USC Trojans Biggest Weakness Resurfaces In Tough Road Environment

There’s no doubt the USC Trojans are a much better team in the trenches on both sides of the ball this season, than they were a year ago.

A week after a dominant performance at the line of scrimmage over a Michigan program that plays a physical brand of football, USC reverted back to their old ways in a road loss to their rival Notre Dame.

Offensive Line Shakeup

USC Trojans Big Ten Notre Dame Fighting Irish King Miller Lincoln Riley Injury Elijah Paige Lincoln Riley Marcus Freeman — Oct 18, 2025; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Southern California Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley talks to an official during the first half against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Michael Caterina-Imagn Images | Michael Caterina-Imagn Images

Starting left tackle Elijah Paige missed his third consecutive game and has not played since he went down in the second quarter of the Trojans week 4 win over Michigan State on Sept. 20.

Paige came out for warmups and was fully dressed on the sideline during the game but was ultimately held out of the contest.

The Trojans moved guard Tobias Raymond out to left tackle and inserted Micah Banuelos in his place at guard. It’s a lineup that has worked since Paige has been sidelined, but that wasn’t the story over the weekend.

Zach Hanson has done a phenomenal job in his first season as the offensive line coach, after serving as the tight ends coach the previous three seasons.

It’s a unit that has been strong, tough, physical team at the line of scrimmage, but struggled against a tough Notre Dame defensive front. The run game did not produce to the level we had become accustomed to seeing and quarterback Jayden Maiava fell under heavy duress at times.

Run Game

King Miller made his first career start at running back and the Trojans were never able to get him going. Despite being a walk-on, Miller is more than capable of carrying the workload, evident by his 158-yard performance against the Wolverines in week 7.

Miller came into contest averaging more than 10 yards per carry because of his explosive touchdown runs in the first couple of weeks of the season.

The redshirt freshman had some good runs but never broke that explosive play that we had become accustomed to seeing.

“We just weren't as clean. I didn't feel like we didn’t do as good of a job running through some of the tackles,” said USC coach Lincoln Riley. “We obviously got it going a little bit better there at the end of the half and some of the second half had some good runs.

“It was tough too because we were making a lot of explosive plays. I thought were the favorable matchups in the throw game. It was a disappointing performance overall of us running the ball. Had some good moments, but not to the level that we’ve been running it.”

The Trojans ran for a season low 68 yards and averaged just 2.3 yards per rush.

Whether having Waymond Jordan and Eli Sanders would have made a difference is a question we’ll never have the answer to. But with very limited push upfront and a lack of running lanes, it may have not made a huge difference.

Lack of Balance on Offense

There was zero balance on offense this past weekend and the Trojans are now 0-3 in games where Jayden Maiava has at least 40 pass attempts and 8-0 when he doesn’t.

It’s not necessarily an indictment of Maiava. It’s more of Riley’s spread offense operating at a higher level when there’s balance in it.

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Baker Mayfield started 40 games in three seasons with Riley at Oklahoma, two as his offensive coordinator and one as the head coach. In that span, Mayfield only had two games where he attempted 40-plus passes and he won the Heisman Trophy in 2017.

Kyler Murray had zero games in 2018 and Jalen Hurts one in 2019 where they reached that number. Hurts’ came in the Sooners 25-point comeback win against Baylor. Murray won the Heisman that season and Hurts was the Heisman runner-up.

Inconsistency on the Defensive Line

It had appeared the USC defensive line was back to the way it started the season and the Illinois game was an outlier after a dominant performance against Michigan in week 7.

Instead, the Irish leaned into the run game from its very first offensive snap and the Trojans had no answer all night. Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love proved why he will hear his name called early on day one of the NFL Draft, setting a new career-high with 228 rushing yards at 9.5 yards per carry.

Jadarian Price had a nice day carrying the ball as the Irish rushed for 306 yards and scored three touchdowns.

“I thought we just overcompensated and at times panicked a little bit,” Riley said. “I thought in the Illinois game, when we didn't defend the run either, we got moved too much. And this game, again from the sideline, there was a lot of stalemates, but we had a lot of guys not stunning into correct gaps or not fitting into correct gaps."

“And against two really good backs like that, they're going to make you pay. We didn't do a good enough job with the ends setting edges. The execution there was just not good enough.”

Again this is a unit that has proven to be a difficult challenge for opposing offensive lines, but Saturday night was a different story and raises more questions than answers.

“Our inconsistencies there are disappointing because we've all have seen when we're playing really well there when we're closing space," Riley said. "But again, you've got to do the things that really do run defenses do. The line of scrimmage, the battle there is important.

“You have got to stay in the correct gaps. You have to play off one another. You have to set edges. It doesn't matter what defense you run, doesn't matter who you're playing. It doesn't matter the schemes on either side. You have to do those well, especially against a really talented backfield like they obviously have.”

Similar to the Illinois game, USC has to do a lot of self-evaluating with that unit during their bye week.

Offensive Line Shakeup

Run Game

Lack of Balance on Offense

Inconsistency on the Defensive Line

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