USC’s Recent Recruiting Tear Has the Trojans in a Trolling Mood

Old rivalries die hard.

Coach Lincoln Riley and USC are riding high, as they’ve gathered one of the nation’s top recruiting classes for 2027. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

In these deep, dark doldrums of the college football offseason, fans and observers can admit inconvenient truths to themselves, such as this one: USC and Lincoln Riley are killing it this offseason.

Example: on Friday, the Trojans landed a commitment from four-star Greenwich (Conn.) Country Day edge rusher Mekai Brown. USC beat out Notre Dame, Ohio State, Ole Miss and Texas A&M for his services, and saw its recruiting class hold steady at No. 3 in 247 Sports’s 2027 rankings.

The Trojans celebrated their victory in typical college football and Hollywood fashion: with a hilariously over-the-top video trolling their rivals. Oregon and UCLA were targets, but no foe took more flak than Notre Dame.

USC and the Fighing Irish’s rivalry may be on hiatus, but the Trojans fired the first shot in a new cold war

this pLAce will change your life if you let it ✌️‼️ pic.twitter.com/IXr6G0ieuL

— USC Football ✌️ (@uscfb) April 17, 2026

There are levels to this video, starting with its narrator. USC general manager Chad Bowden previously worked for Notre Dame, helping the Fighting Irish come within striking distance of a national title in 2024. The aesthetics of this video resemble the aesthetics used by Notre Dame’s creative team—particularly the “Think Bigger” tagline.

And then there’s the overt jab—20 seconds into the video, amid a montage of Trojans-themed license plates, an Indiana plate reading “WK ZERO” is shown with the tagline “INDIANA: THE PLACE WHERE IT’S NOT ANYTIME ANYWHERE.”

That’s a reference to the messy pause the two teams put on their ancient rivalry beginning in 2026, and the fact that USC reportedly wanted to play the game in Week Zero. That specific scheduling quirk will soon be moot, but it still remains to be seen if and when the series will return.

Until then, Fighting Irish fans will gleefully point out that Notre Dame has won seven of the last eight matchups between the two teams, losing only to quarterback Caleb Williams in 2022.

It wasn’t just the Fighting Irish—the Ducks and Bruins also caught strays

USC’s Tanook HInes rose high to catch this touchdown pass, but he couldn’t save the Trojans from 42–27 defeat against Oregon in 2025. | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Trojans seemed intent on tweaking every rival’s nose Friday. During the same license-plate montage, an Oregon plate reading “ZERO NAT” flashed on screen, an apparent reference to the Ducks’ lack of a national title despite over 30 years of consistent success.

That plate followed a “H8 BRUIN” California plate, a clear potshot at perennial USC rival UCLA.

Can the Trojans back up their trash talk in ’26?

USC won’t have to wait long to do that. After easing into the season with San Jose State, Fresno State, Louisiana and Rutgers, the Trojans will play host to Oregon on Sept. 26. Similar to Notre Dame, the Ducks have won six of the last seven matchups between the two teams dating back to 2012 (Quarterback Sam Darnold led USC to victory in ’16, a particularly down year for Oregon).

The midsection of the schedule is not easy—after playing the Ducks, the Trojans will meet Washington, Penn State, Ohio State and Indiana in a seven-week span. However, if USC can navigate those choppy waters, an outside CFP shot doesn’t seem unrealistic. Its final two games are against Maryland and the Bruins under first-year coach Bob Chesney.

Then, on Sept. 4, 2027 against UNLV, a new era seems poised to arrive.

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