{"id":992295,"date":"2026-09-05T07:21:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T07:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/992295\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T07:21:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T07:21:24","slug":"all-eyes-were-on-usc-to-see-if-the-trojans-could-bounce-back-from-nightmare-tiny-crowd-at-season-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/992295\/","title":{"rendered":"All eyes were on USC to see if the Trojans could bounce back from nightmare tiny crowd at season opener"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the big stories of Week 0 was the USC Trojans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not like they lost or anything; they beat San Jose State, 42-26. It was the turnout at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum<\/a> that was getting a lot of attention.<\/p>\n

And by that, I mean the measly crowd at kickoff was getting roasted all over social media.<\/p>\n

USC FOOTBALL RIPPED FOR PATHETIC CROWD AT HOME OPENER: ‘ABSOLUTELY EMBARRASSING’<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Lincoln <\/p>\n

USC Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley jogs onto the field before his team’s game against Fresno State. (Photo by David Dennis\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

So all eyes were on L.A. to see whether the Trojans could draw a crowd more befitting of a blue-blood Big Ten program currently ranked No. 14 in the nation.<\/p>\n

The Trojans hosted the Fresno State Bulldogs on Friday night, a Pac-12 team that isn’t one to overlook.<\/p>\n

And sure, no one thought this was going to bring in a sellout crowd the way a big rivalry game would… but you’d think they could draw a little better than this:<\/p>\n

LINCOLN RILEY DISMISSES EMPTY SEATS CONTROVERSY AS A ‘FALSE NARRATIVE’ AFTER LOW-ATTENDANCE USC HOME OPENER<\/a><\/p>\n

Not as “ouch” as Week 0, but it’s still not pretty.<\/p>\n

Of course, as that post noted, it is a Friday before a holiday weekend in the traffic hellscape that is Los Angeles… but this is also USC football, and they look like they could have a solid year.<\/p>\n

But nope. Still a lot of red stadium seats staring at everyone.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE FOR MORE OUTKICK SPORTS COVERAGE<\/a><\/p>\n

But hold the phone … this is L.A.: Not only is traffic a nightmare, but it\u2019s also the kind of place where it\u2019s cool to be fashionably late.<\/p>\n

You know who shows up for kickoff and is on time for stuff?<\/p>\n

Nerds. Poindexters. Dweebs.<\/p>\n

\"Jayden <\/p>\n

USC QB Jayden Maiava warms up before taking on the Fresno State Bulldogs. (Photo by David Dennis\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images))<\/p>\n

That’s why, by the time the second quarter had rolled around, the stadium had filled out pretty well, considering it was a Week 1 non-conference tilt.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n

The Trojans’ first home game against a Big Ten opponent will be on Sept. 26 when they host the Oregon Ducks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Matthew Reigle is a writer for OutKick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the big stories of Week 0 was the USC Trojans. It\u2019s not like they lost or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":992296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,1014,49,51074,48,118034,9,8242],"class_list":["post-992295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-los-angeles","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-fb","tag-ncaa-football","tag-outkick-sports","tag-sports","tag-usc-trojans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117217230091870734","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=992295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/992296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=992295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=992295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=992295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}