Neither USC’s nor Purdue’s football teams are ranked, but their matchup in West Lafayette on Saturday September 13 is as intriguing of an early season conference matchup as you’ll find in all of college football.
The main reason why is because USC quarterback Jayden Maiava is taking on his old Head Coach Barry Odom.
Odom coached Maiava when they were both at UNLV in 2023. That year, the Rebels went 9-5 (6-2 in the Mountain West conference), a solid turnaround just a season after they went 5-7 and 3-5 in conference.
At UNLV in 2023, Maiava threw for 3,085 yards with 17 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He also rushed for 277 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Odom knows Maiava better than most people in college football. He’s going to attack the bad habits he saw in Maiava back in 2023. So, this is truly a litmus test of how much Maiava has grown. If he can overcome Odom and the Boilermakers’ game plan to help put up a crooked number on the scoreboard, it’s a true and definitive sign of his growth into an elite QB.
USC Also Facing Off Against Old OC
The Trojans are also facing off against their old offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, Josh Henson.
Henson was o-line coach and OC from 2022 until 2024. He also has intimate knowledge not only of Jayden Maiava, but of Lincoln Riley’s offense and playcalling.
He also knows many of the strengths and weaknesses of the returning USC offensive linemen, given that he coached many of those players in recent seasons.
Just because he was in the building, Henson also has an advantage over most OCs in knowing how to attack D’Anton Lynn’s USC defense.
Player Intrigue Is Mostly Gone
During the offseason, USC got a player via the transfer portal from Purdue, and Purdue also got a player in the portal who had played at USC. Neither of those players are on their respective new team anymore.
USC is dealing with the absence of Purdue offensive line transfer DJ Wingfield, who was denied eligibility by the NCAA.
On the flip side, wide receiver Charles Ross spent one season with USC in 2024 before transferring to Purdue ahead of the 2025 season. But Ross was forced to medically retire this offseason.
So as it stands, most of the intrigue has to do with the Purdue coaching staff’s previous relationships with USC players.
The Travel Complications
One added layer of the onion for USC is that this is their first Big Ten road game of the season.
USC struggled mightily in Big Ten road games in 2024. They went 1-4 in true road games last season, with their only win coming at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena against UCLA, which is effectively a neutral site game for all intents and purposes.
So, they were 0-4 on conference road trips. That included a 29-28 loss to Maryland, a team that went 4-8 and 0-8 in the rest of their conference games. They cannot take this cross country trip for granted, even though Purdue went 1-11 last season.
Head Coach Lincoln Riley hinted that there will be some changes to the way USC approaches travel this season in an interview on Trojans Live on Tuesday September 9, 2025.
“Going through the Big Ten in the first year opened our eyes to a couple things that we think are going to help us this year,” Riley said.
USC fans, do you think this is a bigger and more interesting game than the college football world has made it out to be?
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