he entered the offseason as the presumptive starter.
“He’s taken a complete 180,” Paige said of USC’s quarterback. “[In the spring,] he commanded the offense, and that’s what this team needs.”
Of course, everyone is feeling optimistic this time of year, with more than a month still remaining before USC kicks off against Missouri State.
But Riley isn’t the only one who feels those finishing touches underway.
“We’ve gone and gotten some of the very best people in the business,” Riley said. “They’re not going to attach themselves to something where they don’t see the progress.
“And you do not get a recruiting class like this unless there’s a crazy amount of momentum within the program. Like, I don’t care what else you have. If you don’t have momentum, you do not get a class like we have.”
After surviving a fiery car wreck and successfully skipping his final year of high school to enroll at USC, incoming star freshman Alijah Arenas should be cleared to join the team for practice on Thursday, coach Eric Musselman confirmed.
The five-star guard arrives at USC this summer as the most highly anticipated recruit of Musselman’s tenure. Musselman — who coached Arenas’ father, Gilbert, with the Golden State Warriors — has said on multiple occasions that he expects Arenas to be a difference-maker as a freshman.
The question now is how quickly Arenas can get up to speed after missing the first month of summer practice with a team that was totally rebuilt through the transfer portal.
USC’s coach certainly isn’t concerned about Arenas fitting in. Since arriving on campus, Musselman said, Arenas has made a point to follow the coach around on the court during practice.
“I think he knows the offense, on paper, maybe better than anyone on our team,” Musselman said. “He’s got an innate ability to kind of see things in a different manner.
“I would anticipate him picking it up really quick because he’s come into our office. He’s diagramming stuff during practice. He’s talking to managers and GA’s about where he should be on the floor.”
It was a harrowing few months for Arenas leading up to him being cleared at USC. One early morning in late April, he lost control of his Tesla Cybertruck and hit a tree. The car burst into flames, leaving him trapped inside. He was ultimately saved by a pair of good Samaritans who happened to be nearby, but Arenas would spend six days in the hospital before returning home, miraculously, without any lasting injuries.
After finishing his high school classwork so he could graduate a year early, Arenas underwent final medical testing at USC this week, Musselman said. He’ll join at the halfway mark for the Trojans’ summer practice session.
When Alijah Arenas opened his eyes, minutes after his Tesla Cybertruck struck a tree one morning this past April, the five-star Chatsworth High hoops phenom wasn’t sure where he was or how he’d gotten there. His initial, disoriented thought was that he’d woken up at home. But as he regained consciousness, Arena felt the seat belt wrapped tightly around his waist. He noticed the Life360 app on his phone, beeping. Outside the car, he could hear crackling sounds, like a campfire.
Then he felt the heat like a sauna cranked to its highest setting. The passenger side of the dashboard, Arenas could see, was already engulfed in flames. Smoke was filling the car’s front cabin. He could no longer see out of the windows.
Arenas reached for his iPhone, intent on using his digital key to escape, only to find the Tesla app had locked him out. Panic started to set in.
“I tried to open the door,” Arenas said, “and the door isn’t opening.”
A crumbled Telsa Cybertruck rests adjacent to a tree following a crash involving top USC basketball recruit Alijah Arenas.
(Handout)
He tore off his seat belt and moved to the back seat, away from the smoke, scanning the car desperately for an exit strategy. His heart was pounding. The heat was becoming unbearable. Then, he passed out.
No more than 10 minutes earlier — and less than two miles up Corbin Avenue — Arenas had just wrapped up a predawn workout at the DSTRKT, a gym in Chatsworth, where he’d been working his way up to 10,000 shots that week.
One of the top hoops prospects in Southern California, Arenas was weeks away from graduating from Chatsworth High after three years with the intention of joining USC a year early in 2025. He was doing everything he could to prepare for that extraordinary leap.
Alijah Arenas describes for the first time publicly how the steering wheel of his Tesla Cybertruck locked up and led to his fiery April wreck in Reseda.
He was on his way home from the gym, driving south on Corbin as he had so many times before, when Arenas noticed that the Cybertruck — which is registered to his father, former NBA star Gilbert Arenas — was acting strangely. The car wasn’t reading that he left the gym. The keypad kept flickering on and off.
After stopping at one red light, he tried to switch lanes, only to notice that “the wheel wasn’t moving as easily as it should.” Drifting into the right lane, he realized that he “can’t get back to the left.”
“So then a car is coming towards me, and I think that I’ll just pull over,” he said. “So I speed up to pull over to the right in a neighborhood because there are cars parked on the street I’m on to the right. But when I’m speeding up to turn, I can’t stop. The wheel wasn’t responding to me — as if I wasn’t in the car.”
The Cybertruck careened instead into a fire hydrant, then a tree, before bursting into flames.
Minutes felt like hours as he tried to escape the smoldering car. Drifting in and out of consciousness, Arenas did whatever he could to stay alert. He bit his lip as hard as he could and clenched his nails into his skin. He doused himself with water from a water bottle to cool his body down. He tried to make as much noise as possible, yelling and banging on the glass. But the flames were getting hotter, the smoke getting thicker.
“I’m panicking,” Arenas said. “I was fighting time.”
He set out to break a window, knowing Cybertruck windows are meant to be “unbreakable.” When his hands ached from punching the glass, he started using his feet. Then he passed out again.
USC freshman Alijah Arenas, who survived a Cybertruck crash earlier this year, talks with reporters on Tuesday.
(Ryan Kartje / Los Angeles Times)
When he woke up, “I realized my whole right side had caught on fire,” he said.
But as he tore off his clothes and doused himself in water again, he heard a thud outside the car window. Sirens wailed in the distance. Just keep going, he told himself.
He kicked at the driver’s-side window with everything he had. Eventually, he spotted a crack. He kept kicking, drifting briefly out of consciousness, before the window fell away and hands began pulling him from the vehicle by his legs.
The next thing he remembers feeling was a cold rush, as if he’d jumped in a freezing river. A video of the crash scene obtained by TMZ shows Arenas lying face down in the street in a few inches of water, while the broken hydrant continues to spray into the air, after a group of good Samaritans had come to his rescue.
In all, Arenas spent at least 10 minutes in the burning car before people who happened to hear the accident eventually helped pull him to safety. It’s not lost on him how lucky he was.
“There are amazing people in this world that are willing to help and risk their own bodies for you,” Arenas said. “For me, it was like, I don’t ever want to think about me ever again.”
Alijah Arenas, of Chatsworth High, drives to the basket.
(Nick Koza)
The next hours and days are still hazy for Arenas, who was whisked away to a nearby hospital, then another. He was put into a medically induced coma, a common approach for dealing with extreme smoke inhalation.
When he finally awoke, Arenas still couldn’t speak. But right away, panic set in. He wondered if his car had hit another, or if anyone else had been hurt.
Months later, he still can’t bring himself to place any blame elsewhere for what happened. Even though there are no indications that Arenas was at fault for his steering wheel locking up.
“Honestly, I take full responsibility,” Arenas said. “Whether it was me, another car, a malfunction. I don’t really want to put anyone else in this situation — whoever made the car, anything. I want to take full responsibility for what I do. If I would’ve hurt somebody, that would have really taken a toll on me.”
Arenas spent six days in the hospital after the accident but suffered no major long-term injuries. In the weeks that followed, he took walks through his family’s neighborhood to regain his strength. Along the way, neighbors showered him with flowers and well wishes. Last month, the family welcomed the men who saved Arenas into their home to share their gratitude.
He’s still working his way toward joining USC for its summer hoops practices, with some preliminary classwork still remaining before his transition is complete. But after officially enrolling at USC last week, Arenas stood on the practice court sideline on Tuesday morning, high-fiving teammates and calling out assignments, looking every bit the part of a five-star freshman who’s ready to step in from Day One.
“His perspective is really unique,” USC coach Eric Musselman said. “Even before the accident, when you talk to Alijah, it’s a unique thought process on how he views life and views the game of basketball and how he views his teammates.”
But there’s no mistaking, in Arenas’ mind, how fortunate he is to have survived — and how many things had to go right for that to be the case. He’s convinced he was spared to help someone else in the same way he was helped.
“It taught me a lot,” Arenas said. “I’m very lucky — and not even just to be here. Just in general, in life.”
