Fresno State's welcome to the Pac-12 comes in the form of a ranked, deeper, faster USC team that already has a season-opening win in the bank.
USC's opener already went as advertised — a 42-26 win over San Jose State that saw Jayden Maiava look every bit the returning starter Lincoln Riley wanted him to be. Fresno State counters with its own reclamation story at quarterback: Jayden Mandal, the local Buchanan High product who battled a UCL tear, a shoulder cyst and ulnar nerve surgery to get back on the field, has been named the starter and says he feels better than he did before going under the knife.
−Lost starting center O'Connor for the season in camp
−Freshman All-American DT Stewart out this game
−2025 ended on an OT bowl loss to TCU
Both rosters arrive banged up in ways that matter more than the name on the trophy suggests. USC lost starting center Kilian O'Connor for the season to a non-contact leg injury in camp, pushing Tobias Raymond into a new spot up front, and Freshman All-American defensive tackle Jahkeem Stewart is out for this one with a re-injured foot. Fresno State is down its own starting running back and starting left guard for the year. None of it has moved USC off its spot as one of the heaviest favorites on the Week 1 board.
That gap is mostly about level, not injuries. USC enters ranked No. 14 nationally and coming off a 9-4 season that ended in an overtime bowl loss to TCU, while Fresno State — Arizona Bowl champions under Year 2 coach Matt Entz — is making the leap from Mountain West contender to Pac-12 newcomer in the same week. The two programs have met 5 times since the 1990s; USC has won 4, and Fresno State's only victory came 34 years ago in the Freedom Bowl.
There's a layer of symbolism to it, too. Fresno State's arrival in a reconstituted Pac-12 comes against the very program whose departure, along with UCLA's, set off the old conference's collapse in the first place. For Entz's group, walking into the Coliseum and simply competing would be a real building block in a season with a much bigger goal than one nonconference score.
For Riley's group, this is about building on a clean opening week without the disruption a shuffled offensive line can cause against a team that will sell out to make things ugly up front. It sets up as a low-risk, high-ceiling night for USC and a measuring-stick evening for a Fresno State program with bigger things than this scoreline on its mind long-term.
