{"id":454885,"date":"2026-09-05T22:20:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T22:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/454885\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T22:20:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T22:20:19","slug":"no-14-usc-football-dominates-fresno-state-in-39-0-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/454885\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 14 USC football dominates Fresno State in 39-0 victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fresh off a convincing Week 0 win against San Jose State University<\/a>, USC football came into a rare Friday-night kickoff on short rest, looking to continue its momentum in Week 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Trojans (2-0) faced a familiar foe on Fresno State University\u2019s (0-1) sideline, as Bulldog Head Coach Matt Entz is a former USC assistant coach for defense and linebackers.<\/p>\n

While the Trojans started relatively slowly, only scoring one touchdown and fumbling in the first quarter, their 23-point second quarter put the game out of reach en route to a 39-0 victory over Fresno State.<\/p>\n

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Redshirt senior quarterback Jayden Maiava continued to show why he is one of the best at his position in the country, completing 23-of-25 passes for 349 yards and three touchdowns despite playing just one drive in the second half.<\/p>\n

Maiava distributed the ball to 11 different receivers, but has had his favorite targets throughout the first two games: freshman wide receivers Trent Mosley and Kayden Dixon-Wyatt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mosley recorded another 100-yard game, finishing the contest with 104 yards and two touchdowns on four catches, while Dixon-Wyatt hauled in 102 yards on six catches \u2014 the most by any Trojan receiver on the night.<\/p>\n

Maiava also found a familiar target in sophomore wide receiver Tanook Hines<\/a>, who made his return to the field Friday with a touchdown catch that kicked off the scoring.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the air attack accounted for most of the USC offense, the ground game was solid, as redshirt senior running back Waymond Jordan and redshirt sophomore running back King Miller<\/a> combined for over 110 yards on the ground and a touchdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the other side of the ball, Defensive Coordinator Gary Patterson led a defensive masterclass for the Trojans, shutting out the Bulldogs \u2014 the first time USC has shut out a team since 2024 \u2014 while forcing three turnovers and two safeties on only 116 total yards allowed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The domination stemmed from the safety position, as junior Kennedy Urlacher and redshirt freshman Alex Graham left their mark on the game. Urlacher recorded two sacks, forcing a fumble on one and a safety on the other, while Graham also recorded a sack that caused the other safety.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The offense and defense worked in tandem Friday, both controlling the game from the jump and, unlike last week, finishing the game with intensity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Trojans will continue their homestand with a matchup against the University of Louisiana at Lafayette on Sept. 12 at 8 p.m. at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fresh off a convincing Week 0 win against San Jose State University, USC football came into a rare…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[179625,163816,949,112,114,113,179626,127],"class_list":["post-454885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-caleb-olguin","tag-fall-2026","tag-football","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-luis-ochea","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454885","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=454885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}