The chaos at the top of college football is not slowing down. Unranked USC stunned No. 2 Ohio State 30-18 on Saturday night at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, leading start to finish in the biggest win of Lincoln Riley's tenure — and marking the fourth straight week a top-two team in the AP Poll lost to an unranked opponent.
It took all of 39 seconds for the tone to be set. On just the second play from scrimmage, USC quarterback Jayden Maiava hit freshman wide receiver Trent Mosley for a 69-yard touchdown, and the Coliseum crowd — on Halloween night, in a light, steady rain — never really quieted down after that.
The 39-Second Warning
Mosley, a freshman sensation, finished with five catches for 101 yards, and running back Waymond Jordan added a 9-yard rushing touchdown to give USC a 14-3 lead after the first quarter. The Trojans were coming off an embarrassing 24-7 loss at Wisconsin the week before, a defeat so bad it knocked them out of the AP Top 25 entirely after they had been ranked No. 16. One week later, they produced the second-most points Ohio State's defense had allowed in a single game all season — and they did it in the first half alone, taking a 20-9 lead into halftime.
Ohio State's offense moved the ball but could not finish drives. The Buckeyes produced 192 yards in the first half yet managed only three field goals from their first five drives — even after reaching the USC 1-yard line shortly before halftime. That red-zone failure became the story of the night.
A Freshman Quarterback's First Start for Ohio State
Ohio State was already playing without its starting quarterback. Julian Sayin, a former Heisman Trophy finalist, is sidelined indefinitely with an injury to his right throwing arm suffered against Indiana on October 17. True freshman Luke Fahey got the start in his place, making his first career start after finishing Ohio State's 19-15 win over Indiana in relief.
Fahey was not the problem. He completed 21 of 28 passes for 260 yards and a touchdown, and Ohio State outgained USC 464 yards to 338 while holding the ball for roughly two-thirds of the game. But yardage does not score points, and the Buckeyes kept settling for field goals. USC's defense, which sacked Fahey twice and posted seven tackles for loss, did not allow a touchdown in the first 57 minutes.
The Play That Sealed It for USC
The second half turned on two moments. First, Ohio State running back Isaiah West fumbled in USC territory, killing a drive that could have closed the gap. Then came the night's signature play: freshman tight end Mark Bowman took a pass 70 yards, hurdling a defender and breaking multiple tackles, to set up a King Miller touchdown that pushed USC's lead to 27-9. The game was effectively over at that point, even with a quarter still to play.
Ohio State did rally in the fourth quarter, holding USC to three points while adding a field goal and a touchdown pass from Fahey to Jeremiah Smith. That touchdown was Smith's first of the game — he finished with 10 catches for 83 yards — and it made him the Big Ten's all-time receiving touchdown leader. But the two-point try after it failed, leaving the score 27-18, and Caden Chittenden's 32-yard field goal with 1:46 remaining closed out the 30-18 final.
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| Mark Bowman hurdling Ohio St. defense |
