Times of Troy: Four reasons to believe in the USC football team this season
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Welcome back to the Times of Troy newsletter, where it turns out hiring a Hall of Fame coach as your defensive coordinator was a pretty sensible strategy!
But before we delve into USC’s extraordinary defensive effort against Fresno State, a note about this newsletter: Starting Sept. 21, Times of Troy will be available to Los Angeles Times subscribers only. A free press isn’t free, and we depend on our readers’ support to do the important stories that make a difference. If you’re already a subscriber, nothing will change. If you’re not, trust me, you won’t want to miss out on what we have planned for this make-or-break season of USC football. You can subscribe to The Times by clicking here.
Friday night’s 39-0 shutout was functionally Gary Patterson’s coronation as defensive coordinator, as his Trojan defense dominated in a way that we haven’t seen at USC since the glory days of Pete Carroll. Fresno State is no juggernaut. But before the Bulldogs’ final drive, USC had only allowed them to gain 56 yards. That’s 1.7 yards per play. Not to mention it forced two safeties … with the same blitz.
If you were looking for reasons to believe in USC this season, there were plenty to pick from Friday night. Here are four from USC’s win over Fresno State that would give me faith if I were a USC fan:
The final sequence for USC’s defense
For the first time all afternoon, Fresno State’s offense managed to move down the field. The Bulldogs had a first down at the nine-yard line and plenty of time to spoil Patterson’s shutout.
But Patterson dialed up a nickel blitz — the same play from USC’s pair of earlier safeties — and Isaiah Rubin came flying out of the slot to hit the quarterback in the backfield. On third down, freshman Tomuhini Topui barreled into the backfield to force an incompletion. And then, on fourth down, a four-man rush absolutely rolled through the Fresno State front. Jadyn Ramos ends up with the sack. But it could have been any number of guys.
What stood out through that sequence was how much it mattered for USC to finish the shutout for Patterson. Lincoln Riley said after the game that the focus this week for the defense was trust — in the scheme, in Patterson, in each other. And Friday felt like a defense figuring it out in real time.
The two safeties
Just 16 times in the history of college football has a game featured two safeties from one team. And I would highly doubt that it’s ever been done with the same blitz call for both.
But that’s what happened in the second and third quarters Friday. With Fresno State backed up against their own end zone, Patterson didn’t sit back and play for the punt. He attacked with an unexpected nickel blitz from Kennedy Urlacher. Even more diabolically, he did it again a quarter later with Alex Graham.
“Coach knows what to call in certain situations,” Urlacher said.
That was certainly clear Friday. But there was another part of those safeties that’s been overlooked. The initial pressure on both plays came from the interior, where defensive tackle Jide Abasiri was totally unblockable most of the night. That was especially the case on the safeties, as Abasiri burst through the middle like a freight train, forcing Fresno State quarterback Jayden Mandal out of the pocket … and right into the blitz.
Abasiri was in for 11 pass-rush snaps on Friday, and he registered six pressures. That’s an insane pressure rate. The Trojan defensive tackle seems bound for a breakout season, and his arrival could really separate this defensive line as an upper tier group in the Big Ten. Especially if he and Jahkeem Stewart are able to line up next to each other on obvious passing downs.
The early fourth-down conversion to freshman Kayden Dixon-Wyatt
Nine plays into USC’s opening drive, Riley decided to go for it on fourth down. Immediately, Fresno State forced him to step up into the pocket. And he calmly let it fly down the right sideline, where Dixon-Wyatt was waiting with his arms raised to reel in a tremendous catch while falling backward.
Dixon-Wyatt finished with 102 receiving yards and while his fellow freshman receiver is getting most of the flowers, Dixon-Wyatt has been really impressive. If he continues on this trajectory, USC won’t be able to take him off the field.
To have two true freshmen where that’s the case is basically unheard of. And a good sign for USC’s offense.
Trent Mosley’s 68-yard touchdown
It boggles the mind that anyone would allow Mosley to run as open as he did on this play, as he zoomed in front of the Fresno State safety on a slot post route in the second quarter.
It was actually one of Jayden Maiava’s worst throws of the day, mostly, I think, because he was so surprised by how open Mosley was at that moment. But the freshman came back to the underthrown ball and made magic happen.
“It was very impressive, but it was not unexpected,” wideout Corey Simms said. “Trent, he does Trent stuff.”
That’s not the sort of thing you hear often about a freshman. Soon enough, we’ll see defenses keying on Mosley specifically. But that should only open things up for USC’s other weapons.
One potential cause for concern…
USC’s offensive line needs to create more room in the run game. After starting a bit slow in that department against San Jose State, the Trojans averaged just 3.8 yards per carry against Fresno State. And 84% of those yards came after contact, according to Pro Football Focus. Waymond Jordan, who led USC in rushing, appeared to have defenders in his face on every carry, and the numbers — 5.27 of his 6.1 yards per carry came after contact — suggest that’s basically true.
That won’t be good enough against defenses like Oregon, Ohio State or Indiana, each of whom ranked in the top 25 against the run in 2025 (and could be better this year). And if USC can’t run the ball, it puts a lot of pressure on Maiava to make things happen.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: USC’s best route to the College Football Playoff is with the run game firing on all cylinders.
Olympic sports spotlight
USC women’s soccer was up, 2-1, and mere minutes from upsetting No. 1 Stanford on Thursday night, when the Cardinal redirected a late cross into the back of the net in the 87th minute.
To that point, freshman goalie Josie Biehl was in the midst of a career performance, having made seven saves. The goal ended the Trojans’ hopes of a huge win, but the draw was still an important result for USC, considering how this season has gone. The points were the first Stanford has dropped all year.
Before that result, USC was shut out by Saint Mary’s and Brigham Young, while scoring just one goal against Pepperdine and Duke. The Trojans offense got going a bit more in this one. But a 1-3-2 open is surely not where USC hoped to be entering Big Ten play. At least the Trojans have a couple weeks in the friendly confines of Rawlinson Stadium ahead. No. 4 Michigan State awaits this Thursday.
This week … in 2006
The 2006 season was a fascinating one for USC, which was coming off a national title loss to Texas, their first in over two years . Everything was changing. Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush and LenDale White were out. What would USC and Pete Carroll look like without his biggest stars?
That was two decades ago. But in this newsletter over the course of this season, we’ll relive that campaign one week at a time. If you have any memories of that season, in particular, that you think warrant mentioning here, feel free to email me at ryan.kartje@latimes.com.
When John David Booty graduated high school early and enrolled at USC, his path was not a common one. In fact, he’s widely believed to be the first one ever to do it.
But Booty ended up waiting his turn, anyway, sitting out in 2003, 2004 and 2005 before finally getting his shot as the starter in 2006. And in USC’s first game, against Arkansas, he didn’t disappoint. Booty finished 24 of 35 for 261 yards and three touchdowns as USC routed Arkansas in Fayetteville, 50-14.
“God blessed that boy to be a quarterback,” tackle Sam Baker said that day.
Ranked sixth to start the season, after the game, USC moved up to fourth in the AP poll.
What I’m watching this week
The first season of “Adults” on FX came out just as every network seemed to have a coming-of-age Gen Z comedy in the works. It got lost amid the shuffle at the time, but I was a fan, especially of Jack Innanen, who plays the character Paul Baker, and was excited to see that the network chose to give it another go.
Well, what I’ve seen so far suggests it was very much worth the swing. Season 2 capitalizes on everything the show did well in its debut while taking things up even another notch. There aren’t many good new comedies bursting onto the scene these days, but this is a worthwhile one to binge.
In case you missed it
No. 14 USC dominates Fresno State with ruthless defense, efficient offense in shutout
Ex-USC quarterback Mark Sanchez plans to plead guilty in connection to fight with truck driver
Lincoln Riley defends USC amid criticism of season opener crowd
Plaschke: Ignore the out-of-town trolls. Los Angeles sports fans are the nation’s best
Until next time ...
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at ryan.kartje@latimes.com, and follow me on X at @Ryan_Kartje. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
