The Most Telling Quotes From Penn State's Loss to USC in the White Out

USC coach Lincoln Riley sat on alone on a bench in the rain Saturday night at Beaver Stadium, watching his team celebrate, listening to some Trojans fans chant his name and cuing the speech he would use in his postgame interview. Riley loved that moment and the one before the mic.

"It was just fun then, and I was just taking it all in," Riley said. "In this environment, it's kind of a moment you don't want to end."

USC overcame a record Penn State crowd of 114,419 and its notorious Big Ten travel history to beat the Nittany Lions 31-23 in a White Out game that looked the part. Even the halftime drone show was impressive.

That's why Riley had to pause. And then he talked. Here's what they all said, including Penn State's Matt Campbell, about the game. For Campbell, it was another rough defensive night for his roster, even though he thought Penn State made some progress.

Lincoln Riley says no one gave USC a chance

USC Trojans fans celebrate during the fourth quarter against the Penn State Nittany Lions at Beaver Stadium. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Rley on the game: Yeah, one of my favorite wins as a head coach, no question, For so many reasons. it is obviously a phenomenal atmosphere. As good as it gets in college football; give credit to Penn State and the fans. Really proud of our team, man. We didn't listen to all that you guys had to say on the outside. This group doesn't really care. Nobody in the world gave us a chance to come in and win this game, and we did it. We did it our way.

We came on our terms. I'm really proud of this football team, and the best is ahead of this group. This will be a big spark for us going into the bye week and this next stretch of the season. Huge contributions on all sides. A tough place to play, a hard place to win. You have to really outplay them here to beat them, and we did that tonight, and we did it on all four sides.

Riley on watching the celebration: It was just fun then, and I was just taking it all in. In this environment, it's kind of a moment you don't want to end. What our team did here tonight is difficult to do, and I’m just appreciative of our team. Their willingness to stay the course and listen to what we've been preaching between the walls.

I was not surprised at all that we played well. I feel like we've really had one of the best weeks of prep that we've had since I've been here. I thought we had a great mindset coming in, and we just pushed it into the team. Your ability to deal with that as a coach and with your team is critical if you want to have success in these jobs. And I thought our team blocked everything out. Our team knows how good a team we have in that locker room, and I was just soaking in the environment and what our team did out there.

Matt Campbell says Penn State improved in some areas

Penn State coach Matt Campbell called the White Out “one of the most inpressive environments I’ve been able to coach in.”

“My disappointment is, right now we can’t give them the result they deserve.” pic.twitter.com/ygZTPrVbiW
— Mark Wogenrich (@MarkWogenrich) October 11, 2026

On the White Out and his team's performance: It was one of the most impressive environments that I’ve been able to coach in or be a part of, and I think my disappointment is, right now, we can’t give [fans] the result that they deserve. But the reality is, we will, and we will find a pathway forward. And the great thing is, I know I've said this this week and I’m going to continue to say, we do have great humans in that locker room that stand for what’s right and always grow forward.

We’re not where we need to be yet, but we are growing forward, and we’ll demand a pathway
forward because we’ve got such a great fanbase, and they deserve that.

On the lack of pass rush vs. USC quarterback Jayden Maiava: I think those situations, especially against who those guys are offensively, they‘ll spread you out. They're going to try to get their athletes in space. I think from our end of it, how multiple could we be in a football game to try to play man, but not sit man the whole football game, while trying to help our DBs
out.

I think that was really our thought process going into it. When you talk about the pressure piece of it, we're going to have to continue to find ways to get creative. I think that's an area for us, especially those third-down situations. They had time to be able to make the plays and extend the play, and I think that’s what you’re talking about on the three-man rush and we have to find a different way to be able to get off the field on the third down.

On a run game that totaled 68 yards: I thought we played in a much different rhythm tonight in the
football game. I think when you talk about the ability to use the run game to set up the passing, play
action passing and movement passing, I think all those things were realities tonight. I thought Carson [Hansen] had some really great runs in some critical moments for us. Thought James (Peoples) had a couple of good runs. I think that group will only continue to grow and develop.

This offensive line continues to grow forward. You got five new guys working together. That group's got to continue to grow forward. But I did think there were some moments tonight where we grew a lot closer to the team that we want to be that we weren’t, especially last week.

On what the team can change after six games: I don't know if we’re going to change schematically who we are. What we have to do is continue to demand to get better. We have to continue to improve what we are, what we're doing, what are we going to be on defense, what are we going to continue to be on offense, and we've got to continue to find a pathway forward.

We’ve had some growth tonight in some areas of that for sure. We’re going to have to continue to pound away at it. There's no wavering, there's no flinching in terms of what we want to do.
We have to continue to get better at what we want to do. And again, pathway forward, yes, but a lot of work to continue.

Penn State Nittany Lions head coach Matt Campbell looks at the scoreboard against the USC Trojans at Beaver Stadium. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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