USC head coach Lincoln Riley, quarterback Jayden Maiava and defensive lineman Devan Thompkins squeezed into a white, canopy-style tent for the postgame press conference after the Trojans’ fourth straight loss to Oregon.
The opaque, plastic walls of the tent offered little protection from the chilled Eugene air. A bright, cardinal-red backdrop gave the makeshift room a false warmth. The weak, rosy glow of the room could not be felt.
“Great battle out there — two football teams really going at it,” Riley said, launching into his opening statement.
For weeks, Riley has subtly smiled when talking about what could be on the horizon for the Trojans: A big-time game against Oregon. A College Football Playoff bid. Much-awaited progress in USC’s rebuild.
USC (8-3 overall, 6-2 Big Ten) had the chance to do something special. Has special come and gone? Riley thinks not.
“We’re right there,” he told reporters after the loss. “That’s just how I feel. Two good teams going at it. We’re just gonna keep getting better, and we’re just gonna get better and better as time goes on. We got a good team, that’s what (this game) tells me.”
The Trojans took a continuously-depleting roster into Eugene to compete with the Ducks, who were No. 7 in the most recent CFP rankings.
The offensive line was reshuffled yet again when Elijah Paige was ruled “out” and Kilian O’Connor left the game due to injury. The coaches called on J’Onre Reed, who was also not fully healthy, to take his place.
They never planned for backup rushers King Miller and Bryan Jackson to be in this position. The blitzing safety duo of Bishop Fitzgerald and Kamari Ramsey wasn’t healthy enough to play, leaving Christian Pierce and talented-but-inexperienced Kennedy Urlacher to fend off Oregon’s offense.
All were baptized by fire in the 42-27 loss.
“They fought,” Riley said of Pierce and Urlacher, in particular. “They’re two fighters. They tackle the ball. They’re violent. They’re contact seekers. A couple plays that we want back from a communication standpoint. But for both those guys, in that moment, against a good offense like that, they both made a lot of plays.”
It’s highly unlikely that USC makes the playoff after losing to Oregon. From many perspectives, that is a failure. The fact that Riley is 6-13 against ranked opponents and 0-5 against top-10 teams doesn’t make the shortcoming any easier to swallow.
Riley appears to remain focused on long-term plans. His top-ranked 2026 recruiting class remains in tact ahead of the early signing period, which begins on Dec. 3. There’s also still one game remaining on the regular season schedule against UCLA.
“We don’t make our plans contingent on how things go,” Riley said. “How we play is just how we play. This is USC. The standard here is incredibly high. It’s incredibly high in our locker room, so we’ll start preparing for UCLA on the plane and we’ll get ready for that one and then figure it out after that.”
ESPN experts in a post Sunday morning project USC to play BYU in the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 30. The Cougars, despite being 10-1, may need to win the Big 12 Championship game to get in the CFP.
It’s up to the Trojans to decide if they want to move out of the cold, postgame tent and return to the big stage.
“No matter what happens, I believe that we’re still just playing to win,” Thompkins said. “Playoffs or not, we’re just playing to win. Coming into this game, that was the mindset, and going into next week still.”