Riley calls this USC team 'more equipped' entering opener
Lincoln Riley says his fifth USC team is built different heading into a lopsided opener against San José State, with a No. 9 preseason nod for Jayden Maiava and the Notre Dame series set to return in 2030.
Riley: this team is built different
Lincoln Riley did not hedge coming out of fall camp. "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, pointing to a new team facility he called a daily advantage in recovery and preparation. He also singled out a name to watch: "I think Desman Stephens has made one of the biggest jumps as a player. He has been really, really good. I think he's really taken to coach Patterson's scheme."
Top 🔟 on ESPN Jayden Maiava at no.9 on espn top 100 college football preseason rankings 💯📈 🔗 t.co/Xiv0MmAxDL t.co/9wiiBLWx3A
The program's own account backed that up with a number: ESPN slotted Jayden Maiava at No. 9 on its preseason top 100 heading into his second year as the starter. It is the kind of external marker that means more than a countdown graphic, and it lands the same week Covers' injury table shows the cost of camp too — projected starting center Killian O'Connor is out for the season with a broken leg, an undisclosed injury that Riley has already ruled season-ending, while receiver R. Tezeno is questionable with a foot injury and his status for San José State remained unresolved as of the report.
Last season ended on the road, and it ended in a loss
USC closed last season on a 27-30 loss to TCU, a finish that came after wins over Northwestern (38-17) and Iowa (26-21) at home and a road blowout loss to Oregon (27-42) sandwiched around a home win over UCLA (29-10). It was a season that had real peaks — the Iowa and Northwestern results were exactly the kind of Big Ten grind Riley's program needed to show it could handle — but it ended with the Trojans on the wrong side of a shootout in Fort Worth.
That is the form this team carries into 2026, for whatever a bowl loss from December is worth against a season opener in August. Riley is 9-0 as USC's head coach in openers, most recently a 73-13 rout of Missouri State, and the Trojans have beaten San José State every time the two have met — six times, all at the Coliseum, most recently 56-28 in 2023.
USC-Notre Dame is coming back
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.
Spartans arrive as 38.5-point underdogs, with a new QB and a new attitude
San José State went 3-9 last season, its worst finish since 2018, and lost 18 players to the transfer portal over the winter — including leading receiver Danny Scudero, who left for Colorado. Coach Ken Niumatalolo was blunt about what his team is walking into: "They got really good players, smart coaches. That's a bad combination for us as an opponent." He added, "We're fighters. We're San Jose State, we're fighters... if we play our best and they play their best, they probably will win. But football's just hard. There's just one game."
The Spartans do have a new answer at quarterback in Hawaii transfer Luke Weaver, who won a three-way camp competition and threw a game-winning touchdown in a bowl game last season. Offensive coordinator Craig Stutzmann calls him "cool-hand Luke — he doesn't get too high, he doesn't get too low," which will be tested against a Coliseum crowd; Weaver himself said this week the staff has been "practicing on noise, so just keep working on being effective communicators." The line opened with USC favored by 38.5 and the total set at 60.5, a number that reads high-scoring against a Spartans defense replacing several starters.