Trick plays help USC reclaim Victory Bell: What rivalry win over UCLA means for Trojans

PASADENA, Calif. – It was extremely ugly, but what matters most in rivalry games are wins. USC will make no apologies for the style in which it beat crosstown rival UCLA 19-13 on Saturday at the Rose Bowl.

Trojans don’t need that. They won, reclaimed the Victory Bell, and are bowl-eligible — which isn’t something that should be seen as a major accomplishment, but it’s something the program desperately needed after a terrible midseason slump.

So let’s unpack some takeaways from USC’s triumph.

Attack played the key

There is so much to say about USC’s offensive performance. It was embarrassing for three and a half minutes. The Trojans didn’t have a touchdown in that span.

In the first half, USC had three first-and-goals inside UCLA’s 5-yard line. Those possessions produced nine points – three field goals. The Trojans got close to the end zone, neglected 1,000-yard running back Woody Marks and became pass-happy.

“We didn’t run the ball well down there,” Lincoln Riley said. “We had a number of missed assignments, which was kind of weird because we ran the ball really well in the open field. … In the passing game, we had the opportunity to make a lot of one-on-one plays and we didn’t make enough of them. Obviously we’re excited to win despite that, but we know it’s going to have to be a lot better.”

The Trojans failed to capitalize on good field position, and Riley’s call left room for a lot of questions. But with 7:44 left in the game, Riley reached deep into his bag of tricks: Quarterback Jayden Maiava hit Makai Lemon with a lateral, and Lemon threw a nice ball to Kyron Hudson for a 39-yard gain, putting USC at UCLA 4.

This time, the Trojans won their game against the goal line. It took Maiava creating something out of nothing, spinning around and buying time to find Ja’Kobi Lane, who has gone from starters to limited snaps the past two weeks, in the back of the end zone for the decisive touchdown.

Trojans take the lead with a TD

Ja’Kobi Lane adds 6 for @uscfb

: NBC pic.twitter.com/GOElIqZ0OC

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) 24 November 2024

It was very bad from USC offensively. Maiava still looks raw. He finished that game with 19 completions in 35 attempts, 221 passing yards and one touchdown.

“It could definitely be a lot better,” he said.

But USC’s offensive problems have never been about the quarterback. The receivers have been pretty underwhelming compared to the preseason hype. But they made critical plays Saturday night. There is a lack of commitment to the run game and no identity for USC to build its offense around, along with questionable play calling.

USC did just enough offensively Saturday night. A performance like that won’t be good enough next week against Notre Dame and is one of many reasons why Riley needs to take a long, hard look at the unit this offseason and diagnose what’s wrong.

Another close match

Make this two consecutive weeks in which the Trojans have won a game by one score. All five of USC’s losses have come by seven points or fewer. The Trojans led in the fourth quarter in all five of those games. They just couldn’t make the necessary plays to win them.

That sort of thing tends to balance out over time. And the ball has bounced in USC’s favor lately.

Of course, a team can make its luck. A major reason the Trojans haven’t been able to close out games is because of the lack of a true pass rush. It especially hurt in an overtime loss to Penn State.

But USC came up with three sacks Saturday night and was able to disrupt UCLA quarterback Ethan Garbers enough to make things difficult for him.

“We were able to impact the quarterback,” Riley said. “Obviously, for us, that’s been a little bit of our Achilles heel defensively this year. … To see the whole D-Line start to step up and impact the quarterback, it changes the way we can play the game. … We really didn’t break much at all.”

During those close losses, the Trojans’ defense has often been able to close out the game. Just one play away from putting USC in a commanding position. And it has often fallen short.

Last week, nickel back Greedy Vance of Nebraska picked off quarterback Dylan Raiola in the end zone to seal the win. Against UCLA, the defense came up with two fourth-down stops to end the Bruins’ final two possessions.

“We’re battle-tested,” Riley said. “We’ve been through a lot of them. I told you all when we lost a couple of these, at some point this is going to be our advantage because we’ve been in so many. We really don’t know anything else, honestly.”

USC is battle tested. But many of those games have come against bad teams. Michigan is not great. Neither is Minnesota or Washington. Maryland is downright bad. UCLA has played better in recent weeks, but is not very good.

Those were all winnable games against teams that weren’t particularly strong, and USC will look back on this year as a missed opportunity because of those losses. In the future, Riley will have to figure out a way for his team to separate themselves from these kinds of programs.

The postseason

With its sixth win, USC is now guaranteed a bowl game. That’s nowhere near what the Trojans were aiming for this season. It will probably be something like an LA Bowl or Vegas Bowl.

But a postseason game means something to USC. The Trojans finished 8-5 last year. There has been no progress in terms of results this season. At best, all USC can hope to do is match last year’s 8-5 record, and that will be tough with a top-10 Notre Dame team coming to the Coliseum next weekend.

But the worst-case scenario for USC would have been to follow the disappointing 2023 season by missing out on a bowl game in 2024. Recruiting has been enough of an uphill battle for this Trojan staff. It would have been even tougher with a 5-7 season.

When Riley was hired three years ago, the goals were bigger than just making a bowl. Of course, the past two seasons have not been close to good enough. Who knows if it will be next year?

But this team has guaranteed itself an extra game.

“We’ve played some good football this year. We really have,” Riley said. “We’ve tried to block out any of the good, any of the bad, any of the things that went our way, any that didn’t, and just really focus on being in the moment here at the end. Sometimes you get so wrapped up in all the externals, and you miss the opportunities that are right in front of your face.

“These are incredible opportunities. These are lifelong memories. It was important for this team to finally play another game after next week. Just because, honestly, it’s been a really fun team to coach, there’s a great atmosphere in that locker room and everybody that’s seen us play — this team leaves it out there every single time. I’m glad we get to play a few more games together.”

Last offseason, USC tried to ride the wave of positivity from its Holiday Bowl win over a ranked Louisville team. It was supposed to represent a turning point of sorts. It doesn’t have that.

This season’s bowl game likely won’t either. Win or lose over these last two games, there is plenty of work for Riley and USC to do. Even in a win, Saturday night showed that.

(Photo by Jacobe Covington: Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)