USC beats Ohio State 30-18 on Saturday night at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where the No. 25 Trojans led from the second play of the game and never gave the lead back in the biggest win of Lincoln Riley’s USC tenure. Freshman Trent Mosley turned a short pass into a 69-yard touchdown just 39 seconds in, and USC held No. 2 Ohio State without a touchdown for nearly 58 minutes in a rain-soaked Halloween upset that reshapes the College Football Playoff race.
USC improved to 7-2 overall and 4-2 in Big Ten play. Ohio State fell to 6-2 overall and 4-1 in the conference, with its margin for error in November now all but gone. At the final whistle, fans poured onto the rain-soaked field to celebrate a win USC had waited years to claim at home against the Buckeyes.
How USC beats Ohio State 30-18 unfolded
The tone was set immediately. On USC’s second offensive snap, quarterback Jayden Maiava found Mosley behind the line of scrimmage, and the freshman raced through the Ohio State secondary for a 69-yard score. It was the first play of 40 or more yards Ohio State’s defense had allowed all season — the Buckeyes had previously not given up a play longer than 36 yards — and it put USC ahead 7-0 before many fans had settled in.
Mosley kept hurting Ohio State in the first quarter. He returned a punt 44 yards, and a late-hit penalty tacked on 15 more yards to give USC the ball at the Ohio State 32. Four plays later, Waymond Jordan ran in from 9 yards out, and USC led 14-3 after the first quarter.
Ohio State answered only with field goals for most of the night. The Buckeyes reached first-and-goal from inside the 1-yard line just before halftime but could not punch it in, settling for a field goal after a quarterback sneak was ruled down short of the line and two passes fell incomplete. USC went to halftime ahead 20-9.
The second half followed the same pattern: Ohio State moved the ball but could not finish drives. A fumble by Isaiah West in USC territory early in the third quarter gave the ball back to the Trojans, and two plays later freshman tight end Mark Bowman turned a catch over the middle into a 70-yard gain, hurdling a defender on his way to the Ohio State 2. King Miller scored from 1 yard out two plays later, and USC led 27-9.
Ohio State finally reached the end zone with 2:12 remaining, when freshman quarterback Luke Fahey found Jeremiah Smith for a 1-yard touchdown. The two-point try failed, USC recovered the onside kick, and Caden Chittenden’s 32-yard field goal with 1:46 left closed out the 30-18 final.
Mosley, Maiava and a USC defense that bent without breaking
Mosley finished with five catches for 101 yards and the opening touchdown, plus the 44-yard punt return that set up USC’s second score. Maiava completed 15 of 22 passes for 222 yards and a touchdown without an interception, playing turnover-free football a week after USC’s loss at Wisconsin.
Fahey, a true freshman making his first career start in place of injured starter Julian Sayin, completed 21 of 38 passes for 260 yards and a touchdown without an interception. Sayin is out indefinitely after injuring his throwing arm in Ohio State’s win over Indiana on October 17, and Fahey’s debut came in one of the toughest road environments in the sport.
Smith caught 10 passes for 83 yards, and his late touchdown was the 40th of his Ohio State career, breaking Braylon Edwards’ record for the most receiving touchdowns in Big Ten history. It was a milestone on a night when almost nothing else went Ohio State’s way.
The box score made the result look even stranger. Ohio State outgained USC 464-338 and held the ball for 39:28 to USC’s 20:32, but the Buckeyes were flagged 11 times for 75 yards and scored on just one of four trips into the red zone. USC averaged 6.8 yards per play to Ohio State’s 5.7, and its big plays — the 69-yard opener and Bowman’s 70-yard catch-and-run — were worth more than Ohio State’s sustained drives. It was also the first time Ohio State had allowed 30 points in a game since its 32-31 loss to Oregon in 2024.
Analysis: what the USC beats Ohio State 30-18 result means for the playoff race
This section is analysis, not a report of a new fact. USC did not just beat a ranked team; it beat the No. 2 team in the country a week after a deflating loss, with a freshman receiver as its most dangerous player and a quarterback who protected the football. That combination — explosive plays plus no giveaways — is exactly what USC lacked at Wisconsin, and it is why this win keeps the Trojans alive in the playoff conversation rather than merely salvaging their season.
For Ohio State, the problem runs deeper than the quarterback change. Fahey was steady enough, and the Buckeyes moved the ball, but penalties, red-zone failures and two defensive breakdowns for 69 and 70 yards undid all of it. Ohio State has now lost five straight games at the Coliseum and has not beaten USC there since 1946. A team with two losses before November has very little room left, and the Buckeyes will likely need to win out to reach the Big Ten championship game and the playoff.
The result also changes how Riley’s tenure is judged. USA Today noted it was his first win against a top-five team since 2017, when he was at Oklahoma — coincidentally also against Ohio State — and his first win over a top-12 team at USC. One win does not settle a tenure, but a win of this size, at home, in the rain, with fans storming the field, is the kind of result that buys a program belief for the rest of the season.
What to watch next
USC gets a bye week before a trip to Indiana, with Maryland and UCLA also still on its remaining schedule — a run that will decide whether Saturday night was the start of a playoff push or just a memorable upset. Ohio State has no such breather: the Buckeyes host Oregon next, beginning a four-game November slate they can no longer afford to split.
For more from this weekend, see our preview of this Ohio State-USC matchup and our preview of No. 1 Miami’s trip to North Carolina.
