Their goals were long gone. Any delusions of grandeur were dashed, done in amid constant fourth-quarter collapses.
Nothing had gone as USC had hoped this season, from the backbreaking late run surrendered in Ann Arbor in September to the blocked field goal in College Park in October to the flu outbreak that swept through the Trojans’ locker room the past week. The setbacks certainly had a way of sapping a team’s spirit. But none of that mattered anymore, USC coach Lincoln Riley assured his team Friday night. All that was left now was the finish. Good programs, he told them, always finished strong.
Lincoln Riley has struggled through his USC tenure, but pro football executives see a path for him to be an NFL head coach or offensive coordinator.
Of course, finishing was the Trojans’ most glaring weakness during Riley’s third season at USC, with the team inventing new, heartbreaking ways to lose close games week after week. The script was mostly penned again ahead of Saturday’s crosstown rivalry game with UCLA as the flu wreaked havoc on the Trojans’ locker room, robbing USC of more than two dozen players for practice. But Riley, himself coughing most of the week, wouldn’t hear it.
“We wake up in the morning, nobody’s sick,†Riley said, as if it were an order. “So, we healed them all, baby.â€
But until late Saturday, when USC (6-5, 4-5 Big Ten) escaped the cold rain of the Rose Bowl with a 19-13 win over UCLA (4-7, 3-6), symptoms that afflicted the team all season lingered. The new quarterback was flailing. A usually strong run game had stalled. Three trips deep into the red zone ended with field goals. Opportunity after opportunity, handed over by UCLA, were squandered.
The finish, though, was still unwritten for the rivals, clinging to hope of a sixth win and bowl eligibility when Riley dared to dial up a trick play midway through the fourth quarter.
The double-pass was added to the playbook late in the week. “We hardly repped it, to be honest,†USC wideout Kyron Hudson said.
But when receiver Makai Lemon caught the lateral from quarterback Jayden Maiava behind the line of scrimmage and looked up, he saw Hudson sprinting open downfield and let it fly, uncorking a perfect 39-yard bomb to hit him in stride.
“It just felt like it was time where we maybe needed a spark,†Riley said of the play call.
The Trojans needed another push to reach the end zone for the first — and only — time Saturday. On the next play, as pressure bore down on Maiava, he tap danced his way through the pocket, slipping past one tackler, then speeding past another. The extra few seconds made all the difference as he spotted sophomore Ja’Kobi Lane in the back of the end zone and fired a dart for the go-ahead score.
It was just the kind of acrobatics that USC had come to expect out of Maiava. In just two games, he has already earned his reputation as a risk-taker, unwilling to flinch in the face of failure. Just a few minutes earlier, Maiava had tried a similar pocket pirouette, only to be brought down for a sack. All game long, he’d oscillated like that between dynamic and erratic, completing just over 50% of his passes for 221 yards and a touchdown.
“Definitely could be a lot better,†Maiava said of his own performance. But Hudson saw it differently.
“I mean, that’s just Jayden being Jayden,†Hudson said.
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1. UCLA’s Devin Kirkwood (3) and Ramon Henderson (11) prevent USC receiver Jacobi Lane from making a catch in the end zone in the first quarter Saturday. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 2. UCLA quarterback Ethan Garbers passes in front of defensive end Braylan Shelby. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 3. UCLA wide receiver Logan Loya, left, prevents USC linebacker Mason Cobb from making an interception. 4. USC wide receiver Kyle Ford can’t make the catch in the end zone as UCLA defensive back Jalin Davies defends. 5. USC coach Lincoln Riley, left, and UCLA coach DeShaun Foster meet on the field after the game. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
And on Saturday, that was enough for USC to clinch bowl eligibility, the only consolation prize left during a disappointing season. For UCLA, the defeat stripped away any last hopes of salvaging the season with a bowl bid.
“We let one slip through our hands,†UCLA coach DeShaun Foster said.
Or, rather, it was slapped out of their hands by a USC defense that shut the door on UCLA with two critical fourth-down stops when it mattered most.
Riley trusted D’Anton Lynn, poaching him from the Bruins with one of the biggest coordinator contracts in all of college football. He earned every penny on Saturday, even as UCLA outgained USC (376 to 346 yards).
“Defensively, we were tremendous,†Riley said. “We just kept swinging.â€
UCLA quarterback Ethan Garbers did everything he could to fight back, throwing for 265 yards and a touchdown as the Bruins seized momentum and held USC scoreless in the third quarter. He completed his first 11 passes of the second half but missed his final four throws.
With five minutes remaining and USC up 16-13, Garbers took his place under center and only needed one yard on fourth down to extend the drive. But as he snapped the ball, a surge of cardinal-and-gold overwhelmed the Bruin front, stopping the quarterback in his tracks.
Garbers and Foster said they felt the official’s whistle blew too early on the quarterback’s forward progress.
“I was looking at the marker,†Garbers said, “and I thought I was past it.â€
“Who knows where we would have ended up,†added Foster.
But after a USC field goal pushed the lead to six points, UCLA got another chance, with two minutes remaining. The Bruins didn’t gain a single yard, as the Trojans’ defense delivered its first true road win of the season.
“We’re able to fight through adversity,†safety Akili Arnold said, “and we don’t flinch.â€
Saturday wasn’t always angling toward a storybook ending. Three consecutive first-half USC drives stalled inside the 5-yard line, doomed by an uninspired bit of red zone play calling. Runs were stuffed. One goal-line fade after another fell incomplete.
New USC starting quarterback Jayden Maiava’s year at UNLV taught him that there was only so much he could control and to be patient.
USC started another drive at its own 48-yard line after UCLA was flagged for three unsportsmanlike conduct penalties just before the half. Still, the Trojans couldn’t make the Bruins pay.
“Excited to get the win despite that,†Riley said. “But we know that’s gonna have to get a whole lot better, too.â€
There is little time left for progress this season. But as Riley explained to his flu-ridden team Friday night, the finish is all that matters now. And Saturday night ended with the Trojans walking away with a bowl bid in hand and the Victory Bell in tow.
UCLA was stopped in USC territory again just before the half, only for tempers to boil over. Pushing and shoving ensued. As the two rivals ran off the field, the two rivals taunted each other on the way to their respective tunnels.
The tussle resulted in three unsportsmanlike conduct penalties on UCLA, giving USC tremendous field position to open the third quarter. But the Trojans were unable to do anything with it, failing to convert on a fourth down near midfield.
UCLA finally took advantage, mounting the game’s first touchdown drive midway through the third quarter. But that’s where its momentum stopped, as the Bruins were forced to hand back the Victory Bell to USC.
Go beyond the scoreboard
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