Seventeen thoughts from Week 4, which looked a lot like Week 4 from a year ago:
1. Sept. 26, 2026 had all of the same vibes of Sept. 27, 2025, didn’t it? A prove-it primetime NBC home game for a Big Ten coach who hasn’t won the big one. All of the cards lining up in that coach’s favor. And then Dan Lanning and Oregon prevailing in that environment, sending the losers off into the unknown.
2. Last year it was James Franklin. To his credit, he had an incredible body of work at Penn State. (Which PSU fans were reminded of the hard way on Saturday.) But once he lost at home to Oregon last year, everything fell apart. A loss at UCLA followed, before a home loss to Northwestern. The Franklin era was done, and there was no coming back from it. He was fired after a 3-3 start to a season that began with a preseason No. 2 ranking.
3. This year it’s Lincoln Riley. Everything was set up for USC to break through this year. A new facility. The nation’s No. 1 recruiting class. The program had even plastered billboards across L.A. that said “The Time is Now.” Oregon came into the Coliseum looking as vulnerable as it ever had in the Lanning era — and then had its NFL QB knocked out early in the contest, to boot.
4. None of it mattered. Dylan Raiola came in and ran the show. USC’s defense looked the same as it ever has. The Ducks won, 41-27, extending their reign over the Trojans to five straight games across two different conferences. And now we see how Riley and Co. respond.
5. Look at USC’s schedule. Look at how the Trojans have played against elite competition under Riley. USC has seven games left: Washington, at Penn State, at Wisconsin, Ohio State, at Indiana, Maryland, at UCLA. I’m not saying that the Trojans will lose six of those seven games, but there are six games on that schedule that they absolutely could lose.
