Now, Riley is out of time to iron out these issues. Because there is no more important game for USC this season than next Saturday. Outside of the 2022 Pac-12 title game, which went quite poorly for him, I\u2019d argue it\u2019s the most important game of Riley\u2019s entire tenure to date.<\/p>\n
Riley has yet to beat Oregon as USC\u2019s coach, while Dan Lanning and the Ducks have run circles around the Trojans, on and off the field, during the four-plus years they\u2019ve both been coaching out West. Oregon may have never won a national title, but has been to the College Football Playoff in three out of those four years. USC has never been to the Playoff. The two teams have become legitimate rivals over that time. But in two meetings with Oregon under Riley, there\u2019s never been any doubt about who\u2019s the better team.<\/p>\n
For a brief moment, early in this season, it seemed like that might be shifting. Oregon was stunned by Oklahoma State, just two weeks ago, leading to real questions about whether the Ducks are the Playoff contender they were made out to be.<\/p>\n
That loss, though, actually ratcheted up the importance for Riley. With Oregon appearing this vulnerable, there are no excuses for USC or its coach if they don\u2019t win this game. No matter the situation that Riley inherited, the Trojans should have what it takes, by Year 5, to compete with Oregon. Full stop.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the standard that USC was expecting in shelling out over $11 million per year to its football coach. But in four-plus seasons under Riley, the Trojans have just six wins against ranked opponents and have consistently blown their biggest games.<\/p>\n
Think, for a moment, of Riley\u2019s biggest win at USC. Are you having a hard time conjuring it? That\u2019s because of the six ranked teams that USC has beaten under Riley, all of them finished with four losses that season.<\/p>\n
Clay Helton had three top-five wins at USC through his first 18 games as head coach. Meanwhile, in almost five years and 57 games, I\u2019d argue Riley still doesn\u2019t have a single great win.<\/p>\n
He can change that Saturday. But if Riley can\u2019t lead USC past Oregon now, after all this time, who\u2019s to say he ever will?<\/p>\n
\u201cHouse of Troy\u201d: Chapter 1 drops Sept. 22 ![\"USC](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789996693_289_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Pete Carroll when he was coaching USC. <\/p>\n
(Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Twenty five years ago, USC\u2019s football program was in a bad spot.<\/p>\n
The Trojans hadn\u2019t been relevant in over a decade, and Paul Hackett had just been fired as head coach. USC needed a new direction. But its search for Hackett\u2019s replacement was going poorly. Two coaches \u2014 from Oregon and Oregon State, no less \u2014 had already turned them down. That\u2019s when Daryl Gross, the USC official in charge of the search, turned his attention to a twice-failed NFL coach.<\/p>\n
Pete Carroll.<\/p>\n
His hire would turn out to be a seminal moment in the history of Trojan football. But that was not how folks saw it at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s legendary stories of fax machines just blowing up and paper after paper coming through,\u201d said Rocky Seto, who was a grad assistant at the time. \u201cPeople weren\u2019t happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bill Plaschke, The Times columnist, wrote a column at the time ripping the hire. Carroll himself called Plaschke after that, begging for a shot.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll he kept saying,\u201d Plaschke said, \u201cwas just gimme a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, it turned out OK for Carroll and the Trojans. They won back-to-back national titles and nearly won a third during his tenure as coach.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s what came after that, as USC tried to cling on to the Carroll era, that\u2019s the subject of a new narrative podcast series from LA Times and LA Times Studios, House of Troy. Starting with Carroll\u2019s hire a quarter-century ago, we\u2019ll walk you through how USC rose to college football prominence and how it all came crashing down once Carroll left.<\/p>\n
The first chapter of House of Troy drops on Sept. 22, with new episodes coming every week after that. Before then, be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.<\/p>\n
![\"King](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789996694_182_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
King Miller runs past Rutgers defensive lineman Farell Gnago in the first half.<\/p>\n
(Adam Hunger \/ AP)<\/p>\n
\u2014King Miller is the clear RB1 at the moment. USC may view Miller and Waymond Jordan as starting running backs, but there\u2019s no doubting who has taken the reins at the top of that rotation. Both are averaging over five yards per carry. But Miller has at least 15 carries in all four games, while Jordan hasn\u2019t eclipsed 11. Personally, I\u2019m a bit surprised by that divide given how great Jordan looked before his injury last season. It makes me wonder if he\u2019s all the way back from his ankle surgeries.<\/p>\n
\u2014The receiver rotation is still up in the air right now. With Trent Mosley out indefinitely, USC opened the game with Kayden Dixon-Wyatt, Corey Simms and Zacharyus Williams as its top three wideouts. Dixon-Wyatt is deservedly locked in that spot, while Simms balled it in his 20 snaps, catching four passes for 72 yards despite missing some time during the game due to injury. Hines ended up playing more snaps, but had a key drop on third down that we\u2019d be talking much more about if USC hadn\u2019t gone for it and converted on fourth. Williams played in the slot, but had just one catch. The real mystery here is Terrell Anderson, who was dressed and not on the injury report, but didn\u2019t play a single snap on offense. Anderson was viewed, at one point, as a key contributor, so it\u2019s not clear what happened.<\/p>\n
\u2014Kaylon Miller replaced Hayden Treter as the starting left guard. The move was a bit unexpected, given how Treter played through three games. Treter still played 28 snaps to Miller\u2019s 40 against Rutgers, but with a very good Oregon defensive line on tap, the offensive line will be tested next week unlike it has all season. Miller has always had the respect of offensive line coach Zach Hanson. We\u2019ll know at the start of the game next week whom he trusts the most in that spot.<\/p>\n
\u2014USC isn\u2019t built to withstand injuries in the secondary. No unit on the entire roster has more doubts about its depth, and against Rutgers, USC had to test that depth more than it would like. Top corner Jontez Williams only played 22 snaps, while slot corner Alex Graham only played 15. Kennedy Urlacher and Rock Hill took their places, and while they did a fine job, the ripple effects of one injury on the position could be significant. Behind those players are a lot of question marks. So USC better hope that they\u2019re all healthy heading into Oregon.<\/p>\n
\u2014USC men\u2019s hoops will play four Big Ten road games in 10 days to start 2027. Which, on its face, seems patently insane. But after a screwy start to the Big Ten schedule a year ago, coach Eric Musselman actually asked for a slate exactly like this. The reason? His team doesn\u2019t have to travel back and forth twice to the East Coast. In this case, they will have to travel from Bloomington, Ind. to College Park, Md. But that\u2019s much more doable than an extra 10 hours of flying.<\/p>\n
This week, in 2006 \u2026<\/p>\n
After hosting College Gameday and beating No. 19 Nebraska at home, USC opens its Pac-10 season on the road with a dominant defensive performance at Arizona, winning 20-3.<\/p>\n
Led by new inside linebacker Rey Maualuga, the Trojans didn\u2019t allow a single point until the fourth quarter. The offense, meanwhile, finally found a running back to lean on. With Reggie Bush and LenDale White both off to the NFL and USC still waiting for someone to step up in their place, Emmanuel Moody heeded the call. He rushed for 130 yards and a score as the Trojans stood pat at No. 3 in the AP poll.<\/p>\n
Polling the people<\/p>\n
We asked, \u201cAfter three comfortable wins in the non-conference schedule, do you feel better about the Trojans\u2019 trajectory than you did at the start of the season?\u201d<\/p>\n
After 1,523 votes:<\/p>\n
Nothing has changed, 47.4%
Yes, I feel better, 45.8%
No, I feel worse, 6.8%<\/p>\n
Olympic sports spotlight<\/p>\n
A brutal start to the season isn\u2019t getting much better in Big Ten play for USC\u2019s women\u2019s soccer team. After starting the conference slate by being shut out, 5-0, by Michigan State, USC was shut out again by Purdue, 2-0, and then managed a tie against Oregon, 1-1.<\/p>\n
The Trojans have scored one or fewer goals in seven of their nine matches this season and are 0-5-2 in those scenarios. They need to produce more offense \u2014 and stat.<\/p>\n
What I\u2019m watching this week ![\"Domhnall](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789996694_186_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Domhnall Gleeson as Ned in \u201cThe Paper.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Aaron Epstein\/Peacock)<\/p>\n
It tends to take at least a season for a sitcom to really find its rhythm, and so far, that\u2019s been the case for \u201cThe Paper,\u201d the spinoff of The Office which dropped its second season on Peacock recently. The first season got the journalism right, but the narrative was a bit clunky, as it sorted out who of its characters should be leading the way.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, it seems like they\u2019ve figured it out. Especially in the case of Domnhall Gleeson\u2019s lead editor character, Ned Sampson, who I find far more likable in Season 2.<\/p>\n
In case you missed it<\/p>\n
No. 12 USC defeats Rutgers in Big Ten opener, but defensive woes detract from win<\/a><\/p>\n USC freshman star Luke Wafle\u2019s football roots date back nearly a century<\/a><\/p>\n USC freshman star receiver Trent Mosley to miss Rutgers game<\/a><\/p>\n Chad Baker-Mazara sues USC, accuses Eric Musselman of \u2018racially charged\u2019 tirade<\/a><\/p>\n Until next time …<\/p>\n That concludes today\u2019s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you\u2019d like to see, email me at ryan.kartje@latimes.com<\/a>, and follow me on X at @Ryan_Kartje<\/a>. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome back to the Times of Troy newsletter, where we\u2019ve reached a critical fork in the road for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[75362,24993,65629,32697,11155,102457,48,52,51,47,50,49,1741,795,43920,11936,315,1791,4863,105461,105462],"class_list":["post-470831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-bye-week","tag-cincinnati","tag-college-game","tag-danton-lynn","tag-defense","tag-inaugural-season","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-lot","tag-michigan","tag-ryan-kartje","tag-system","tag-time","tag-times","tag-troy","tag-usc-beat","tag-wink-martindale"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470831","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=470831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}