LOS ANGELES — The theme within the USC football team in the week leading up to Saturday’s UCLA game was “paving the road.”
Head coach Lincoln Riley encouraged his players to ruminate on what they are doing to prepare the Trojans for the future, and how this season can be a building block. Quarterback Jayden Maiava put it simply:
“We still ain’t (expletive),” he told reporters after the game.
The team seems to be celebrating this regular season, which ended with a 29-10 win over the Bruins, as well as accepting it as a building block. Players are viewing the road ahead through their own lenses, and all paths are under construction.
Roughly 30 players walked in the Senior Day ceremony prior to playing the Bruins. Some, like linebacker Eric Gentry, were out of eligibility and others, like safety Kamari Ramsey, are getting ready for professional careers.
Other players who walked included redshirt senior running back Eli Sanders, redshirt senior long snapper Hank Pepper, redshirt senior defensive lineman Keyshawn Silver, redshirt junior offensive lineman Kilian O’Connor, senior receiver Jay Fair and redshirt junior defensive lineman Devan Thompkins.
Junior receivers Ja’Kobi Lane and Makai Lemon did not walk, even though both are eligible for the 2026 NFL Draft.
Maiava is also keeping his personal path quiet, politely declining to say if he’ll declare for the draft or not.
“I’ve been worried about this game,” he told reporters on Saturday. “I’m focused on enjoying this win with my loved ones and my teammates, so that’s where I’m at right now.”
Gentry, conversely, spoke with finality after the game. He was the Trojans’ highest-graded defensive player by Pro Football Focus after a performance that included five tackles, a pass breakup, and providing the type of pressure that doesn’t always show up on the stat sheet.
His message to the defense as he moves into the next phase of his career?
“Start fast,” he half-joked, alluding to the slow starts that USC has had in recent games, before becoming reflective.
“This has been a very, very important year,” he said. “We were able to play in the Big Ten, win against teams who were physical, and playing in their type of weather, too.
“My message more than anything is just have fun while you’re doing it, and more than anything — just give effort, focus, because we all come out here for one common thing, and it’s football.”
USC completed its regular season unbeaten at the Coliseum and Saturday’s attendance of 69,614 was the Trojans’ second-highest home attendance of the season. They hit 75,500 when Michigan came to town.
The team was on the brink of making the College Football Playoff and finished the season 9-3 with wins over Big Ten teams including Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska, and Iowa. Whether that’s a success or not depends on who you ask.
Internally, however, the team insists that it’s different. The word “brotherhood” has come up countless times, and they made the decision early on to reflect that unity by wearing matching warm-ups for game day.
“We’ll have better teams here in the future than this team,” Riley told reporters, Victory Bell clanging in the background. “But I don’t know if we’ll have had a more important team.
“Things are good here right now. We’ll look back when things are really, really, really good here, and this will be one of the ones that everybody will point to. I promise you that’s going to happen.”