I count an inordinate amount of diehard USC Trojans fans amongst my friends, some doing so from far-away places their lives have relegated them to where they incessantly share just about anything they come across on the internet related to their beloved football teams at all hours of the day or night. In a year where they had already lost twice while the despised UCLA Bruins haven’t lost yet, it has been an especially aggravating one where the frequency and desperation attached to these e-mails is palpable even from a distance.
Well, they can all breathe a notch easier at least for now, as THE ATHLETIC’s Cameron Teague Robinson and Antonio Morales celebratorailly shared yesterday:
A week after a loss at Wisconsin sent USC fans into an uproar, Lincoln Riley flipped the script with one of the biggest wins of his career Saturday. The Trojans defeated No. 2 Ohio State 30-18, earning a resume-boosting win just three days before the first College Football Playoff rankings of 2026 are revealed.
The upset came against a shorthanded Ohio State team playing its first game without quarterback Julian Sayin, who has been ruled out indefinitely after suffering an arm injury two weeks ago at Indiana. With freshman Luke Fahey starting for the first time, Ohio State (6-2, 4-1 Big Ten) failed to score a touchdown until the fourth quarter, while its acclaimed defense had few answers for USC’s freshman playmakers.
The Trojans will indeed need every win and break they can muster up during the season’s final month that has just begin, because the concept of seizing victory from the jaws of defeat was ubiquitous yesterday, starting with the incredible showdown which fellow ATHLETICs Chris Vannini and Sam Khan Jr. described:
Indiana still has the resilience of a champion. The No. 4 Hoosiers beat Minnesota 23-16 in overtime in Bloomington, a comeback win with their backup quarterback Grant Wilson playing the entire second half and a roller coaster of special teams emotions.
The game got to overtime only after a wild sequence in which the teams traded 60-yard field goals at the end of regulation. Minnesota’s Luke Drzewiecki hit one with 19 seconds left to take a 16-13 lead, and Indiana’s Paddy McAteer countered with one as regulation expired.
And as UNTIL SATURDAY’s Jason Kirk added it was an even more notable ending:
In the entire recorded history of college football, there had only been one game with multiple 60-yard field goals, per ESPN research dating back to 1941…It was also a rare Curt Cignetti mistake that set up Indiana’s long kick in the first place. Letting the Gophers bleed clock before their 60-yarder meant the Hoosiers had no time to do anything but blast one from distance.
It capped off a Halloween evening that could have been even spookier as THE ATHLETIC PULSE’s Alex Kirshner and Matt Piper imparted:
No. 1 Miami survived a real scare from North Carolina, falling behind Bill Belichick’s Tar Heels in the fourth quarter before scoring two touchdowns in the final eight minutes to win. (The decisive one came after a Heels fumble in their own territory.) Hurricanes QB Darian Mensah completed 22 of 29 passes, which somehow lowered his completion percentage. Earlier, No. 5 Notre Dame pulled away from Navy in the second half for a 35-13 win that ensures next weekend’s revival in South Bend of a great rivalry will feel as huge as any “Catholics vs. Convicts” game ever did. Notre Dame may need to win to make the College Football Playoff. Two of the Irish’s best wins, over Wisconsin and SMU, lost some luster via bad losses for those teams on Saturday.
And it’s on to November…
Courage…