University Southern California Trojans
Players Mentioned
No. 14 USC Football Defeats Fresno State 39-0 | Postgame Notes & Quotes
September 05, 2026 | Football
USC Postgame Notes
- With the 39-0 victory, No. 14 USC improves to 2-0 on the 2026 season. Fresno State opens its 2026 campaign at 0-1.
- USC is now 5-1 all-time against Fresno State (not including 1 win vacated due to NCAA penalty; original record: 6-1).
- The 39-0 win marks USC's first shutout since defeating Utah State 48-0 in 2024.
- USC held its opponent to zero points in the first half in back-to-back games to open the 2026 season. This is the first time the Trojans have held their opponent scoreless in the first half in back-to-back games since the 2009 season. On Sept. 26, the Trojans shut out Washington State in the first half of play, and on Oct. 3, they also shut out California in the first half.
- Fresno State was held scoreless in a game for the first time since the team lost to San Diego State 0-23 on Oct. 25, 2025.
- USC is the first FBS team since at least 1996 to throw for 400 yards and complete at least 93% of its passes.
- USC QB Jayden Maiava finished the game going 23-of-25 (.920) for 349 yards and 3 TDs.
- Maiava's 92.0% completion percentage is the highest single-game completion percentage by a USC quarterback since at least 1995 (minimum 25 attempts). He broke the mark he set last week against San José State (86.2% going 25-of-29).
- WR Tanook Hines' first reception of the season in the first quarter resulted in a 8-yard TD. This marked Hines' third career touchdown as a Trojan.
- WR Trent Mosley recorded 4 receptions for 104 yards (26.0 avg.) and 2 TDs.
- Mosley's 68-yard TD with 12:27 left in the second quarter pushed the Trojans ahead 14-0. The TD throw from Maiava was his longest completion and TD toss since Sept. 6, 2025 against Georgia Southern when he completed a 74-yard TD pass.
- Mosley scored a second TD on a 9-yard pass from Maiava with 4:07 left in the second quarter.
- Mosley is the first USC freshman with 100+ yards in consecutive games since former Trojan WR Drake London accomplished the feat in 2019 (in a win over Cal; 6 rec. for 111 yards and a win over UCLA; 8 rec. for 142 yards).
- Freshmen WRs Kayden Dixon-Wyatt and Trent Mosley each had over 100 receiving yards (102 and 104, respectively). This is the first time that two freshmen receivers have recorded 100+ yards in the same game since records available in 1973.
- RB Waymond Jordan found the end zone on a 2-yard rush with 0:14 left in the second quarter.
- RB Deshonne Redeaux scored his first TD as a Trojan on a 5-yard rush with 5:46 left in the fourth quarter.
- USC's defense held Fresno State to 116 yards of total offense. That is the fewest total yards allowed since USC held Notre Dame to 91 total yards on Nov. 29, 2008.
- S Prophet Brown secured the first turnover of USC's 2026 campaign. With 5:28 left in the first quarter, Brown intercepted Fresno State QB Jayden Mandal. This marked his first career interception.
- With 7:09 left in the second quarter, S Kennedy Urlacher forced a safety. The last Trojan safety was on Sept. 20, 2019 against Utah when OLB Drake Jackson forced an intentional grounding in the endzone.
- The first sack of S Alex Graham's career in the third quarter also resulted in a safety for the Trojans with 5:15 left in the third quarter increasing USC's lead to 32.
- This is the first time since records available in 1971 that the Trojans recorded two safeties in a game.
- The last time Fresno State surrendered two safeties in a game was against Oregon State on Nov. 11, 1999.
- Graham and LB Deven Bryant led the Trojans with 4 tackles each. Graham recorded 1.5 tackles for loss of 8 yards (with one sack for minus 7 yards) and 1 QB hurry.
- Urlacher led the Trojans with 2 sacks for minus 4 yards, marking a single-game career high. He also notched a forced fumble (the first of his Trojan career) in the second quarter. The fumble was recovered by DT Floyd Boucard, the first of his career.
- K Caden Chittenden was 5-of-5 on extra points.
Postgame Quotes | USC
Head Coach Lincoln Riley
Opening statement: "Excited about the win. Really excited about the shutout. Obviously, it's hard to do. Doesn't happen very often in college football these days. We played at our standard for a higher level tonight, and that was really great to see on all sides. I think the excitement, energy in the Coliseum, energy with our football team was pretty consistent the whole way through. I think we played better as a football team than we did in week one. And that's what you got to do. It may sound boring, cliche, whatever, but that's how you get good, right? You just have to keep taking steps. I thought we attacked it on the short week. I thought the team really prepped well and was really just ready to play this game. There's still a lot to clean up. Obviously, some of the turnovers, the most disappointing thing is we had a couple penalties that have to get a lot better. So it was a good win over a really well-coached team and obviously a really proud program, so a pretty complete game from the team. Again, very excited about how we finished it off, and you know we'll take advantage now of having one extra day this week, a chance to rest these guys up a little bit, and then get ready for the next one."
On Gary Patterson's defense: "You know we did some great things. He makes things challenging on the other side, and I think what you saw was our belief in it was even higher than it was in week one. When we went back and watched week one, we did a lot of good things. Obviously, the first unit did, but when they weren't good, it's just a lot of us not trusting it at times, and I don't want to hide under, 'Well it's young guys and the twos' or things like that. It doesn't matter; we're gonna need them all. So I thought we trusted it more, and saw that he's going to do some things, along with our staff, to put us in some good positions, and I thought our guys played fast and confident. That's a group that challenges you in a lot of different ways because of how multiple they are, all the different personnel groupings that they play in. They return some good football players on that team. So for us to limit them the way we did, especially stopping the run, allowed us to get a chance to get after them up front, and then created some opportunities in the secondary. It was obviously a really good performance."
On an emphasis of explosive plays in this game: "We had some opportunities where we protected well and were able to do it. Our drives were pretty complete most of the game. We had a couple of things that we didn't like; we messed up a few things. I had a couple bad calls, and then obviously the turnovers. We had two fumbles and we didn't convert a third and a fourth and one in the red zone. We played pretty good other than that, but you can't have that, right? That's just not good enough. So we have to be better there. We have to be more consistent. We were still a little sloppy early in the run game. We made some explosive plays in the pass game, but we have a lot of work to do."
On the run defense and safeties: "Well, the safeties. Those are hard to get. I don't know as long as I've been a coach if I've ever had two in a game, so that was pretty darn cool. The turnovers, stopping the run, the way we tackled, I thought we were pretty sticky in coverage. I thought our front and then our back end really played well together and complemented each other, and that's what a really good defense looks like. So yeah, it was steady with the dose of explosive plays defensively, and that's a pretty good recipe."
On playing strong through all four quarters: "I think our mentality was good, and we were excited about the things we did well last week, but we knew there was going to be room for improvement. And I thought we played a pretty complete game. I thought the guys that got opportunities there at the end of the game were awesome. That red zone stop at the end was tremendous because that's something we've really been emphasizing heavily. To end right there in the red zone with the stop on downs was tremendous, and I think we had some of our younger guys that when they got their opportunity were a little bit more ready this time and learned a little bit and and like I said that's important for us because we're going to need those guys. It may not always be a whole group, but you're going to need this guy here and that guy there. That's how great teams function. So, excited to see the progress."
On building trust in coaching: "Well, I think it's pretty easy. I say it's easy, but you turn on the film, and when we trusted and did what we were coached to do, they didn't move the ball last week. Then when you turn on the film and the times that we got out of that, we didn't have success. All these guys want to have success. These guys, they all work hard. They all want to play well. They all take their performance personally. And I think the group felt a little bit of disappointment in the locker room last week that we didn't just play our standard, especially in the fourth quarter. I think that's a beautiful thing about football. You have these experiences, and then you learn from them, and then you grow. And that's why coaches are always talking about how we just got to keep building throughout the season. We have to keep developing because we can't simulate. No matter what we do in an off season, spring ball, camp, you cannot simulate what it feels like to be in there against another team in the arena. And all these guys want to play great, so when you don't, you can go back and trace it back to say, 'Hey, if I would have just done this exactly like my coach told me to do, I would have had a chance to have success that I want to have.' And so I think for a lot of our guys, that was a little bit of a realization. And so it's cool to see that they're listening to us, and we got to keep leading them the right way, and they got to keep listening."
On S Kennedy Urlacher's improvement: "Yeah, I think he was one of the guys that certainly did. He's a high energy, high effort player. He's got a lot of contact courage. He's a really physical guy. You know, this is his third college defense, right? In as many years. I think it's been great for him that he's starting to settle in more and more into a system and understand it. And once he goes and turns it loose, I mean, you feel his speed and again his physicality on the field. So, yeah, he stepped up big for us tonight."
Jayden Maiava, QB
On his completion percentage through the first two games: "I think it comes from the guy sitting next to me (Lincoln Riley), and the O-Line, running backs and receivers just all being on the same page playing at a really high level. But obviously, there are some things to clean up that we want to get better at. Close out this game and onto the next."
On the Coliseum crowd size today: "Yeah, I didn't really focus too much on that. This team plays for each other, plays for the coaches, and obviously for our family that showed up as well. Fight On!"
On where his confidence stems from: "It comes from a lot of the trust that I have in the guys and the relationships that I have with them. And Coach Riley, Coach Huard and those guys allowing me to go out there and play ball."
Prophet Brown, S
On the secondary's ability to perform behind a strong defensive front: "Like Coach said, I feel like we complemented each other well. So getting after the quarterback, putting him under pressure and not letting him be comfortable, that makes our job in the back end a lot easier because he has to get the ball out quick and just throw it up. So it was really good."
On the defense finishing out the game: "Nobody wants to give up points, but at the end of the day, it's about how you grow. And as a defense, I feel like we grew very well in the finish."
On his first career interception: "Man, it meant everything. I can't even put it into words. Honestly, I did a lot of stuff behind the scenes. Just worked, stayed down and waited for the opportunity to come. I thank God for it."
On if this was how he envisioned USC football feeling like: "Yes, defintely. Just both sides of the ball complimenting each other, special teams, everybody. We have a good bond with this team, and we're going to continue to grow it. So I'm excited for the rest of the year."
Visitors Postgame Quotes | Fresno State
Head Coach Matt Entz
Opening Statement: "A really good football team on the other sideline tonight. Coach Riley has done a tremendous job putting together a really competitive roster. We did get the fourth down early in the game with that penalty, that was frustrating. It took a little wind out of our sails right there because we were moving the ball pretty well, and we needed to keep it close. Then all of a sudden, you see why their quarterback is a Heisman contender. He's tremendously talented, has great understanding and great awareness of what's going on. Some of the RPO game that they ran, if you're in zone coverage, you're going to pay for it. But at the same time, you get really nervous about trying to hold up the main coverage against these talented receivers."
On initial feeling of team performance: "I'm frustrated. I think we're better than what we put on the field tonight. I'm frustrated at my inability to get them ready. Our players played hard. I know there are individuals that played really well, but individuals don't win games, right? You win games based on the 11 on offense, 11 on defense, and special teams. We just didn't have enough, and we needed some things to go right."
On notable mistakes made: "Lack of communication and bad eye discipline. I think we're better than that. We have two good coaches, but again, we're talking about some guys that I think we try to warn them about. Just like my own two boys, I try to give them advice. They roll their eyes, maybe they got it, 'hey, I know this'. And guess what? The venue, the lights all added up and it got big. And all of a sudden, you got someone you know running down at you at full speed. But they're 18 to 22 year olds. I love them all. We're going to get them ready to go. One won't turn into two."
On DB Ryan Wilson injury: "I don't know. He was in the locker room with us right now as we had our end of game conversation. Quick coaches moment, and then we'll reassess where we are from an injury standpoint when we get better intel."
On offensive performance: "I think it's just a multitude. I'm not taking anything away from our opponent by any means, but we have to be better. That means we have to shrink the playbook a little bit to allow Jayden [Mandal] to add more comfort in what we're doing. Then that's on us. That's on me as a head football coach to make sure that he goes in feeling confident."
On QB Jayden Mandal's comfortability: "Ups and down. There were times I felt like he looked really good in there, and then there were times I think he dropped his eyes and started watching the rush a little bit and didn't trust the protection. That's probably a little bit of inexperience, whatever you might want to call it. Just haven't played a lot of football, so that's why we wanted to keep him out there all night long. You need to see as many pictures as he can. He'll never get these back. This is going to be a growing moment and a learning moment for our football team."
On the point differential: "Snowball effect. We got behind the chains and struggled early on third downs to get off the field. They have really good players. There was some breakdown in some high disciplines, communication at different times, a multitude of things. I know we're a better football team than this, and this is unacceptable. We're going to get back to work, and the minute we get over the grapevine, we're thinking about going one and zero next week."
On QB Jayden Mandal's connection with the offensive line: "I'd be guessing right now if I answered that question. I probably need to watch it a little bit closer. What you see from the sidelines sometimes isn't what's accurate."
On QB Jayden Mandal's performance: "Ups and downs. I saw some really good throws. I saw us make some adjustments and change some plays at different times that I thought was really good. There were some things where you were left wondering, 'why did we do that? We hadn't done that all week.' But that's the life of coaching 18 to 22 year olds, right? You have got to give them a plan, and they need to stick to it."
On the main take aways: "We're just going to play better, right? I mean that's it. That's our job. I don't believe in improvement week one to week two. I think that's an old coaching wives tale. I think you look at our product last year and we got better every single week. Maybe we had some bumps along the road, but our 13th game was our best football game that we played all year. I have the same expectation, the same standard for our football team moving forward."
