Musings from Arledge: Ugly? What's wrong with ugly?

That was maddening, sometimes inexcusable, and leaves us still carrying all the doubts about Lincoln Riley’s ability to put a good product on the field on the road.

Was I pleased? Oh, yes, very pleased.

It is hard to win on the road in college football. It is especially hard when you’re playing a pretty good opponent in one of the all-time hostile environments. Every week you see teams lose to inferior opponents on the road or struggle and win in ugly fashion. Matt, Reggie, and Pete would sometimes struggle on the road. You don’t only have the Corvallis disasters, but you had games at Arizona State, Oregon, Stanford, and others where USC found itself unexpectedly in a war and had to find a way to pull a rabbit out of the hat.

Style points count at home. Style points don’t matter on the road.

And USC is a team that still needs to learn to win on the road. Last night was ugly, but ugly wins always beat ugly losses. Last night was like a sprinter who wins the 100-meter final with a time of 13.1 because everybody else pulled a hamstring. You can’t really brag about what happened, but you’ll definitely take the medal and move on—especially since USC is a sprinter who has pulled its hamstring in every road game for about three years now. Just finishing in one piece feels pretty good.

And Nebraska, while not great, is not a pushover. The running back is good. The secondary is good. The return man is good. Dylan Raiola is talented and can make plays. And, yes, the longsuffering home crowd is fantastic, especially when the Huskers pull out all the stops to work that big crowd into a frenzy. 

USC beats that Nebraska team by 17 at the Coliseum. But last night’s game wasn’t at the Coliseum. Get in, get a win, get out. That has to be the plan. They did that, and I’ll take it.

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And yet we’re not being honest if we don’t confront the fact that USC makes things far too difficult on themselves. Jayden Maiava was really bad for most of the night. I don’t know if he had an injury issue or if it was just a really off night. But he really struggled throwing the football. And his receivers didn’t help much with the drops. 

So what, exactly, was Lincoln Riley doing? Nebraska struggles to stop the run. And as Riley himself pointed out in the post-game press conference, Nebraska was daring USC to run the ball. They played with a light box almost all night. There were times on first down when Nebraska had only five in the box. Five! And Riley still would consistently go back to the pass anyway—just as Nebraska knew he would. 

For an offensive genius, Lincoln Riley can be pretty dumb sometimes. When a team can’t stop the run, and when they’re not really even trying to stop the run, and when your running back is averaging more than eight yards a carry, you run the $%&$ football! That’s not rocket science. Just about any Pop Warner coach in the country knows that. It takes a certified offensive genius not to know that.

First and ten on the USC 49-yard line. Miller run for 15. First and ten on the Nebraska 36-yard line. Miller run for 13. First and ten on the Nebraska 23-yard line. Miller run for 16. First and goal at the Nebraska 7. Pass. Pass. Pass. Field goal.

That happens far too often with Lincoln Riley teams. 

He’s not alone. I recall sitting in Notre Dame Stadium two weeks ago and wondering why the Notre Dame offensive coordinator kept throwing the ball when all he had to do was hand it to Love or Price every down. His stubborn insistence on “balance” kept that game close. Every pass play was a gift.

It was the same with Lincoln Riley last night.

Fortunately, he figured it out late in the game and stuck with the running game for the most part. Even better, either Riley or Maiava figured out that if you’re going to play with this style of running game, the quarterback must be a threat to keep the ball. If he’s not, the backside edge will kill you. And last night, Maiava became a problem for Nebraska in the running game. Hallelujah! That must continue in future weeks.

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USC’s defense talks too damn much. It’s a constant stream of trash talk from a group that is—let’s tell the truth—way too mediocre to chirp like a 1980’s Miami Hurricanes squad. And DeCarlos Nicholson’s penalty for mouthing off last night could have cost USC the game. I know DeCarlos a little; I like him. And he’s improved a lot this year. He’s been pretty solid for an improving secondary that had major struggles early in the year. So I don’t want to beat him up. But USC’s players have to be smarter than that. Shut your mouth and play football.

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D’Anton Lynn did a nice job last night. USC has struggled against the run this year for reasons I have discussed here and on Inside the Trojans Huddle at length. The edges consistently come too far upfield, the entire front seven struggles to shed blocks, and Desman Stephans really doesn’t know what he’s doing against the run. That migth sound harsh to some of you. It’s not. I worded that last bit carefully because I’m trying to be kind. PFF has Stephans with the lowest run-stopping score in the country among starting linebackers. I don’t know if that’s true—neither does PFF, really—as those scores are directional and not to be taken as gospel. But directionally, you can’t argue with PFF’s conclusion.

The core problem for Stephans has been indecisiveness. He struggles to read the play and therefore doesn’t play downhill. He waits and reads, waits and reads, waits and reads, until an offensive lineman swallows him up four yards from the line of scrimmage. You can’t play inside linebacker like that.

So D’Anton Lynn called quite a few run blitzes for Stephans last night, and it worked. Instead of having him struggle to read the play, fire him into a gap on the snap. Stephans is a good athlete and a solid tackler. By sending him on a run blitz, you take the mental side out of the equation and allow Stephans to play aggressively and make plays. It’s no surprise that Stephans played what was probably his best game as a result. Well done by him and his defensive coordinator.

But at some point, he’s going to have to learn to play that position or somebody else will have to do it for him. That’s just the reality of the situation.

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Lynn also trusted his secondary last night. Early in the year he couldn’t do that; the secondary was about as trustworthy as a Tinder date who asks for your credit card number. But they’ve gotten better every week, and last night in the second half Lynn finally told his back four to cover their guys aggressively so the front seven could concentrate on other things. It was about six quarters too late for my liking, but it was the right call, and it worked.

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USC has had disastrous luck on the offensive line this year. It’s been a constant barrage of injuries and every week seems to have a different combination. USC has had to play a lot of inexperienced guys, and they’ve had to play their experienced guys in different positions every week. That kind of thing almost always leads to bad offensive line play.

So let’s give that group credit. They haven’t been great every week, but they’ve been pretty solid almost every Saturday, and under the circumstances, I’d say the offensive line room has overperformed every other position group on the team. Eight games in, USC has had a quality running game every week but one. And Jayden Maiava has still been sacked less than just about any other quarterback in the country. 

Zach Hanson has done a great job, and the future is really bright upfront. USC has a ton of young talent, and the 2026 recruiting class has some monster offensive line recruits. If Elijah Paige, Tobias Raymond, and Alani Noa all return next year, USC could return one of the best offensive lines in the nation. It’s been a long time since we were able to say something like that.

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That was a very good special teams performance last night, just a week after a special teams disaster ended any real hope of an upset in South Bend.

That punt late in the game was clutch. The kick coverage against a very good return man was excellent. 

And Ryon Sayeri has been phenomenal. This is a young kid who wasn’t supposed to be the starting placekicker. Yet he’s looked like a Lou Groza Award winner every week. His kickoffs are great, and he is money on field goals, no matter the circumstances, no matter the environment. Just a fantastic season from a guy who has become the most reliable player on the team. 

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The road the rest of the way is not easy. Yes, USC should handle Northwestern at the Coliseum, but Northwestern is a physical, gritty football team that has punched above its weight this year. Iowa is good, and they bring a physical style of play that has been a major challenge for USC for some time now. UCLA is a Jekyl-and-Hyde team this year that often looks like the worst team in the country but sometimes plays like a top-25 team. Having watched this rivalry for 40-something years, I know which team to expect at the Coliseum. The Bruins will be ready to play.

All of this is to say that none of the remaining home games are easy. USC will be favored in all of them, and may very well win all of them. But they need to play well, If they do, the Trojans will finish no worse than 9-3, a record that would show real improvement and will no doubt hold together the fantastic recruiting class.

Win a miracle in Eugene, and USC would be on its way to the college football playoff. But, no, I don’t expect a miracle in Eugene. Until USC shows that it can be well prepared and play at a high level on the road, only a fool would predict an upset of a very talented Oregon team in one of college football’s toughest venues. And Oregon brings the physical running game that is Kryptonite for this USC defense. That game has all the makings of a very rough night.

For USC, 9-3 is never the goal. But 9-3 would not be a disaster, and the talent level of the program is rising dramatically. There are lots of things that matter in college football: money, coaching, the schedule. But nothing matters more than having elite talent. USC is putting together a talented roster, and that matters a great deal. If current trends hold, in two years USC will be able to put a roster on the field that should be able to match up physically with Ohio State or Georgia or Alabama. That’s a big deal.

Do I have lingering concerns about Lincoln Riley? Yep. I’m still skeptical of his ability to put a mentally and physically tough football team on the field. I’m still skeptical of his ability to win on the road. I’m still skeptical that he’ll get out of his own way when the other team dares him to run the football. 

But it makes no sense to yell about Lincoln Riley at this point. If his team finishes the season the way I expect they will, there’s not an athletic director in the country who would dismiss him—with or without the huge buyout. He’s our guy for the foreseeable future, and there’s a lot of good taking place in the program. I’m hoping Riley will grow as a head coach, I’m hoping he will continue to attract elite talent, and I’m hoping that getting a road win in a brutal environment like the one last night will give this team confidence and help them perform well in future road contests. 

Remember, Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. USC avoided a devastating loss last night and kept hope alive. Go beat Northwestern Friday and let’s keep it rolling.