Penn State, USC headed in opposite directions

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – For the first half of its Big Ten Conference football game against the USC Trojans, Penn State did not play like they are the fourth-best team in the country. 

The No. 4 Nittany Lions huffed and puffed their way throughout the first half and saw themselves going into halftime with a 13-point deficit. 

Penn State looked slow and mechanical while the Trojans made an excellent presentation on how to do the waltz as they pranced their way to a 20-6 lead at United Airlines Field at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. 

It might have been the time zone that threw off Penn State in the first half but when they came to play in the third quarter the energy was different. How is it different? The Nittany Lions scored two touchdowns the first two times they got their hands on the ball in the second half. 

“I thought once we got going and started making some plays, you could feel our Penn State presence in the stadium, which was awesome,” Penn State head coach James Franklin said.

Whatever light bulb Franklin clicked for his ballclub to get their act together, the light switch went on. So much so that the Nittany Lions scored 27 second-half points to storm back to claim a 33-30 overtime win against the Trojans in this matinee melee. 

“I think the word ‘resilient’ was probably the best word to define our team today,” Franklin said. “It’s good to be able to go in and say, ‘Guys, we’re a second-half team,’ but I prefer not to say that anymore. I prefer to be a four-quarter team, a start-fast team, a fourth quarter team, all of it. And we’re going to have to be that to continue to win the games that we want to win moving forward.” 

The loss by the Trojans is a devastating defeat in many ways. A miss tackled here, a scoring opportunity there and the Trojans very easily could be sitting pretty on top of the Big Ten Conference with an unblemished mark. 

“Hard-fought game, you know, just a really difficult loss,” USC head coach Lincoln Riley said after the game. “There’s really no way to sugarcoat that. Or guys fought their ass off from beginning to end. As a coach, you can’t ask for anything more than the effort that our guys put on the field. Two good football teams going at it. Came down to the last play, and it hurts to not be able to get this done.”

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— USC Football ?? (@uscfb) October 12, 2024

As it is, USC is not sitting atop the Big Ten Conference as the leader. Penn State is. In the second half against the Trojans, the Nittany Lions showed USC why they are the boss of the conference.

Six games into the season, USC and head coach Lincoln Riley are a .500 team with a 3-3 mark. 

That’s not how the season started. When USC took on and upset LSU in the team’s season-opener, the promise of a great season was in the air. Five games later that promise has turned into an effort to salvage the remaining portion of their schedule. 

The disheartening part of the Trojans’ losses is that they have all been one-score games. And this is why it stings so much for Riley and his players.  

“We’ve had a few games like this, where we’ve had chances to win right there at the end — and to not make the plays, to not have some of the breaks bounce your way, it’s a gut punch,” Riley said. “There’s no doubt about it. We’re very disappointed with not finishing it off.”

USC has handled its debut in the Big Ten Conference pretty well. The Trojans’ losses to Michigan, Minnesota and Penn State have totaled nine points combined. That in itself is impressive. 

USC quarterback Miller Moss, who completed 20 of 34 passes for 220 yards and two touchdowns lumped all of the Trojans’ defeats into one category.   

They all hurt,” Moss said. This one especially was excruciating, just in the manner that it happened. I think the flip side of that is that we’ve got a really good locker room filled with really great people and really great coaches that’s going to continue to stay together and go on and run this back half of the season. And that’s the No. 4 team in the country. So what does that make us?”

The Trojans have gone through the meat of their schedule, but away games at Washington and UCLA and home contests against Nebraska and Notre Dame still loom. 

The three defeats the Trojans have absorbed have eliminated them from any major bowls. As for Penn State, they escaped Los Angeles by their chinny chin chin. An upset by the Trojans would have most assuredly knocked the Nittany Lions out of any championship title hopes. 

After rallying to beat the Trojans, that hope is still alive for Penn State. 

“You’re going to have to find different ways throughout a season to win,” Franklin said. “Some are going to be blowouts, hopefully more of them are blowouts, but some of them are going to be comebacks. Some are going to be home where you get the fans and they’re supporting you. Some are going to be on the road, where things are going against you.”  

Top Photo Caption: LOS ANGELES, CA – OCTOBER 12: USC Trojans wide receiver Kyron Hudson (10) is tackled by Penn State Nittany Lions cornerback Zion Tracy (7) during a college football game between the Penn State Nittany Lions and the USC Trojans on October 12, 2024, at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, CA. (Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire)