USC and UCLA are leading an L.A. takeover of the Big Ten
JuJu Watkins sprinted to the corner of UCLA's Pauley Pavilion after checking out of Saturday's game for the final time. The normally stone-faced USC women's basketball star pointed both arms toward the crowd and barked out a few words. Moments before, she had dapped up Hall of Famer Cheryl Miller, who was sitting courtside and gave Watkins a smack on the behind.
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Miami Herald
2 hours ago
- Miami Herald
USC Defense Preview 2025: The Improved Trojans D Should Be Even Better
The USC defense gets criticized a bit too much, and it needs to be better, but it wasn't totally didn't get into the backfield enough, and it was last in the Big Ten in takeaways, but overall, the defense was far, far better than it was in 2023 when it gave up 447 Trojans gave up 313 points - the fewest in a full season since 2013 - and allowed more than 30 against Notre Dame, Penn State, and Texas A&M. But to be even better, it starts with … X CFN, Fiu | CFN Facebook | Bluesky Fiu, CFN2025 USC PreviewUSC Offense Breakdown Season Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season- The pass rush. It has to be better and more consistent, but it gets back leading sacker Braylan Shelby - he only came up with three sacks - to go along with fantastic-looking sophomore Kameryn Fountain on on side. Anthony Lucas is back after missing half of the season hurt, but he'll have to hold off top prospect Jahkeem tackles are even better than the good end situation. Getting Keeshawn Silver (Kentucky) and Jamaal Jarrett (Georgia) loads up the interior, with Devan Thompkins and Jide Abrasiri good enough to start, depending on the alignment. - The linebackers should be one of the team's biggest strengths, even with the top two tacklers Easton Mascarenas-Arnold and Mason Cobb done. Eric Gentry is back after missing most of last season hurt, and now the stats will come. Desman Stephens got a little bit of work in as a freshman - he's too good to keep off the field. - It's a stronger USC defense up front, and the secondary should measure up. Kamari Ramsey is still the best player on the defense, and among the top safeties in the Big Ten, and the rest of the defensive backs got an upgrade thanks to the two new Harvey (San Jose State) was a big corner signing coming off a 58-tackle, four-pick, seven tackle for loss season. Bishop Fitzgerald (NC State) was a monster safety over the last two years and should be a playmaker all over the field. Season Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season2025 USC PreviewUSC Offense Breakdown © 2025 The Arena Group Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
Miami Herald
2 hours ago
- Miami Herald
USC Football Preview 2025: Lincoln Riley On the Hot Seat? Be Careful What You Wish For
Make sure you take a giant deep breath on this one, everyone, as you're busy fanning the flames under the hot Lincoln Riley. He'll only be 42 when the season starts, and there are decades of football coaching ahead for the guy who took Oklahoma to four straight conference championships with four straight College Football Playoff appearances, and he went 10-2 in his final season before leaving for USC.(By the way, Oklahoma is 22-17 with two losing seasons in the last three since Riley left.) X CFN, Fiu | CFN Facebook | Bluesky Fiu, CFN USC Offense BreakdownUSC Defense BreakdownSeason Prediction, Win Total, Keys to SeasonCompletely lost in the fog of hysteria by those who expected a national title run in Year Two at USC, and absolutely in Year Three, was that Riley went 11-3 in his first season after taking over a floundering 4-8 blew off the offensive pop and ripped on the defense. And then, last year, his Trojan D allowed 134 fewer points than the 2023 version. That didn't seem to matter because the team kept losing in brutally painful fashion. No, it wasn't okay to go 6-6 in USC's first year in the Big Ten - seriously, I have no skin in this game as the apparent leader of the Lincoln Riley PR Club - but it opened with a win over LSU, closed with a Las Vegas Bowl win over Texas A&M, and five of the six losses were by one score. In the other defeat, USC was about to go in and tie Notre Dame late, and then came the two monster pick-sixes by the Irish to screw that lost to Michigan with 37 seconds to play. It gave up the game-winning score to Minnesota with 57 seconds left, and to Maryland with 53 seconds to go. It lost to Penn State in a wild overtime firefight, and came up just short at Washington. As it turned out, Notre Dame and Penn State were pretty good - they played each other in the College Football Playoff semifinals - and those other four losses were the four games played outside of Los Angeles and Las yeah, yeah, but it's USC. Most of those losses shouldn't have been that close to begin with. And yes, it's Lincoln Riley. His first year was fantastic, but going 15-11 over the last two years wasn't okay. And this is where cooler, critical minds have to try to calm everyone down going into this supposedly do-or-die season for the Riley has a funky way of hiring great coaches who leave, and then do big things somewhere Kiffin might be the best football coach going - seriously, what he did at Florida Atlantic, and what he's doing at Ole Miss, is next to was handed USC when it was deep in a coma after the ridiculous punishment for Reggie Bush doing NIL before it was cool. The expectations were high with a huge 10-2 season, the program had to rebuild, and he got is now 44-18 at Ole Miss, after winning two conference titles with two 11-win seasons in three years at FAU. Ed Orgeron went 6-2 with USC in 2013 when Kiffin was launched. Okay, so his time in Baton Rouge imploded in the end, but his 2019 LSU team had, arguably, the greatest season in college football Sarkisian's situation was far different, and there were far more important personal issues when he departed USC, but ultimately, he became the one who made Texas a national championship power again. He won 25 games in his first three years in Austin - one fewer than Riley has won so far at USC. Pete Carroll didn't win a national title until his fourth season, John McKay started 8-11-1, and …USC has the talent and the schedule - even with road games at Notre Dame, Oregon, Illinois, and Nebraska - to have a breakthrough season as a Big Ten program. So yes, USC needs to win more now for Lincoln Riley to stick around. At the very least, it has to look like he's close to making USC into USC again, and it starts with getting more out of the … USC Offense BreakdownUSC Defense BreakdownSeason Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season © 2025 The Arena Group Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
Miami Herald
2 hours ago
- Miami Herald
USC Football Preview 2025: Trojans Season Prediction, Win Total Projection, Top Players
USC Trojans Key to the Season Generate more defensive hard to complain too much, considering the 2024 Trojan defense was the best in the Lincoln Riley era, but the pass rush was lacking, and the tackles for loss weren't there at 2023 Trojans generated 85 tackles for loss, and last year's bunch came up with 53. This year's bunch has the talent to crank up a whole lot more. USC Trojans Key Player Caden Chittenden, PK were several reasons USC lost five games by one score, but out of the seven missed field goals on the season, four came in those losses, including two decided by three points or wasn't perfect, but he earned All-Mountain West honors, hitting 26-of-33 field goals for UNLV. He might not be in the comfort of Allegiant Stadium anymore, but he has the leg to hit from beyond 40 on a regular basis. 2025 USC PreviewUSC Offense BreakdownUSC Defense Breakdown USC Trojans Top Transfer, Biggest Transfer Loss Top Transfer In: Keeshawn Silver, DT is enough. How do you improve the defensive front and be nastier against the run? You go take a 6-4, 331-pound anchor from Kentucky. Forget the stats - he won't do anything to get into the backfield - but he's the big body who'll take on everything in the Transfer Out: Emmanuel Pregnon, OG interior of the USC offensive line isn't exactly a problem, but it'll be an early concern. It could've used a 6-5, 320-pound future NFL starter who'll now be blasting away for the Oregon line. USC Trojans Key Game at Illinois, Sept. 27The last time these two met was in the 2008 Rose Bowl. USC rolled to a 49-17 win, but this time it's in Champaign in late Illini are loaded, it'll be a tough battle for the Trojans coming off the Michigan State game, and up next are Michigan and at Notre and the dream of the CFP is still on. Lose, and forget it.- 2025 USC Schedule Breakdown USC Trojans Top 10 Players 1. Kamari Ramsey, S Jr.2. Makai Lemon, WR Jr.3. Ja'Kobi Lane, WR Jr.4. Jayden Maiava, QB Jr.5. Keeshawn Silver, DT Jr.6. Eric Gentry, LB Sr.7. Lake McRee, TE Sr.8. DJ Harvey, CB Sr.9. Kameryn Fountain, DE Soph.10. Bishop Fitzgerald, S Sr. USC Trojans 2024 Fun Stats - USC Scoring: 1st Quarter 55, 2nd Quarter 125- 3rd Down Conversions: USC 74-for-165 (45%), Opponents 56-for-167 (34%)- Sacks: USC 21 for 113 yards, Opponents 15 for 105 yards USC Trojans 2025 Season Prediction, Win Total, What Will Happen USC, take advantage of this schedule. It's a no Ohio State, Penn State, or Indiana. Missing Minnesota is a good thing this year, and not having to play Rutgers, Washington, or Wisconsin will this isn't a good enough USC team to win the Big Ten, but in an Indiana-got-there sort of way, it has the talent to go 10-2 as long as it can own Los road games at Illinois, Notre Dame, and Oregon will all be a problem. But it's USC. If it's as good as it's supposed to be, it can win two of those. It can handle all the home games, including Michigan. But the Trojans will misfire somewhere, like against Michigan State, Iowa, or at Nebraska, and it'll come up just short of the CFP dream, but it'll be a fun season deep into The USC Win Total At … 8Likely Wins: Georgia Southern, Missouri State, at Purdue50/50 Games: at Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, at Nebraska, Northwestern, at Notre Dame, UCLALikely Losses: at Oregon 2025 USC PreviewUSC Offense BreakdownUSC Defense Breakdown © 2025 The Arena Group Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
