USC and UCLA close out the regular season with the Crosstown Showdown on the line — one program chasing a playoff berth, the other just trying to prove Year 1 wasn't a mirage.
Bush’s Picks
USCUCLA
USCUCLA
OverUnder
Best BetUSC
USC's the pick straight up. The quarterback-coach-coordinator continuity and a backfield that's been running through people all year are too much for a first-year UCLA staff still installing its system. Iamaleava's turnover issues from a season ago are exactly the kind of thing that shows up against a defense getting a talent transfusion under Gary Patterson.
USC
+Maiava back for year 3 in same scheme
+backfield averaged 6.3 yards a carry in 2025
+nation's No. 1 recruiting class
−linebacker room was most inexperienced group last year
−Riley faces real pressure if defense doesn't hold up
UCLA
+energized fanbase under CFP-tested coach Chesney
+brought proven JMU skill talent to rebuild offense
−finished 3-9 overall, 3-6 Big Ten last season
−Iamaleava threw more picks than some stretches showed, sub-2,000 yards
USC brings back Jayden Maiava for a third straight season in the same Lincoln Riley offense, with the same coordinator running it — rare continuity in modern college football — flanked by a Waymond Jordan/King Miller backfield that combined for 6.3 yards a carry in 2025. UCLA counters with Nico Iamaleava, trying to rebuild his stock under brand-new head coach Bob Chesney after a rough 2025 that saw him throw 13 touchdowns against 7 interceptions and barely crack 2,000 passing yards.
Chesney arrives from James Madison, where he took the program to the College Football Playoff, and he didn't come to Westwood empty-handed. Running back Wayne Knight and receiver Landon Ellis followed him from JMU to help rebuild a UCLA offense that finished 3-9 overall and 3-6 in Big Ten play a season ago. It's a full-scale rebuild, and rebuilds don't usually arrive fully formed by a rivalry game in late November.
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USC, meanwhile, is playing with something to lose. Gary Patterson was brought in specifically to fix a defense — and a linebacker room — that was the most inexperienced unit on last year's roster, and Riley has been candid that anything short of 10 wins, or a surprise playoff berth as a 3-loss team, will read as a disappointment in Los Angeles.
USC Trojans
Nov 20?vs Maryland—
Nov 13?@ Indiana—
Oct 30?vs Ohio State—
Oct 9?@ Penn State—
Oct 2?vs Washington—
Sep 25?vs Oregon—
Sep 19?@ Rutgers—
Sep 12?vs Louisiana—
Sep 4?vs Fresno State—
Aug 29?vs San José State—
UCLA Bruins
Nov 20?@ Michigan—
Nov 13?vs Illinois—
Nov 6?@ Minnesota—
Oct 30?vs Nevada—
Oct 16?vs Wisconsin—
Oct 9?@ Oregon—
Sep 25?@ Maryland—
Sep 19?vs Purdue—
Sep 12?vs San Diego State—
Sep 5?@ California—
Recent form.
On paper this isn't close. USC arrives with the nation's No. 1 recruiting class fueling both sides of the ball, plus a portal haul that added defensive back Jontez Williams and defensive lineman Alex VanSumeren to a unit still searching for answers up front. UCLA's turnaround under Chesney is real and the buzz around Westwood has genuinely shifted, but asking a first-year staff to beat a Big Ten heavyweight in a rivalry setting is still a tall order.
USC Trojans
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
UCLA Bruins
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
Records won't tell the whole story here. This is still the Crosstown Showdown, still a game both fan bases circle every year, and for Chesney's Bruins, playing spoiler against a playoff-hopeful USC team would be the loudest possible statement to close out year one.
