LOS ANGELES — This chaotic college football season hasn’t followed any kind of script, yet Lincoln Riley read from one after the biggest victory of his five years at USC. Closing his postgame news conference after taking down No. 2 Ohio State, 30–18, Saturday night, Riley reached into his pocket for a piece of paper and produced, of all things, a prepared statement.

“This program’s built on … internal joy, not external applause,” Riley began, actually getting the line wrong at first and then correcting himself. “This win’s for all the staff members, the players, the leaders, admin, all the people within the walls. I said before this game that I’m the right person for this job, and as long as all those people know that, that’s all I care about. I appreciate being a part of this university and all it does, I appreciate our kids and our staff, and I’m going to continue to fight on because that’s what being a Trojan is all about.”

These were the words of a coach who is acutely aware of his embattled status. It’s extremely unlikely Riley sat down and jotted that out postgame, so he had it written beforehand and ready to deliver—maybe win or lose? You’d think handing Ohio State its worst loss in four years might provoke a more human reaction than that, but maybe Riley didn’t trust himself to speak off the cuff without saying something he might regret.

(One key group not mentioned in the statement: the USC fan base, which whooped it up in a soft Halloween rain and then rushed the field. Kind of. It was a relaxed, SoCal field storm. Very chill.)

FIELD STORM AT THE LA COLISEUM 🚨 pic.twitter.com/9kpwbSQhY4

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) November 1, 2026

That followed a somewhat heated exchange between Riley and Ohio State staffersas everyone tried to exit the field. One problem with the historic L.A. Memorial Coliseum is that there is only one way in and one way out, and the tunnel exit was as jammed up as the I-405 postgame. With his family in tow, Riley appeared to have words with, of all people, former Ohio State star running back Maurice Clarett, at one point putting his left hand on Clarett’s right shoulder and pushing him aside, then brushing past associate athletic director Quinn Tempel.

Apparently, nothing can transpire normally here.

Whatever Riley’s prepared-speech motivation, it was an oddly stilted coda to a glorious night for the Trojans—a night that underscored all the potential USC had largely squandered through its first seven games. How these same Trojans could produce zero plays longer than 15 yards in an ugly loss to Wisconsin one week, then gash the vaunted Buckeyes defense for gains of 70, 69, 44, 21 and 20 the next, is a complete mystery. 

But mystery is the theme of the sport in 2026. Nobody knows what can or will happen from game to game. The better a team looks one week, the more likely it is to flop the next. Or vice versa.

Today, USC is 7–2, remains in the Big Ten race, and has new College Football Playoff viability. Also today, Ohio State is 6–2 and in playoff trouble. Just Sayin.

For all intents and purposes, the résumé the Buckeyes will present to the CFP selection committee for its first rankings Tuesday night reads 0–1. This was their first game without injured quarterback Julian Sayin, who is not expected to return this season. Ohio State flunked the test.

But Ohio State’s biggest problem wasn’t quarterback play. Freshman Luke Fahey, in his first college start, was pretty good—he threw for 260 yards, completing 21-of-38 passes, with zero turnovers.

“He battled his butt off,” tight end Mason Williams said. “When you get a freshman starting quarterback in a big game like that, when you get what you got out of him today, we got to be able to do our jobs.”

They didn’t. In a game where the Buckeyes needed to lift up their rookie starter, they instead let him down. 

There were big plays all over the place from USC. A Buckeyes defense that came into the day as one of two teams nationally to have allowed zero scrimmage plays of 40 yards or longer gave up two of them: a 69-yard catch-and-run touchdown on the second play of the game by receiver Trent Mosley, and a 70-yard catch-run-hurdle-rumble by tight end Mark Bowman. A unit that had given up just three runs of 20-plus yards in seven games surrendered two to the Trojans, including a third-and-19 draw play for 21 to enable a field goal drive. 

“A little lack of effort on our end,” said Ohio State safety Jaylen McClain, specifically referring to the Mosley TD reception.

That wasn’t all. A punt coverage team that had given up a total of 27 return yards on the season watched Mosley shred them for 44 to set up a short-field touchdown drive. The Ohio State offensive line had a crippling succession of pre-snap penalties that stalled drives, forcing the Buckeyes to kick four field goals. Receiver Chris Henry Jr. and running back Bo Jackson dropped passes in key situations.

“It’s extremely frustrating coming into a game like this with a young quarterback and not play cleaner,” coach Ryan Day said. “The penalties were not good.”

The CFP selection committee is tasked with appraising the teams that will be on the field come playoff time. Ohio State with Sayin was 6–1, ranked No. 2 in the polls, with a road win over Indiana and a one-point loss at Texas. That team was a playoff lock. Ohio State without Sayin is 0–1, losing by a dozen points to a team that lost to Wisconsin by 17 and Oregon by 14.

Given that dichotomy, what the committee does with the Buckeyes on Tuesday night will be fascinating. The entire Top 25 will be a jumbled mess, rife for second-guessing, but weighing Ohio State’s body of work against its uncertain future is the most pressing question in the sport. 

This much seems certain: a third loss is fatal for a team that began the season ranked No. 1. It’s quite likely that there will be at least one, and perhaps multiple, three-loss teams in the 12-team field come Selection Sunday. But a three-loss Ohio State that lacks its starting QB won’t be one of them.

“Our backs are against the wall,” said offensive lineman Austin Siereveld. The schedule is full of flawed but dangerous opponents: Oregon, Northwestern, Nebraska and rival Michigan.

For Riley, he finally pushed his back off the wall and took a big step forward. With freshmen like Mosley, Bowman and defensive end Luke Wafle, the future looks dazzling—but here in Year 5, a lot of USC fans are tired of waiting for Riley to deliver. A portentous November looms for the Trojans and their coach, who couldn’t quite allow himself to enjoy his best moment yet on the job.

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