Maiava throws 3 total TDs, USC beats San José State 42-26
Jayden Maiava was nearly perfect and USC's newcomers scored three touchdowns as the Trojans opened 1-0 over San José State, even as a season-ending injury reshaped the offensive line in the same week.
Riley said this team was built different. The opener made his case.
Lincoln Riley did not hedge coming out of fall camp, and he did not sound like a coach reaching for a line. "I do believe we're more equipped than at any point in the previous few years. That's not a hope or a wish. Those are facts, and there's a lot of facts to back that up," he said, according to 247Sports. The receipts arrived before the opener even kicked off: ESPN slotted Jayden Maiava at No. 9 on its preseason top 100 heading into his second year as the starter, an outside marker that carries more weight than a hype graphic.
Against San José State, Maiava went out and looked like it. He completed 25 of 29 passes for 286 yards and accounted for three total touchdowns — two through the air, one on a QB1 keeper that got USC on the board for the season — an 86-percent day that ABC7 Los Angeles and Bleacher Report both flagged as the headline of the win. That is the kind of clean, efficient afternoon that turns a coach's preseason confidence from a talking point into a receipt.
It came at a real cost, though. Center Killian O'Connor — an Orange County walk-on whom Riley put on scholarship in front of the team last February, the son and grandson of walk-ons himself — broke his leg in a non-contact camp practice and is done for the year, per CBS Sports and SI. Guard Tobias Raymond is sliding over to center in his place. Receiver R. Tezeno, meanwhile, is only questionable with a foot injury, per Covers' injury table, and his status for Fresno State next week remains unresolved.
USC opens 1-0 — dominant for three quarters, sloppy for one
USC led 35-3 heading into the fourth quarter at the Coliseum and cruised to a 42-26 win, but Riley was not interested in pretending the whole afternoon was clean. "Good to get the first one under our belt. But kind of a tale of two games for us," he said. "First three quarters, a lot of really good football out there with all three sides playing complimentary. They dominated the game for three quarters" — before San José State clawed back 23 points once the starters came out.
San José State42-26The newcomers were the story of those first three quarters. Trent Mosley, an Orange County product making his Trojan debut, caught seven passes for 118 yards and a touchdown, and the program's own account tagged first career touchdowns for freshman Kayden Dixon-Wyatt and for Riley Wormley, plus a touchdown in Shahn Alston's USC debut. Riley called the freshman class' showing "pretty damn good," if not flawless — a fair label for a night with a 35-3 lead and a shaky fourth quarter both on the tape.
It closes the book on a 2025 season that ended on the road in a 27-30 loss to TCU, the kind of finish that leaves a program hungry for exactly this — a clean opening script, whatever happened once the lead got comfortable.
USC and Notre Dame are rivals again, starting in 2030
The bigger news of the week for USC fans has nothing to do with San José State. Pete Thamel reported that USC and Notre Dame will renew their rivalry starting in 2030 — a Week 1 game in Los Angeles that year, followed by a Week 1 rematch in South Bend the year after. Pete Nakos confirmed the games will not be played at neutral sites, ending years of speculation about a permanent move away from campus stadiums.
It closes the loop on a story that had been dead for months. Brett McMurphy reported earlier in the offseason that USC had actually walked away from a separate series with Texas Tech — neutral-site games in Houston and Las Vegas that would have pitted Riley against his alma mater — with a source telling him flatly, "It's dead." The Notre Dame news landed the following day and gave USC fans the rivalry restoration they'd been chasing instead.
Next up: the coach who ran USC's linebacker room two years ago
USC hosts Fresno State on a Friday night at the Coliseum, and the visiting sideline has a familiar face on it — Bulldogs coach Matt Entz was USC's linebackers coach in 2024 before taking the Fresno State job, where he went 9-4 in year one after winning two national titles at North Dakota State. Fresno State opens its season 0-0 this week, a year removed from an 18-3 win over Miami in 2025. USC opened favored, with the line set at -22.5 and the total at 51.5 — a middling number for a team that just hung 42 on somebody.
It is a step down in name value from a rivalry renewal or an opener against a ranked club, but it is not a game USC can sleepwalk through, not with a first-year starter at center and a fourth quarter from the opener still fresh on tape. Fight On.