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Lincoln Riley Said USC's Costly Mistakes in Loss to Notre Dame Makes Him 'Sick'

The Trojans made a couple big mistakes in the fourth quarter, resulting in a 34-24 loss to the Fighting Irish in the rivalry game.

Madison Williams

Lincoln Riley said the USC Trojans have to "own" their loss to Notre Dame.
Lincoln Riley said the USC Trojans have to "own" their loss to Notre Dame. / Justin Casterline/Getty Images
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Notre Dame got a huge win in the rivalry matchup against USC on Saturday night, leaving Trojans coach Lincoln Riley feeling defeated after the 34-24 loss.

Some very costly fourth quarter mistakes sealed the loss for USC. Rceiver Makai Lemon fumbled to set up Notre Dame for a touchdown to take a 10-point lead, and then later Jayden Maiava threw his second interception of the game on the Trojans' last drive of the contest. USC just couldn't recover from those mistakes, and Riley acknowledged that the Trojans have to accept what went wrong and make sure these mistakes don't happen again in important games.

"We have to own it," Riley said. "We just flat out did not play good enough tonight against a good team on the road and had some missed opportunities that make you sick right now. ... We flat out have to be better."

Riley took the blame for the call that led to the game-changing fumble in the fourth quarter. When asked about the call, Riley immediately jumped in repeating the phrase "stupid call."

USC is heading into its bye week, which gives the team the prime opportunity to learn from the mistakes they made on Saturday in order to not repeat them. Additionally, USC's remaining schedule for the 2025 season includes all Big Ten matchups, so this is the time for the Trojans to make a big mark in the conference. They'll first play No. 25 Nebraska on Nov. 1.

The loss didn't completely knock USC's chances of making the College Football Playoff this year. It's a tougher path for the Trojans to get there at the end of the season, but finishing out the year strong would definitely help USC's opportunity to compete for a national title.

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Madison Williams
MADISON WILLIAMS

Madison Williams is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, where she specializes in tennis but covers a wide range of sports from a national perspective. Before joining SI in 2022, Williams worked at The Sporting News. Having graduated from Augustana College, she completed a master’s in sports media at Northwestern University. She is a dog mom and an avid reader.

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