LOS ANGELES — USC has created a path for itself.
Sure, the road ahead will be daunting, and the Trojans have displayed some troubling traits that need to be addressed. But this team has barely broken a sweat in its first four games of the season, winning each by double digits. The latest was a 45-31 victory over Michigan State in the Coliseum on Saturday night.
The Trojans have been sloppy at times, but now that they’ve successfully avoided any pitfalls in the first third of the season, they’ve given themselves an opportunity to compete for something meaningful this season. It’ll certainly be challenging, but a team that has flown relatively under the radar and wasn’t ranked until last week has a chance to make itself relevant in the national conversation — something that hasn’t happened much at USC over the past seven or eight years.
“A lot that’s got to continue to get better, but if you’re learning lessons as you win, it’s hard not to be excited about what you see out of this football team,” coach Lincoln Riley said. “Everything I see makes me believe we’re going to continue to grow and learn from the mistakes because there’s so many positive things that are happening out there.”
The final margin was 14 points, but there seemed to be more distance, from a talent perspective, between USC (4-0, 2-0 Big Ten) and Michigan State (3-1, 0-1) than two touchdowns.
The Trojans handled the game on both sides of the line of scrimmage and had too much skill for the Spartans. USC piled up 517 yards of offense, with good balance (234 passing yards, 283 rushing yards) while averaging 8.2 yards per play.
The offense is operating at an extremely high level. Quarterback Jayden Maiava completed 20 of 26 attempts for 234 yards and three touchdowns, and that felt like a quiet game for him. Receiver Makai Lemon caught eight passes for 127 yards and a touchdown and rushed for another score. Running back Waymond Jordan rushed for 157 yards, and fellow tailback Eli Sanders added 84 yards.
Maiava to Lyons for our first TD of the second half!
📺 FOX
pic.twitter.com/ZMHXGcpf7x
— USC Football ✌️ (@uscfb) September 21, 2025
Afterward, Riley was asked if he felt like he had his swagger back after USC’s offense didn’t perform to his typical standards last season.
“It never left,” he said. “I believe in what we do and I believe in the people we have in here, I believe in the defense we go against every day, and the guys are playing some good ball right now.”
It also helps that Riley has the best defensive line in his four years as USC’s head coach. The unit sacked Michigan State quarterback Aidan Chiles only twice but generated consistent pressure and finished with five tackles for loss as a position group (USC had seven overall).
Through four games, the Trojans have recorded 16 sacks. Last season, they had 21 in 13 games.
“Every game we’ve played up to this point,” Riley said, “you feel the presence of our defensive line.”
With a 4-0 start, some USC fans are probably having visions of a run to the College Football Playoff. If the Trojans want a realistic shot at reaching that lofty goal, they will likely have to finish 10-2. The path will not be easy.
USC plays at Illinois next week. Sure, that game lost a lot of its luster with the Fighting Illini’s 63-10 loss at Indiana on Saturday, but that’s still probably a top-25 team. After an off week, there are back-to-back games vs. Michigan and at Notre Dame. In November, there are road games at Nebraska and Oregon, plus a home date with Iowa. Most of those teams possess traits that could pose real problems for the Trojans.
If the offense, led by the improved Maiava, and the defensive line play up to their capabilities, USC should have a fighting chance in every game. But there are some real issues the Trojans must figure out.
The most pressing is the secondary, which surrendered three passes of 30-plus yards against Michigan State, including a 42-yard touchdown from Chiles to Chrishon McCray in the first quarter.
USC settled in for a bit after that, but the secondary had already allowed 10 passes of 20-plus yards this season entering the night. It’s a troubling trend. If that’s happening against the soft part of the schedule, what will Notre Dame and Oregon do to this defense?
“It can’t happen,” Riley said. “We’ve had about one of them (coverage busts) a game, and we’ve got to put a lid on it.”
USC entered the weekend averaging 80.3 penalty yards per game, which ranked 125th nationally, and had 10 penalties for 83 yards against the Spartans. Penalties don’t often correlate to a team’s record or performance, but the Trojans have had too many unforced errors, particularly on defense, and that sort of behavior is bound to come back and haunt them at some point.
On Saturday night, a running into the punter penalty gave Michigan State new life in the third quarter and sparked a mini rally where the Spartans cut a 21-point deficit down to seven, 31-24, headed into the fourth quarter. It was the second costly penalty on a punt rush in as many weeks. USC’s defense finished with eight penalties for 72 yards.
“There’s parts of it we are improving at, but obviously we haven’t done it enough,” Riley said. “We had a couple substitution errors tonight, which are inexplicable and can’t happen — that’s coaching. We had some aggressive ones. I’ve told people for years … go look up, the least penalized teams in the country, typically, it’s a bunch of teams with s—– records.
“There’s a balance. You have to play this game aggressively. I’m not going to put a team out there at USC that does not play this game aggressively. The flip side of that is, you’ve got to handle the self-inflicted wounds, and that’s where we’ve got to do better.”
USC’s depth is going to be tested, too. The Trojans played without star wideout Ja’Kobi Lane on Saturday night. He is dealing with an undisclosed injury that Riley said popped up in the middle of the week and stemmed from the Purdue game. It’s unclear how long USC will be without him.
Lane’s presence is critical because outside of him and Lemon, the Trojans don’t have many proven playmakers at wideout.
USC can’t afford injuries along a thin offensive line, but left tackle Elijah Paige didn’t play in the second half after sustaining an undisclosed injury. Riley said it’s “not too major” and something Paige should be able to bounce back from, but this isn’t ideal for a team that doesn’t have much tackle depth.
So we saw the Trojans, warts and all, for what they were on Saturday night. They’re the team that can build a 21-point lead and look really dominant doing so. They’re also a team that can be its own worst enemy and let opponents hang around in frustrating fashion.
But USC is a team with a path now. Can it get out of its own way, correct its issues and make something of the opportunity?
The next few weeks will give us an answer.
(Photo of Jayden Maiava: Gary A. Vasquez / Imagn Images)