Sept. 15, 2026, 4:05 a.m. PT
On Saturday night, the USC football team defeated Louisiana 49-30 at the Coliseum.
With the victory, the Trojans improved to 3-0 on the 2026 season. Following the game, head coach Lincoln Riley spoke to the media. Here are some of the highlights of what he had to say:
On the victory “A little bit of an up and down win.
Had some really good contributions on all three sides, especially early in the game and the early part of the third quarter. We’re getting a lot of stops defensively. Obviously, the big punt return was a huge play in the game. I thought we did a pretty decent job early in the game after they had a little bit of momentum from grabbing it back and really maintaining it through about midway through the third quarter.”
On USC’s penalties “The penalties are going to be the most alarming thing for us tonight. It was a lot, and they were really at horrible times.
There’s never really good times for penalties, but we had some at really inopportune times, and that’s something we have to clean up a lot. There’s no doubt about that.”
On the performance of the freshmen “We’ve played a ton of young guys, some early in games, some later.
Generally, I feel very positive. If there’s another team having more young guys contribute in the country right now, I’d love to see it. I’m very positive.
There’s still a lot of growth that has to happen, whether it’s the guys that are playing with the first and second teams, or some of the guys that are playing down the line a little bit. We just have to keep growing. I feel like our peak, or our trajectory, should be even higher because of how many young guys are playing and learning and playing in their first games.
We should have a chance to really really grow throughout the season.”
On the run game “Honestly, it was good. We were a little more connected, which was a big goal. I thought we’d be a lot better on the perimeter and ran hard. I thought it took our backs just a little bit to find their footing on the field, but once that happened, I thought they settled in and meshed well with the O-Line and the tight ends, and started making some guys miss and making some big plays.”
On defensive depth “I feel really good about the D-Line depth. I feel really good about the linebacker depth and the secondary. There’s a few positions where I wish we had a few more bodies. Obviously, it was great to get [safety Marquis] Gallegos back tonight, and hopefully, we can bring a couple of those guys along.
We had [safety Peyton “Man Man”] Dyer back available for the first time in this game too, which was really good. That’ll help us as we go. There’s probably a couple spots there in the secondary where we need to continue to bring a couple other guys along, because we’re going to need them.
I’d say with the other spots, I feel good. We also have to develop.”
On tight end Mark Bowman “He made some plays for us. He kind of got us going a little bit offensively and did some good things after the catch and blocked well. It’s good to see him get involved. He has some skills. He’s dangerous when he gets the ball in the open field.
And it’s so good to see him make some plays after the catch and get him in the end zone a couple times.”
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