They were battered, they were bruised, they were soaking wet and covered in stereotypes.
They’re not tough enough. They’re not resilient enough. They’re not Big Ten-enough.
Late in the second quarter Saturday afternoon at the Coliseum, a USC football team fighting for a playoff berth was being smothered by the worst of its national perceptions.
It was wilting under the weather and the weight of a team from Iowa.
Then, with big swings from the sort of deep resistance that few thought a Lincoln Riley team possessed, everything changed.
It’s raining wins, hallelujah.
Trailing 21-7, the Trojans got muddy and mad and just plain Midwestern, winning the line of scrimmage, winning the battle of skill, and eventually winning the game 26-21.
Yeah, afterward, that was Riley dancing in a downpour.
“A culture win right there, man,” said Riley afterward. “If there ever was one, that was a culture win. Our team’s resilience, their response at halftime … we just keep coming, we have all year.”
And, yes, USC is still in the national championship hunt, needing wins in its final two games at Oregon and against UCLA to qualify for the College Football Playoff.
“It’s win or go home … ain’t no go home,” said linebacker Eric Gentry. “The whole team understands what the culture is … fight till the last second.”
Few will believe they can beat seventh-ranked and one-loss Oregon in Eugene. But then again, few believed they would survive Iowa after the Hawkeyes took that big second-quarter lead.
During the last 10 years, Iowa had an 83-5 record when leading by eight points or more. Translated, this is a program that knows how to protect a lead, and the Trojans were seemingly cooked.
But Riley said he saw something in their eyes. And after halftime, Iowa saw the same thing.
“We just got on a run there … felt like we were going to stop them every time … felt like we were going to score every time,” Riley said.
USC coach Lincoln Riley celebrates with wide receiver Prince Strachan during the second half of a 26-21 comeback win over Iowa at the Coliseum on Saturday.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
In overcoming their biggest deficit of the season, that’s darn near what happened.
They scored 19 unanswered points. They scored on five consecutive drives.
“Everyone just believing in ourselves,” Gentry said.
Makai Lemon made 153 yards worth of spectacular catches, King Miller ran for 83 bruising clock-killing yards, Jahkeem Stewart made a game-changing interception, Jayden Maiava held it together with a touchdown pass and no turnovers, and the game essentially appropriately ended with USC just showing more muscle.
On a fourth-down pass in the final minute, Kennedy Urlacher shoved Kaden Wetjen out of bounds as he was making a grab deep in Trojan territory.
No catch, game over, and in the end, the Trojans were as hearty as that section of fans that weathered the storm shirtless.
“Our students have brought it all year, there’s been constant energy over there all year, our team feels it, they do,” Riley said.
The Trojans will be decided underdogs next weekend, but bet on Oregon at your own peril. This is a USC team that has the country’s best receivers, an emerging quarterback, and for the third consecutive week they have held their opponents to three points or fewer in the second half.
“People just try to say stuff about us coming to the Big Ten and wondering how we’re going to be,” Gentry said. “This team is … setting the standard for the Big Ten … coming in and winning big games every week.”
USC defensive tackle Jide Abasiri holds up the ball while celebrating with cornerback Decarlos Nicholson during the second half of the Trojans’ win Saturday over Iowa.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
The afternoon started with groundskeepers drying the field with leaf blowers and fans wearing umbrella hats, the first rainy game at the Coliseum in nine years.
But for USC under Riley, it began like any number of his past team’s late-autumn failures.
Blew five fourth-quarter leads last season. Blew four of their last five games two seasons ago. Blew the Pac-12 championship game and a shot at the playoffs three seasons ago.
Frankly, it looked like they were going to blow it again.
Iowa took the opening kickoff and drove 69 yards in seven plays in a bruising drive punctuated by a fourth-down, two-yard touchdown pass to Mark Gronowski to Dayton Howard in the back of the end zone.
Yes, the FBS’s 133rd-ranked passing offense — out of 136 teams — had just scored on a pass play.
And Iowa was just getting started, eventually taking a 21-7 lead late in the second quarter. But, it turns out, that was the last time the Hawkeyes were able to breathe.
After a couple of Ryon Sayeri field goals closed the gap, the USC comeback went into full swing when another leaping grab by Lemon — this one for 35 yards — set up a 12-yard touchdown pass between three defenders to Lemon. Maiava overthrew Lemon on the two-point conversion attempt, but the Trojans weren’t done yet.
On Iowa’s next possession, with 1:52 left in the third period, Stewart grabbed a deflected pass for an interception to give the Trojans the ball on the Iowa 40-yard line.
From there, Maiava drove them 40 yards in six plays on a drive that was assisted by a pass interference penalty and gave them an eventual 26-21 lead after Bryan Jackson’s one-yard touchdown run.
“The whole team was ready to lay it on the line today,” Riley said. “We had guys laying it on the line all over the place … when you’ve got a whole team doing it, you’ve got something pretty cool.”
Pretty wet, pretty nasty and, indeed, pretty cool.