No one could stop Quinten Joyner
USC 7, No. 4 Penn State 3, 4:38 left in the first quarter
USC started on its 25 after the touchback.
On first down, Quinten Joyner brushed off tackles and completed a 75-yard touchdown run that electrified the Coliseum crowd.
Michael Lantz hit the extra point to complete the 15-second scoring drive.
USC defense limits Penn State to a field goal
No. 4 Penn State 3, USC 0, 4:53 left in the first quarter
Penn State started on its 11 after the USC punt.
Nicholas Singleton ran for 10 yards. Singleton then rushed for a yard. Drew Allar passed to Tyler Warren for six yards and another four yards.
On first down at the Penn State 32, Allar passed to Liam Clifford for 16 yards. Kaytron Allen ran for eight yards. On second-and-two at the USC 44, Singleton ran for one yard. On third-and-one, Penn State called timeout. After a lengthy review, the previous play was a one-yard gain. Warren rushed for four yards.
Allar then passed to Warren for 14 yards. Allar dumped the ball to Warren amid an oncoming blitz and gained 21 yards.
On first-and-goal at the USC 4, Singleton ran for no gain. On second down, Allar faked a handoff and was stuffed at the three-yard line. On third-and-goal at the 3, Allar passed to Warren and Kamari Ramsey tackled him at the two-yard line. On fourth-and-goal at the 2, Allar passed to Warren for a touchdown. Penn State was called for offensive pass interference and the touchdown was overturned.
Ryan Barker hit a 34-yard field goal.
USC gets one first down before punting
USC 0, No. 4 Penn State 0, 12:50 left in the first quarter
USC started on its 25 after the touchback.
Woody Marks ran for a one-yard loss. Miller Moss them passed to Kyron Hudson for 14 yards.
Moss’ next pass was incomplete, Marks ran for two yards and Moss tossed an incomplete pass intended for Hudson.
USC was forced to punt.
And we’re off ...
USC 0, No. 4 Penn State 0, 15:00 left in the first quarter
Penn State won the toss and kicked off to USC.
Lincoln Riley still thinks USC can be ‘a really good team’ despite loss to Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS — An unseasonably warm breeze blew through Huntington Bank Stadium. It was the rare sort of October night when USC, a team in unfamiliar and typically frosty Big Ten territory, could feel right at home.
But nothing about Saturday night’s 24-17 loss to Minnesota would leave USC feeling comfortable with its new place in its new conference. Not its quarterback, who struggled to find a rhythm. Not the offensive line, which struggled once again to protect him. Not the defense, which had so often clamped down after halftime. Not even the coach, who continued insisting afterward that everything was fine, despite the reality that a second straight conference road loss leaves USC with only a limited path to the College Football Playoff.
“We’ve got the makings of a really good team,” said Lincoln Riley, who has lost seven of his last 12 as the Trojans coach.
‘It was already written.’ How USC center Jonah Monheim became the Trojans’ leader
The last three USC centers were floating down Whitefish River last July, marveling at the Montana mountains, when suddenly Brett Neilon and his tube went careening into the river bank.
The tube couldn’t be salvaged. What was once a lazy river float became a slapstick rescue mission for Justin Dedich and Jonah Monheim, the two centers who followed Neilon at USC. When they finally saved Neilon — and had a good laugh at his expense — he was relegated to a spare floatie, which was otherwise meant for the beer cooler.
He didn’t mind. It was the perfect sort of getaway for the trio, the kind of story they could tell over cold beer years later. They already had so many of those stories, and the fourth trip to Montana would add more moments, from late-night bonfires in a place where the sun sets at midnight to Fleetwood Mac carpool karaoke. But it was getting harder to find the time for such outings, with their lives now headed in different directions.
Lincoln Riley says officials reversed late call without video evidence in loss to Minnesota
Three days and one phone call with the Big Ten later and Lincoln Riley still doesn’t understand how officials reversed USC’s decisive fourth-down, goal-line stop and instead gave Minnesota the go-ahead touchdown that changed the complexion of the conference title race.
The USC coach said Tuesday that there “were a number of misses there at the end” by officials during the Trojans’ 24-17 loss that he sought clarification about with the Big Ten, including two pass interference calls and the intentional grounding that killed a critical fourth-quarter drive for USC. But none was more consequential than the final keeper from Minnesota’s Max Brosmer, which initially was deemed short of the goal line on the field.
The call, upon further review, was overturned by officials. NCAA rules state the officials had to determine “indisputable video evidence” in order to reverse the call made on the field. Yet when Riley inquired further about that review this week, he says the Big Ten officials told him only that they “believed” Minnesota had scored — but not that the evidence of that score was indisputable.
Woody Marks finally getting the chance to unleash his total skill set at USC
As Woody Marks weighed his football future last winter, Darren Myles was frank with his former running back. His body of work, he told Marks, was an incomplete picture of the player Myles knew he could be. Four seasons at Mississippi State, playing in Mike Leach’s pass-happy Air Raid offense, proved Marks could catch passes out of the backfield. But he was typecast in the eyes of NFL scouts as a third-down, change-of-pace player, incapable of carrying the load as a bruising back running between the tackles.
His high school coach knew better than that. Myles had seen it during four years at Carver High in Atlanta. He watched as Marks stepped in as the starter before his first game as a freshman, taking the place of a senior who missed practice and never relinquishing the role.
During 43 games at Carver, Marks carried the offense on his back, toting the ball 614 times for 10 yards per carry. As a sophomore, he tallied 13 consecutive 100-yard games. As a senior, he scored 23 touchdowns. Never did he catch more than a pass or two per game.
It’s already do or die: What to watch when USC plays host to Penn State
The refrain felt frustratingly familiar. Here again, in the wake of another disappointing defeat, was the same rosy message from Lincoln Riley, reassuring the public that USC was really just a few plays, a few stops, a few inches away from where its coach wanted them to be.
It’s all a matter of perspective. Still, however close USC might have come, however “battle-tested” it might now be, the harsh reality is Riley has lost seven of his last 12 as the Trojans coach. That’s equivalent to the worst 12-game stretch of Clay Helton’s tenure as USC’s coach.
With No. 4 Penn State on tap Saturday at the Coliseum, the Trojans now find themselves playing for their College Football Playoff lives in mid-October, with zero room for error.
“I promise you,” Riley said this week, “we’re still a very confident team. This isn’t some team that has two losses where we got our ass kicked. No, that’s not the case. We know what we’re capable of.”
USC vs. No. 4 Penn State: How to watch the game, plus betting odds
USC (3-2) faces one of its toughest challenges of the season when it plays No. 4 Penn State (5-0) at the Coliseum on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. PDT. The game will air on CBS and Paramount+ and will be available on 710 AM in the Los Angeles area.
Here’s a look at the betting odds for the game:
