{"id":446297,"date":"2026-08-28T17:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T17:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/446297\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T17:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T17:16:09","slug":"san-jose-state-at-no-14-usc-football-who-has-the-edge-in-the-season-opener-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/446297\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose State at No. 14 USC football: Who has the edge in the season opener? \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>San Jose State (0-0) at No. 14 USC (0-0)<\/p>\n<p>When: Noon, Saturday<\/p>\n<p>Where: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum<\/p>\n<p>TV\/Radio: NBC (Ch. 4)\/710 AM<\/p>\n<p>Line: USC by 38\u00bd points<\/p>\n<p>NOTABLE INJURIES<\/p>\n<p>USC: OUT: DT Jahkeem Stewart (foot), C Kilian O\u2019Connor (knee), S Marquis Gallegos (undisclosed), S Kendarius Reddick (undisclosed); QUESTIONABLE: WR Tanook Hines (undisclosed).<\/p>\n<p>San Jose State: None reported.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s at stake? A dominant win is a must for USC in this Week 0 season opener. The Trojans have the perfect opportunity to show off quarterback Jayden Maiava\u2019s offseason improvements and begin to build a case for the College Football Playoff committee as to why they should be a selection this season. Saturday will also be the big reveal of the <a href=\"https:\/\/wpdash.medianewsgroup.com\/2026\/08\/27\/usc-football-preview-new-defense-up-for-the-challenge\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Trojans\u2019 new defense under Gary Patterson<\/a>. He hasn\u2019t coached a college game since 2021, nor has he lost any intensity since then. This will be the time to address any intrigue about Patterson or this defense as a whole.<\/p>\n<p>Who\u2019s better? San Jose State beat Jayden Maiava when he was playing at UNLV in 2023, but that\u2019s unlikely to happen again. It\u2019ll be difficult to slow the momentum that the Trojans have been building since spring practices began. If there\u2019s a bright side for the Spartans, it\u2019s that they\u2019ll be battle-tested when they move on to a much less daunting Mountain West slate.<\/p>\n<p>Matchup to watch: USC\u2019s linebackers vs. San Jose State\u2019s passing game. The Spartans have had four different quarterbacks in their last four season openers and have remained a pass-heavy offense regardless of who was under center. This season it\u2019s Luke Weaver, who won a three-way quarterback battle. Expect the Trojans\u2019 defensive line to leverage its size. Head coach Lincoln Riley has praised the linebackers for their improvement, and this game is a situation in which they can show if they can plug holes, tackle and help the defensive line take away any pass or run options Weaver may have.<\/p>\n<p>USC wins if: The Trojans\u2019 defense needs to shut down the Spartans early, and it\u2019ll be a bonus if they do it using some of the <a href=\"https:\/\/wpdash.medianewsgroup.com\/2026\/08\/27\/usc-football-lists-5-true-freshmen-as-starters-its-not-what-you-think\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">many talented freshmen<\/a> on the roster. This is a game that can be used to get inexperienced players valuable playing time.<\/p>\n<p>Prediction: USC 56, San Jose State 14. Many freshmen will contribute to the Trojans\u2019 10th consecutive season-opening win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Jose State (0-0) at No. 14 USC (0-0) When: Noon, Saturday Where: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum TV\/Radio:&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[10990,1321,1327,88,90,89,127,11320,125696],"class_list":["post-446297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-big-ten-conference","tag-college-football","tag-college-sports","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-sports","tag-usc-football","tag-usc-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}