Tag: Southern California

Jeremy Payne’s OT jaunt lifts TCU past No. 16 USC in Alamo Bowl

Posted on | by Field Level Media

Jeremy Payne broke two tackles on his way to the game-winning touchdown and TCU shocked Southern California 30-27 in overtime to win the Alamo Bowl in dramatic fashion Tuesday in San Antonio.

TCU faced third-and-20 and needed at least a field goal to match USC and force a second overtime. Ken Seals threw a checkdown to the running back Payne, who made multiple Trojans miss while remaining inbounds along the left sideline and then sprinting to the end zone.

“We’re trying to figure out if (we’re) about to kick a field goal,” TCU coach Sonny Dykes said in the postgame TV interview. “He makes about four guys miss. You got to give our guys credit. So proud of this group, they hung in there. It didn’t look great. Jeremy made plays, Ken made plays. Defense kept us in the game.”

The unlikely play capped a comeback from a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit for TCU (9-4).

Payne finished with 73 rushing yards and one touchdown along with six receptions for 50 yards and the winning score. Seals, who got the start after quarterback Josh Hoover opted out in anticipation of entering the transfer portal, finished 29-for-40 for 258 yards, the one TD and one interception.

“He’s going to be a Fort Worth legend,” Dykes said of Seals, a former starter at Vanderbilt who backed up Hoover for two years. “Never buy a drink in Fort Worth the rest of his life. He’s a great college football story. Just persevered, hung in there, and then he got his time. He got his time, he got his chance, he made the most of it and he was ready.”

Jayden Maiava completed 18 of 30 passes for 280 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions for USC (9-4). King Miller rushed for 99 yards and a touchdown but was stuffed twice from the 2-yard line during overtime, leading the Trojans to settle for Ryon Sayeri’s fourth field goal of the night. Tanook Hines caught six passes for 163 yards.

Jaden Richardson made a highlight-reel play to put the Trojans ahead in the final minute of the third quarter. A backup wide receiver with 11 receptions in two seasons for USC, he leapt and leaned back with his right arm outstretched to pluck Maiava’s 21-yard pass out of the air. Richardson tapped one foot in bounds on his way down for his first FBS touchdown.

The two-point conversion, a pass to Taniela Tupou, was successful to give the Trojans a 21-14 lead. Sayeri converted from 41 yards out for a 10-point cushion with 9:37 to play.

The Horned Frogs answered with a 75-yard drive culminating in Payne’s 5-yard touchdown run with 4:24 left. TCU forced a USC three-and-out and used the remaining 2:44 to set up Kyle Lemmermann’s 27-yard field goal to force overtime.

Freshman running back Jon Denman rumbled in from the 5-yard line to put TCU up 7-3 early in the second quarter. The drive was arranged by Jamel Johnson’s fifth interception of the season.

USC answered quickly. Miller had a 24-yard rush across midfield before ending the drive with a 2-yard score.

TCU wideout Major Everhart converted a fourth-and-2 in the red zone, nearly scoring a touchdown on an 11-yard jet sweep, and Seals cashed in on a 1-yard keeper on the next play to make it 14-10 with 4:58 left in the half.

Sayeri cut the margin to 14-13 with his 28-yarder just before halftime.

Christian Pierce intercepted Seals during the first minute of the second half and USC drove to the TCU 7, but Maiava underthrew a pass to the end zone that Channing Canada picked off.

–Field Level Media

Reports: Penn State hiring USC DC D’Anton Lynn

Posted on | by Field Level Media

Penn State is finalizing a deal with Southern California defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn for the same position, multiple outlets reported Monday.

Lynn, 36, played cornerback for the Nittany Lions from 2008-11 and is joining new head coach Matt Campbell’s staff after two seasons with the Trojans.

Campbell’s longtime defensive coordinator at Iowa State, Jon Heacock, recently announced his retirement.

Lynn coached in the NFL for nearly a decade before moving to the college ranks as the UCLA defensive coordinator in 2023. The Bruins improved from 90th in scoring defense to 14th under his watch.

At USC, he took over a defense that finished 121st in scoring defense and finished 56th in 2024 and 48th in 2025.

He coached the safeties for the Baltimore Ravens from 2021-22 and coached the secondary of the Houston Texans from 2018-20. He was a defensive assistant with the Los Angeles Chargers (2017) and Buffalo Bills (2015-16).

Former Penn State head coach James Franklin made overtures to hire Lynn last offseason but he opted to sign an extension with Southern Cal.

–Field Level Media

No. 16 USC to test depth vs. TCU in Alamo Bowl

Posted on | by Field Level Media

No. 16 Southern California fell short of the College Football Playoff and had a handful of key players opt out of its Alamo Bowl matchup against TCU on Tuesday in San Antonio.

But to coach Lincoln Riley, much of the benefit of bowl season is derived from getting in work for younger players in advance of next season.

“I think in some instances there’ll be some guys that get some burn in this game that maybe haven’t played at all or very, very little,” Riley told reporters earlier this month.

“I mean, honestly, the games, the bowl game is great, and they’re great experiences. If you said, though, what’s the most valuable part of all of this, it’s days like this where we’re just pouring reps into all of these guys. The energy’s just different because all these guys kind of feel like it’s their time.”

The greatest example of that for the Trojans (9-3) could be their pass catchers. Wide receivers Makai Lemon and Ja’Kobi Lane are opting out to focus on NFL draft preparation, and tight end Lake McRee is not expected to play in the Alamo Bowl either. They comprise USC’s top three receivers, who combined for more than 2,300 yards and 19 touchdowns.

That opens a door for freshman receiver Tanook Hines, who’ll be playing in his home state and who caught 28 passes for 398 yards and two TDs this year.

Hines and his teammates will have quarterback Jayden Maiava (3,431 yards, 23 TDs, eight interceptions) still running the show.

“Remarkable player,” Maiava said of Hines, per 247Sports. “Sky’s the limit for him. Super excited, and he knows I trust him out there.”

USC was in the CFP mix late into the season and won four of its last five games, but a 42-27 loss at Oregon on Nov. 22 essentially eliminated the Trojans from contention.

This will be USC’s first-ever trip to the Alamo Bowl, where TCU (8-4) will have a home-state advantage. The Horned Frogs won the Alamo Bowl in the 2015 and 2017 seasons under then-coach Gary Patterson.

Now Sonny Dykes is in charge and has coached TCU to its third eight-win season in four years. He spoke at length about wanting his players to value every game in front of them, whether it’s the national championship game, a regular-season affair or the Alamo Bowl.

“We have a tremendous culture, and again, I think it revealed itself at the end of the year, in the fact that our guys played so hard down the stretch and it meant something to them,” Dykes said of a team that finished the regular season with wins over then-No. 23 Houston and Cincinnati.

That didn’t keep starting quarterback Josh Hoover from entering the transfer portal and skipping the Alamo Bowl. Former Vanderbilt starter Ken Seals, who’s been TCU’s backup the past two seasons, is getting the nod.

“Ken started 22 games in the SEC,” Dykes said. “He’s been a great teammate, a great practice player. Now he’s going to get a chance to go perform on the big stage. He’s excited about it, our team believes in him, and we’ve moving on quickly.”

TCU’s other opt-outs and transfers are minimal. Safety Jamel Johnson (89 tackles, four interceptions), echoing USC’s coach, spoke about how bowls can help a program.

“It feeds into next year. We want to leave this place better than how we found it,” Johnson told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “It was us coming together one more time. It’s just a blessing and something we wanted to do.”

–Field Level Media

Southern California RB Eli Sanders entering NFL draft

Posted on | by Field Level Media

Southern California running back Eli Sanders declared for the 2026 NFL Draft on Thursday.

“This is just the beginning of the next chapter, and I can’t wait to see where it goes from here,” he posted on X.

He rushed for 264 yards and two touchdowns in six games for the Trojans this season before sustaining a season-ending knee injury in a 31-13 win against Michigan on Oct. 11.

It was the redshirt senior’s first season at USC following one season at New Mexico (2024) and three at Iowa State (2021-23).

Sanders rushed for 2,030 yards and 15 touchdowns and caught 38 passes for 395 yards and two scores in 39 career games.

–Field Level Media

Notre Dame, BYU to meet next two seasons; USC off Irish slate

Posted on | by Field Level Media

Notre Dame and BYU were the first two teams on the outside of the College Football Playoff this season, and the programs are beefing up their nonconference schedules for the next two seasons by playing one another.

Both schools announced the series Monday that will see the first game played in Provo, Utah next season and the latter in South Bend, Ind., in 2027.

Notre Dame finished 11th in the CFP rankings this season and BYU was No. 12. Miami, at No. 10, was the last at-large team to make the 12-team field.

“We are excited to announce this home-and-home series between BYU and Notre Dame for the 2026 and 2027 seasons,” BYU athletic director Brian Santiago said in a news release. “We have tremendous respect for Notre Dame. … These will be competitive football games, and will highlight coaches Kalani Sitake (BYU) and Marcus Freeman (Notre Dame), two of the best leaders and coaches in college football.”

The game in Provo completes Notre Dame’s 2026 schedule, and knocks longtime rival Southern California off the schedule. Notre Dame and USC have played every season since 1946, except when the 2020 game was cancelled due to COVID-19.

The two teams were slated to play in 2026 in Los Angeles but that contest is now off and the series is indefinitely halted.

“USC and Notre Dame recognize how special our rivalry is to our fans, our teams, and college football, and our institutions will continue working towards bringing back The Battle for the Jeweled Shillelagh,” Notre Dame and USC said in a joint statement. “The rivalry between our two schools is one of the best in all of sports, and we look forward to meeting again in the future.”

According to reports, USC has expressed it no longer wants to host Notre Dame in late November and would prefer the game be played earlier in the season. Games in the series at Notre Dame typically are played in October.

Also, USC now plays in the Big Ten and makes multiple trips to the Midwest or East and is concerned about having another long trip every other season.

Notre Dame and BYU have played nine times with the Fighting Irish prevailing seven times. The most recent contest came in 2022 when Notre Dame beat the Cougars 28-20 in Las Vegas.

The teams have split two meetings in Provo, while the Irish are 5-1 against the Cougars in South Bend.

The addition of Notre Dame completes BYU’s schedules for the 2026 and 2027 seasons.

Notre Dame (10-2) opted not to play in a bowl game after being passed over for the postseason. BYU (11-2) will face Georgia Tech (9-3) in the Pop-Tarts Bowl in Orlando on Dec. 27.

–Field Level Media

USC QB Jayden Maiava returning to Trojans in 2026

Posted on | by Field Level Media

After leading the Big Ten Conference with 3,431 passing yards through the regular-season schedule, Southern California quarterback Jayden Maiava committed Tuesday to returning to the Trojans program in 2026.

Maiava completed 66.2% of his passes with 23 touchdowns against eight interceptions while leading USC to a 9-3 record. The Trojans are set to face TCU in the Dec. 30 Alamo Bowl at San Antonio, Texas.

In two seasons at USC, Maiava has completed 64.2 percent of his passes for 4,632 yards and 34 touchdowns with 14 interceptions. The Hawaii native, who started his college career at UNLV in 2023, took over as USC’s starting quarterback late last season.

While the Trojans are set to lose a pair of the nation’s top wide receivers in Makai Lemon and Ja’Kobi Lane to the NFL draft, the program will return wideouts Tanook Hines and Zacharyus Williams, along with running back Waymond Jordan.

–Field Level Media

USC TE Lake McRee to bypass final year of eligibility

Posted on | by Field Level Media

Southern California tight end Lake McRee elected to bypass his final season of college eligibility and declared Thursday for the 2026 NFL Draft.

The 6-foot-4, 250-pound native of Austin, Texas, was the third leading receiver for the Trojans this season, behind wide receivers Makai Lemon and Ja’kobi Lane. A redshirt senior, McRee had 30 receptions for 450 yards and four touchdowns.

“… Every moment — good and bad — has shaped who I am today,” McRee said in his announcement to declare for the draft that was posted on X. “The brotherhood in this program, the standard of excellence, and the belief we have in one another have pushed me to grow as both a player and a person.”

In 51 career games for the Trojans, he had 97 receptions for 1,154 yards and seven TDs.

Earlier this month, ESPN draft prognosticator Mel Kiper Jr. rated McRee the fifth best tight end potentially available.

USC (9-3) is scheduled to face TCU (8-4) in the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 30. It is not known if McRee will play in the game.

–Field Level Media

No. 17 USC rallies in second half, upends rival UCLA

Posted on | by Field Level Media

Jayden Maiava threw both of his touchdown passes in the second half to spearhead No. 17 Southern California’s 29-10 comeback win over visiting rival UCLA on Saturday in Los Angeles.

With two stalled drives ending in missed field goals, USC (9-3, 7-2 Big Ten Conference) went to halftime trailing 10-7 against its crosstown counterpart UCLA (3-9, 3-6).

After four straight possessions without scoring, following an initial possession in which King Miller carried for a 5-yard score, the Trojans finally broke through just before the end of the third quarter. Maiava found Makai Lemon for the only time in the contest, but on their 11th touchdown connection of the season, on a 32-yard bomb for a 14-10 USC lead.

USC, which has won four of its last five, struck again on its next possession when Maiava hit Lake McRee on a goal-line touchdown that pushed its lead to 21-10.

UCLA, which scored on a pair of lengthy time-consuming drives in the second quarter, saw its second-half possessions end in three consecutive punts and a turnover on downs before another turnover on downs effectively sealed the USC win.

The Bruins’ scoring drives went 7:50 in 13 plays and 79 yards, culminating in Nicol Iamaleava’s 2-yard touchdown pass to Kwazi Gilmer, and 60 yards in 13 plays over 5:24 before Mateen Baghani’s 38-yard field goal just before intermission.

UCLA had a pair of drives in the second half that ate up more than seven minutes of clock, including its last-gasp effort to rally after USC pulled ahead by two scores, but Braylan Shelby’s late sack of Iamaleava put the Bruins in a hole they could not escape.

Miller added the exclamation point on USC’s ensuing possession, breaking off a 41-yard scoring rush to cap his 17-carry, 124-yard game. Maiava finished the night 21-of-29 passing for 257 yards.

Iamaleava completed 27 of 38 passes for 200 yards, with Gilmer catching 11 targets for 94 yards. Jalen Berger rushed seven times for 57 yards in the loss, UCLA’s fifth straight. The Bruin bookended a three-game winning streak with a pair of long skids, including an 0-4 start.

–Field Level Media

No. 7 Oregon outguns No. 15 USC to stay on track for CFP spot

Posted on | by Field Level Media

No. 7 Oregon had enough offense to outlast No. 15 USC for a 42-27 Big Ten victory on Saturday afternoon in Eugene, Ore., as the Ducks overcame the most penalty yards against them in two years to stay on track for a College Football Playoff spot.

Oregon (10-1, 7-1 Big Ten) got a pair of touchdown catches from tight end Kenyon Sadiq, intercepted USC quarterback Jayden Maiava twice and held Trojans star wide receiver Makai Lemon to 34 receiving yards — though Lemon had two touchdown catches.

The Ducks’ Dante Moore completed 22 of 30 passes for 257 yards and two touchdowns with one interception. Maiava finished 25 of 43 for 306 yards with three touchdowns for the Trojans (8-3, 6-2).

Both teams scored touchdowns on trick plays. Lemon threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Tanook Hines in the second quarter to tie the game at 14. Ducks linebacker Bryce Boettcher responded with a 1-yard touchdown run with 1:52 to go until halftime to give Oregon a 28-14 lead at the break.

Boettcher, a Eugene native, defensive starter and a key player on Oregon’s baseball team, played in his final regular-season game at Autzen Stadium.

Points were plentiful as Oregon penalties helped USC sustain drives. Early in the fourth quarter, back-to-back pass interference calls against the Ducks helped USC’s touchdown drive. Maiava found Lake McRee for a nine-yard touchdown pass to make it 35-27 with 11:32 left to play.

But Oregon responded, as it did much of the afternoon after the Trojans tied the game or got within one score. Moore engineered an 11-play, 79-yard drive that ended in Noah Whittington’s nine-yard touchdown run with 5:30 to play.

Whittington carried 19 times for 104 yards as Oregon defeated USC for the sixth time in the past seven meetings. The Ducks ended the day with 11 penalties for 130 yards.

USC got the ball down 42-27 and converted a fourth-and-8 to stay alive as Maiava was chased out of the pocket and completed a deep ball to Ja’Kobi Lane for 32 yards. But when the Trojans faced another fourth down on the same drive, the Ducks got the stop they needed to seal victory when Maiava threw behind Lemon incomplete.

Hines had six catches for 141 yards for USC. The Trojans were held to 52 rushing yards as a team.

–Field Level Media

No. 17 USC honing in on latest big opportunity vs. No. 21 Iowa

Posted on | by Field Level Media

No. 17 Southern California will be out to keep a narrow focus on No. 21 Iowa this Saturday in Los Angeles, knowing that a victory will continue to make the bigger picture come to life.

The Trojans (7-2, 5-1 Big Ten) will need some help to get into the Big Ten championship game, but by winning their last three games — against Iowa, Oregon and UCLA — a spot in the College Football Playoff might be there for the taking.

Overlooking the Hawkeyes, though, with a date against Oregon next, would ruin future plans.

Since falling 34-24 at Notre Dame on Oct. 18, USC got back into Big Ten play with victories over Nebraska on Nov. 1 and Northwestern at home Friday when the Trojans pulled away in the second half for a 38-17 victory.

Jayden Maiava completed 24 of 33 passes for 299 yards and two touchdowns, while wide receiver Makai Lemon had 11 receptions for 161 yards and a touchdown, as well as a rushing TD. Walk-on running back King Miller gained 127 yards with a TD.

USC’s defense recovered a pair of fumbles and gave up just 28 rushing yards in the second half while allowing three points over the final two quarters.

“We know the more we win, the bigger these opportunities get,” USC head coach Lincoln Riley said. “We’ve got some big ones coming up that are big because we’ve made them big. And so I think for the team, just making sure they understand that, they understand how hard it is to get to this point in any year, where you have in front of us what we do.”

If Ohio State and Indiana win out, those teams will meet in the Big Ten title game. But if USC wins out and Ohio State falls to rival Michigan, the Trojans would board a flight for Indianapolis next month. That is just one outside scenario that would help USC down the stretch.

The Hawkeyes (6-3, 4-2) dropped an 18-16 heartbreaker at home to No. 9 Oregon on Saturday. All three of their losses this season have come to ranked teams, as they fell to Iowa State on Sept. 6 and lost to current CFP No. 2 Indiana 20-15 three weeks later.

Iowa took a 16-15 lead over Oregon with less than two minutes remaining after a 3-yard touchdown run from Mark Gronowski off a quarterback draw, but the Ducks got a 39-yard field goal from Atticus Sappington with three seconds left.

“We came up a little short, but proud of our team’s effort and the way we competed certainly,” Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said. “Tough loss. A lot of little things that we’re going to have to figure out, do a little bit better at, but the most important thing for our team is they understand there’s a lot to be proud of.”

For the Hawkeyes to have a chance in their second-ever conference visit to the L.A. area (they lost 20-17 at UCLA last season), they likely will have to lean into a defense that is third in the Big Ten with 13.7 points allowed per game. USC leads the conference with 503.2 yards gained on offense per game.

–Field Level Media