{"id":901823,"date":"2026-11-01T05:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T05:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/901823\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T05:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T05:44:11","slug":"lincoln-riley-flips-script-on-hot-seat-chatter-as-uscs-upset-over-ohio-state-puts-trojans-back-in-cfp-picture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/901823\/","title":{"rendered":"Lincoln Riley flips script on hot-seat chatter as USC’s upset over Ohio State puts Trojans back in CFP picture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back against the wall and facing music reaching scream-metal decibels about his job security<\/a>, Lincoln Riley delivered.<\/p>\n

For only the sixth time in 21 tries at USC<\/a>, the Trojans toppled a ranked opponent under Riley, and it was a big one Saturday night against second-ranked Ohio State<\/a>.<\/p>\n

USC’s 30-18 victory<\/a> pushes Riley’s squad back in the College Football<\/a> Playoff discussion as part of the group that controls their own destiny entering the season’s final month \u2014 with an outside shot at a Big Ten Championship Game appearance, too.<\/p>\n

Poetically, this was his middle finger to questions surrounding his future<\/a> and failure to meet expectations in Los Angeles. The Trojans still have elite opportunities remaining against Indiana<\/a> \u2014 a one-loss team that’s leaking oil with quarterback issues \u2014 and unbeaten UCLA<\/a> during rivalry weekend.<\/p>\n

Riley was 1-6 all-time against AP top-six opponents coming in, that lone victory coming in the form of a 31-16 decision over the Buckeyes in just his second game as a head coach back at Oklahoma<\/a> in 2017.<\/p>\n

“If I didn’t want to be at this place, I wouldn’t have come here in the first place,” Riley said this week before the biggest win of his USC tenure. “I’ve had plenty of opportunities to leave. This is where I want to be. This is the right place for me. I’m the right person to be here. And that’s as honest and transparent as I can be with you guys.<\/p>\n

“I love it here. I mean, like I told you guys a lot of times, there’s not many people in college football history that gave up what I gave up to come here. I don’t care if it’s 15 years down the line; that never should be taken lightly. It’s certainly not taken lightly by me. I came here because I believe in this place and none of that has changed whatsoever.”<\/p>\n

USC put together a solid plan defensively to combat Heisman frontrunner Jeremiah Smith<\/a>, limiting him to 83 yards receiving and a touchdown on 10 catches. Ohio State freshman quarterback Luke Fahey<\/a>, who was making his first career start in place of injured Julian Sayin<\/a>, never found a rhythm in the passing game and was chased out of the pocket throughout.<\/p>\n

Trojans quarterback Jayden Maiava<\/a> registered 222 yards through the air and a score, while running backs King Miller<\/a> and Waymond Jordan<\/a> combined for 126 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.<\/p>\n

The loss for Ryan Day was only his sixth in 65 games against Big Ten competition with the Buckeyes.<\/p>\n

USC’s path to CFP berth, Big Ten Championship Game<\/p>\n

Now 7-2 overall and 4-2 in conference play, the Trojans find themselves in a three-way tie for third in the conference standings after Week 9. With Indiana, Maryland<\/a> and UCLA left, winning out gives USC three victories this season over ranked teams and puts the Trojans in prime position for an at-large CFP berth for the first time in program history.<\/p>\n

To play in Indianapolis with a Big Ten title on the line, however, scenarios are a bit less clear:<\/p>\n

USC wins out and …UCLA loses to Minnesota<\/a>, Illinois<\/a> or Michigan<\/a>
Northwestern<\/a> loses to Iowa<\/a>, Ohio State, Minnesota or IllinoisWisconsin<\/a> loses to Rutgers<\/a>, Maryland, Purdue<\/a> or MinnesotaOregon<\/a> loses to Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State<\/a> or Washington<\/a>Ohio State loses to Northwestern, Nebraska<\/a> or Michigan \u00a0
Nebraska loses to Washington, Illinois, Rutgers, Ohio State or IowaIllinois loses to Nebraska, UCLA, Iowa or Northwestern (since it owns a common opponent win over Oregon)Iowa loses to Northwestern, Purdue, Illinois or Nebraska \u00a0(since it owns a common opponent win over Wisconsin)<\/p>\n

Essentially, the best USC can finish is 7-2 in Big Ten play and needs tiebreakers over five different teams \u2014 UCLA, Ohio State, Indiana, Northwestern and Nebraska \u2014 should those finish with the same record.<\/p>\n

Big Ten standings for teams in the mix<\/p>\n

UCLA<\/p>\n

5-0<\/p>\n

8-0<\/p>\n

Indiana<\/p>\n

5-1<\/p>\n

8-1<\/p>\n

USC<\/p>\n

4-2<\/p>\n

7-2<\/p>\n

Northwestern<\/p>\n

3-2<\/p>\n

6-2<\/p>\n

Iowa<\/p>\n

3-2<\/p>\n

6-2<\/p>\n

Minnesota<\/p>\n

3-2<\/p>\n

5-3<\/p>\n

Wisconsin*<\/p>\n

3-2<\/p>\n

5-3<\/p>\n

Illinois<\/p>\n

3-2<\/p>\n

5-3<\/p>\n

Oregon*<\/p>\n

3-2<\/p>\n

5-3<\/p>\n

Nebraska<\/p>\n

2-2<\/p>\n

5-2<\/p>\n

*Teams that currently hold tiebreakers due to head-to-head wins<\/p>\n

Simplifying the math, if USC wins out, UCLA’s only loss comes to the Trojans and Riley’s squad owns tiebreakers over any other remaining two-loss conference teams; they’re in.<\/p>\n

Riley’s now 42-20 overall at USC and led the Trojans to an 11-win season in 2022 before the program entered the Big Ten. A potential playoff appearance, considering hard-to-stomach losses this fall against Oregon and Wisconsin, would make this campaign a raging success regardless of how the Big Ten standings shake out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back against the wall and facing music reaching scream-metal decibels about his job security, Lincoln Riley delivered. For…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":901824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[1607,399,13424,6815,13427,94478,25623,25619,322852,372987,13421,1777,7560,13423,398,396,397,12695,13425,1776,6344,5693,13426,13422,99,17392,14034,3350,322865,7561],"class_list":["post-901823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-college-football","tag-football","tag-illinois-fighting-illini","tag-indiana-hoosiers","tag-iowa-hawkeyes","tag-jayden-maiava","tag-jeremiah-smith","tag-julian-sayin","tag-king-miller","tag-luke-fahey","tag-maryland-terrapins","tag-michigan-wolverines","tag-michigan-state-spartans","tag-minnesota-golden-gophers","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-nebraska-cornhuskers","tag-northwestern-wildcats","tag-ohio-state-buckeyes","tag-oklahoma-sooners","tag-oregon-ducks","tag-purdue-boilermakers","tag-rutgers-scarlet-knights","tag-sports","tag-ucla-bruins","tag-usc-trojans","tag-washington-huskies","tag-waymond-jordan","tag-wisconsin-badgers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=901823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/901824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}