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- Jayden Maiava passes for 295 yards despite only playing in the first half as USC scores 42 first-half points on the way to a 73-13 victory.
- USC’s defense shines in the victory and quarterback Husan Longstreet played the entire second half.
- It was Missouri State’s first game as a Football Bowl Subdivision program.
Five years ago, when USC first scheduled this 2025 season opener, the plan had been to go big, to test itself with a marquee, nonconference opponent that not only bolstered the Trojans’ strength of schedule but also captured the attention of college football. So, at the time, USC agreed to a home-and-home meeting with Mississippi, when Lane Kiffin, the Trojans’ former coach, would make his much-anticipated return to the Coliseum.
That matchup, of course, never came to fruition. The entire landscape of college football was upended in the meantime. Lincoln Riley became the coach. USC left the Pac-12 for the Big Ten. And the meeting with Mississippi was canceled, the rationale from USC’s leaders being there was no sensible reason, in the age of the expanding College Football Playoff, to test your team with top-tier nonconference competition.
Hernández: How does beating up a second-rate team help Lincoln Riley make USC a contender again?
It’s possible Lincoln Riley could turn a corner and make USC a College Football Playoff contender this season, but Saturday’s win also might just mask mediocrity.
Which is how Missouri State, in its first-ever matchup as a Football Bowl Subdivision program, wound up at the Coliseum on Saturday, watching helplessly as USC stopped just short of stealing the Bears’ lunch money in a 73-13 season-opening beatdown.
It was the most points USC had scored in a football game since 1930, when it put up 74 points on California. But how much could USC really take from trouncing a team that finished fourth last season ... in the Missouri Valley Conference? Before that, Missouri State had just one winning season at the FCS level over their previous 14.
“It’s a good start,” Riley said. “It’s nothing more than that. It’s nothing less than that. It’s a really good start. It’s always great when you’re able to play a lot of guys right there in the beginning. It’s healthy for the football team.”
If the intent was merely to get off to a smooth, harmless start and break in the new guys, well … then USC certainly succeeded in that regard.
Quarterback Jayden Maiava was mostly seamless, completing 15 of 18 passes for 295 yards and two touchdowns before taking a seat at halftime. The offense averaged 7.6 yards per carry, busted three plays of 60-plus yards and never punted.
USC’s defense, which had been the talk of the offseason, didn’t disappoint either. The Trojans tallied five sacks after having just 21 total a year ago. They held Missouri State to 224 yards and even put up a pick-six, courtesy of new safety Bishop Fitzgerald.
A third-quarter interception, snagged on a tipped pass by reserve defensive end Garrett Pomerantz, nearly handed them another. Pomerantz, a walk-on, was one of 33 Trojan defenders who factored into the stat sheet.
“It was just a fun night out there,” said Fitzgerald.
But as measuring sticks go, Saturday felt more along the lines of a well-orchestrated scrimmage. So much so that five-star freshman Husan Longstreet played the entire second half, completing all nine of his passes and rushing for two touchdowns in what Riley called a “pretty steady” performance. He also lost a fumble.
The only suspense, if you can call it that, came in the opening minutes, when Missouri State drove down the field, busted a 23-yard run through the teeth of the Trojans’ defense and hit a 44-yard field goal.
The Bears took an early 3-0 lead as if to announce they wouldn’t stand by and simply be trampled.
Then, a few minutes later, the trampling began.
Still, it took USC some time to really find its rhythm. For their first two drives, the Trojans averaged only 8.6 yards per play, a step down from its final total of 10.5 yards per play.
The dam burst by the time USC touched the ball a third time. Maiava found tight end Lake McRee over the middle on the first play of the drive. The field in front of McRee immediately opened up, and the tight end sprinted his way to a 64-yard touchdown.
“I haven’t touched that speed in a while,” joked McRee, who injured his knee last season.
It was less than 90 seconds later that Fitzgerald put the game out of reach for good, with still three quarters to go. He picked off a pass and took it 39 yards to the end zone.
Missouri State did manage to reach the end zone once, after a miscommunication in USC’s secondary left a receiver wide open in the corner.
But there weren’t many other glaring mistakes to note from there, as the Trojans outscored the Bears, 45-3, the rest of the way. They scored on a 75-yard rush from walk-on King Miller, and on a 73-yard screen to Eli Sanders. Maiava and Longstreet combined for three touchdowns on the ground.
“A lot of people had great plays today,” Sanders said. “Our offense is unstoppable — when we’re clicking, it’s hard to beat.”
Any hope otherwise was erased soon after kickoff. Hours later, as the stands continued to clear, the fourth quarter became more a question of mercy than anything.
History proved too far out of reach, as USC fell just short of its all-time scoring record. But if a smooth start and a shot of confidence was all it was looking for, then it had no issue finding it Saturday.
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