USC Football Falls to Oregon 42-27, Ending Playoff Hopes Under Riley for Fourth Straight Year

The USC Trojans saw their season unravel in the most painful way possible: a 42-27 loss to the Oregon Ducks at Autzen Stadium on November 23, 2025. It wasn’t just another defeat. It was the final nail in the coffin of their College Football Playoff dreams — for the fourth year in a row under head coach Lincoln Riley. The clock struck 9:30 PM Pacific Time, and with it, the illusion that this could be the year finally crumbled. The Trojans needed a road win against a top-10 team to stay alive. They got outplayed, outcoached, and outclassed. And now, the question isn’t whether they’ll make the playoff — it’s whether Riley will still be coaching them next fall.

The Final Opportunity Slipped Away

This wasn’t a game USC could afford to lose. With an 8-2 record entering the matchup, a victory over No. 7 Oregon would’ve vaulted them into the top four, possibly even the No. 3 seed. Instead, the Ducks dominated time of possession, controlled the line of scrimmage, and exploited USC’s young secondary with surgical precision. Oregon’s quarterback, Dan Lanning’s offense churned out 487 total yards, including three touchdowns through the air and two on the ground. Meanwhile, USC’s offense, led by quarterback Jayden Maiava, looked disjointed. Two critical turnovers in the third quarter — a fumble at the Oregon 12-yard line and an interception returned to the 5 — turned what could’ve been a momentum-shifting drive into a 14-point swing. By the time the Trojans finally cut the lead to 35-27 with under six minutes left, the crowd at Autzen Stadium had already started filing out.

Riley’s 0-5 Record Against Top-10 Teams

Let that sink in: Lincoln Riley is now 0-5 against top-10 opponents at USC. That’s not a fluke. That’s a pattern. And the Los Angeles Times laid it bare on November 22: under Riley, USC has won just three road games against teams that finished above .500. Before this season, they hadn’t done it since 2022. The program’s entire identity — built on tradition, star power, and recruiting dominance — now feels hollow when it matters most. The losses to Alabama, Ohio State, Texas, and now Oregon aren’t just defeats. They’re indictments.

What makes it worse? The Trojans didn’t even rely on the transfer portal to patch things up. As the Los Angeles Times reported, USC took the field in Eugene with zero transfers starting on offense. Only one transfer, safety Bishop Fitzgerald, was among the top 12 defensive snap leaders — and he didn’t play due to injury. The roster is almost entirely homegrown. That’s Riley’s philosophy: build your own, trust your system, avoid the portal’s chaos. But when your homegrown talent can’t close out games against elite competition, what’s the point?

The Young, Unproven Defense

Defensive coordinator Alex Lynn didn’t sugarcoat it after the game. “The past two defenses, we had a lot of transfer portal guys who were fifth- and sixth-year seniors,” he said. “This team is more talented, but they’re just young. It’s just guys who haven’t played before. There are certain mistakes you have to live through.”

And they’re living through them. Oregon’s offense, averaging 41 points per game this season, scored 42 against a USC defense that entered the game ranked 48th nationally in yards allowed. The Ducks’ running back, Isaiah Miller, ran for 158 yards and two touchdowns, often breaking tackles from freshmen linebackers who had never seen a crowd like Autzen’s before. Defensive tackle Devan Thompkins, one of the few veterans on the line, admitted after the game: “We knew what they were going to do. We just didn’t stop it.”

What’s Next? UCLA, a Bowl, and a Looming Reckoning

USC’s season isn’t over — not yet. They still have one game left: the UCLA rivalry game on November 30, 2025. A win would make them 9-3. A loss? 8-4. Either way, they’re headed to a mid-tier bowl game — probably the Holiday Bowl or Las Vegas Bowl — with no chance of a New Year’s Six appearance. As the Los Angeles Times put it, it’s “some anonymous bowl game” — a polite way of saying nobody’s excited.

But the real question isn’t about the bowl. It’s about the future. USC is one of the most financially powerful athletic programs in the country — yet since Riley’s arrival in 2022, they’ve failed to win a single game against a top-10 team. Meanwhile, the university has been cutting jobs: over 900 layoff notices were issued since July, according to Interim President Wanda Austin Kim. Athletic department budgets are under scrutiny. Donors are asking questions. And the fan base? They’re tired of hearing about “culture” and “process” while watching their team lose to teams they used to beat by 30 points.

Why This Loss Hurts More Than the Others

It’s not just the record. It’s the context. Oregon’s win wasn’t a fluke. They’ve been building toward this since Dan Lanning took over in 2021. They’ve recruited aggressively, developed their own stars, and now they’ve beaten USC on their own terms — in Eugene, on a cold November night, with the playoff on the line. Meanwhile, USC, with its $200 million annual athletic budget and historic recruiting pipeline, is stuck in neutral.

And here’s the cruel twist: while USC’s football team collapsed, their men’s basketball team pulled off a 107-106 triple-overtime win against Troy on November 20 — with Rodney Rice recording the second triple-double in program history. That game was played in front of a packed Galen Center. The football team’s final home game? 45,000 fans in the Coliseum — and barely half showed up for the Oregon game. The message is clear: the culture is shifting. And if Riley can’t fix it, someone else will.