Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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34 OCT. 18, 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED GAME PREVIEW: SOUTHERN CAL the ball down the Trojans' throat. They gained 9, 8, 13 and 6 yards on the ground, marching into field goal range without completing a pass. Illinois kicker David Olano's 41-yard attempt sailed through the uprights as time ex- pired, and Riley once again had to ex- plain a close road loss to a ranked Big Ten opponent. "The reality is we squandered too many opportunities to really separate in this game," Riley said. Southern Cal went 1-4 on the road a year ago, and every game was decided by seven points or less. If the Trojans want to be a real contender in their new cross-country conference, they'll have to flip some of those losses into wins in 2025. A 34-32 loss to then-No. 23 Illinois was a poor start in Southern Cal's first real test of the season. The result of its Oct. 11 home matchup against No. 15 Michigan (due to the nature of Blue & Gold Illustrated's magazine publishing schedule, this was written Oct. 8) will be a bellwether for the Trojans' ability to beat a team that runs the ball and plays defense. Finally, Oct. 18, Riley and company have one more chance for a signature win against No. 16 Notre Dame. It might be their last chance to beat the Irish for quite some time. Throughout the offseason, word quickly spread that Southern Cal has serious reservations about extending its annual agreement with Notre Dame. The current deal expires in 2025. The Trojans want a one-year extension (with the game in Los Angeles), while the Irish want a long-term deal. Riley and Southern Cal athletics di- rector Jen Cohen have expressed con- cern about adding the Irish to their schedule in the middle of a difficult and travel-extensive Big Ten slate. Both Notre Dame head coach Marcus Free- man and athletics director Pete Bevac- qua have made it clear that they want the series to continue by any means necessary. "I want to play them every single year," Freeman said. "When? I don't care. … I want to play Southern Cal ev- ery year because it's great for college football." Meanwhile, former Freeman protégé Chad Bowden is now the Trojans' gen- eral manager. That dynamic adds an- other layer of drama to a matchup that could signal a turning point for both teams' seasons. ✦ 1. The Trojans' Offense Strikes A Balance It's not uncommon to see Southern Cal among the best passing teams in the nation. And at No. 3 in passing offense and No. 5 in pass efficiency heading into its Big Ten home matchup with Michigan Oct. 11, the Trojans fit the profile. What makes the Trojans' offense even more dangerous this season is they finally have a strong running game to pair with that passing game, bringing balance and unpredictability for opposing defensive coordinators to have to deal with. Through their first five games of the season, Southern Cal ranked 17th nationally in rushing offense and junior college transfer Waymond Jordan (5-9, 210) ranked seventh individually. The Trojans have finished higher than 80th nationally as a team in rushing offense only once since 2018 and that was a modest 52nd. 2. The Defense Is Improving Incrementally But Not Dramatically At No. 68 in total defense heading into the Michigan game Oct. 11, Southern Cal was on a trajectory to achieve a coach Lincoln Riley era-best in that statisti- cal category, if the Trojans can hold that ranking. That's up from 77th last sea- son, and 115th and 106th in the FBS in Riley's first two seasons as head coach. Notre Dame transfer Kennedy Urlacher hasn't gotten much of an opportu- nity to contribute on defense as a safety so far. He played as a backup in three of the Trojans' first five games, collecting 53 snaps. His main playing time has come on special teams, with 79 plays over five games there. In total, the 5-foot-11, 195-pound sophomore has amassed 4 tackles, including a sack. 3. Southern Cal Is Stuck In A Time Warp Or a time-zone warp. And apparently some of the other coaches in the Big Ten, beyond Riley, seem less than enamored with having to change more than one time zone for road games, now that the league has a Yeti-sized footprint. When the Trojans come to South Bend Oct. 18, traversing three time zones, they'll come with a 1-4 mark in games played in the Central or Eastern time zones since joining the league ahead of the 2024 season. Washington has the same issue — 1-4 in such games in that stretch, while UCLA is slightly better at 2-3. Oregon has no jet lag issues, at 6-0 heading into last weekend's games. But Southern Cal's time-zoning out traces back to its Pac-12 days. Going back to 2013, the Trojans are 1-11 in such games. In that 0 of 7 stretch before joining the Big Ten, six of those losses were at Notre Dame and the other, in 2014, was at Boston College. Southern Cal's lone win in the last 13 seasons east of the Mountain Time Zone was its 33-17 victory at Purdue this September. And heading into a road test at Minnesota Oct. 11, Purdue hadn't beaten any Big Ten team in any time zone since the league expanded to 18 teams. — Eric Hansen Junior college transfer Waymond Jordan (No. 2) ranked seventh in the nation in rushing through Southern Cal's first five games of the season. PHOTO COURTESY SOUTHERN CAL ATHLETICS Three Things To Know About Southern Cal