College Football

CFB Top 50, #26: 2025 USC Trojans

by
Bracket Yard
July 28, 2025

Just on the cusp of the ranked teams, at number 26 in the CFB Top 50 countdown are the 2025 USC Trojans.

Life has not been easy for Lincoln Riley as USC’s head coach. Sure, he makes a proverbial ass-load of money just for showing up to work every day, but being the USC head football coach puts you under the college sports equivalent of an electron microscope. Ever since the Trojans poached him from Oklahoma, the returns have diminished and there is talk that Riley is on the hot seat in 2025.

We might be entering a put-up-or-shut-up season for USC and its current coaching staff. There is a sense that USC will be good, and at least respectable, but two things about that: (1) Our faith in them may be limited, and (2) we will have to ask if “respectable” would be good enough to save the coach’s job. Let’s discuss.

2025 USC Trojans Basic Facts

Head Coach: Lincoln Riley (4th season)

2025 Conference: Big Ten Conference

2024 Record: 7-6 (4-5), 9th in Big Ten

Final Resolution of Last Season: Won Las Vegas Bowl

2024 Scoring Offensive Rank: 51st (30.2)

2024 Scoring Defensive Rank: T-56th (24.1)

USC Key Additions and Subtractions

IN – Waymond Jordan, running back. Transferred from Hutchinson CC (Kansas).

IN – Keeshawn Silver, defensive end. Transferred from Kentucky.

OUT – Miller Moss, quarterback. Transferred to Louisville.

OUT – Jaylin Smith, cornerback. Drafted by Houston in 3rd round of 2025 Draft.

OUT – Woody Marks, running back. Drafted by Houston in 4th round of 2025 Draft.

Best Game on the Schedule in 2025

October 18 vs. Notre Dame. Here’s USC’s big prove-it game, in the crisp fall air of northern Indiana. They will either shut a lot of people up or the chorus of Riley’s doubters will fine-tune their harmonizing, depending also on how the rest of the season has gone to that point.

2025 USC Trojans: Outlook

You bet your sweet fanny that when USC lured Riley away from Norman, they were not thinking that Bob Stoops’ successor was going to lead the Trojans to the Las Vegas Bowl and 9th place in the conference. The level of expectation in Los Angeles for this team is high just about every year, and seven-win seasons don’t get the boosters or fans out of bed in the morning. They have to improve their win total, and even at that, an 8-win season might not placate the right people.

If USC is going to figure it out this year, they will do it with quarterback Jayden Maiava. He took over after Miller Moss was benched, and his stat lines were not overly special. Maiava could throw touchdowns, but he also had more than his share of picks, and his completion rates were not high. The hope is that with a full season of work, and getting first-team snaps in practice, he might be able to round into form in 2025. He was UNLV’s starter in 2023, and his year was overall solid, but again, probably too many interceptions.

Starting running back Woody Marks is also gone, so expect transfer Waymond Jordan, who had rave reviews coming out of JUCO, to get the ball.

USC’s pass defense was not highly-rated last season, so that will need to improve in 2025. Can they get a pass rush going? Inbound transfer Keeshawn Silver might be able to assist.

The Trojans have a few lay-ups to start their season, with their first Big Ten game on the road at Purdue. Their conference schedule basically does not let up at any point, so they have to plan on a 2-0 start and then to hit the ground hard in mid-to-late September. If they do not, expect a lot of people to start Googling “Lincoln Riley Buyout.”