{"id":66333,"date":"2025-11-23T09:17:25","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T09:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/66333\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T09:17:25","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T09:17:25","slug":"usc-vs-oregon-trojans-lincoln-riley-embraces-playoff-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/66333\/","title":{"rendered":"USC vs. Oregon: Trojans’ Lincoln Riley embraces playoff pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"

p]:text-cms-story-body-color-text clearfix”> <\/p>\n

Before he took the reins at USC<\/a>, Lincoln Riley<\/a> had a reputation as something of a road warrior. It wasn\u2019t until his third season at Oklahoma that Riley\u2019s team had lost a true road game with him as head coach. During five years with the Sooners, he won 17 of 21 on the road.<\/p>\n

But four years into his tenure as the Trojans\u2019 coach, Riley\u2019s once-sterling road reputation feels like a relic of a past life. Until USC won at Nebraska earlier this month, Riley hadn\u2019t beaten a team on the road that finished better than .500 since November 2022, when his Trojans toppled UCLA at the Rose Bowl. Otherwise, outside of L.A., USC\u2019s only road victory against a quality team under Riley came against Oregon State \u2026 in his fourth game leading the Trojans.<\/p>\n

Never have the stakes been so high for Riley than they are this week, as No. 15 USC heads to No. 8 Oregon with its College Football Playoff hopes hinging on a huge road victory. Still, it\u2019s hard to ignore how starkly different Riley\u2019s Trojans have looked when challenged away from home.<\/p>\n

USC has been the best offense in college football when inside the Coliseum. But in four road games, USC is averaging 18 fewer points and two fewer yards per attempt on offense. Its red zone touchdown rate plummets 25%, while its third-down conversion rate drops 16% on the road. Simply put, by any measure, Riley\u2019s offense has been much worse away from home this season.<\/p>\n

\"USC <\/p>\n

USC quarterback Jayden Maiava throws a pass during a win over Iowa on Nov. 15 at the Coliseum.<\/p>\n

(Eric Thayer\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

That disparity starts at quarterback. At home, Jayden Maiava<\/a> has been one of the best quarterbacks in all of college football this season. The junior has completed 74% of his passes at home and averaged 10.7 yards per attempt at the Coliseum, both of which rank top 10 in the nation. He\u2019s accounted for 18 total touchdowns to just two turnovers at home, while his quarterback rating puts him in the rarefied air of Heisman contenders such as Indiana\u2019s Fernando Mendoza and Ohio State\u2019s Julian Sayin.<\/p>\n

That version of Maiava, however, has yet to take his show on the road. In five true road games as the Trojans\u2019 starting quarterback, Maiava has completed fewer than 57% of his passes. His average yards per attempt tumbles nearly three yards. He\u2019s committed more turnovers and been sacked more often.<\/p>\n

USC can\u2019t afford for that to be the case Saturday, if it hopes to hold onto its Playoff hopes. But while recent history might be against his Trojans, Riley reminded this week that he\u2019s not new to contending like this late in November.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what I\u2019m used to, man,\u201d RIley said. \u201cIt\u2019s good to be right there again, no question.<\/p>\n

\u201d… This is the time of year that I enjoy most.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what to watch as USC clashes with Oregon on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. PST (CBS, Paramount+):<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"p]:text-cms-story-body-color-text clearfix”> Before he took the reins at USC, Lincoln Riley had a reputation as something of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[31250,34272,39513,1073,48,52,51,32698,47,50,49,545,4666,39251,427,39512,23138,3533,430,1539,72],"class_list":["post-66333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-attempt","tag-college-football-playoff","tag-good-offense","tag-home","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lincoln-riley","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-oregon","tag-riley","tag-road-warrior","tag-team","tag-third-season","tag-trojans","tag-usc","tag-week","tag-yard","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66333","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=66333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}