On Saturday night, before the dramatic showdown between Minnesota and USC began at Huntington Bank Stadium, the Gopher student marching band welcomed the Trojans to the Big Ten in delightful fashion. They performed USC’s fight song, “Fight On,” while waving individual flags displaying the logos of each of the 18 teams in the Trojans’ new conference.

For the next few hours, Minnesota’s football team (3-3, 1-2 Big Ten) took its turn welcoming the then-No. 11 Trojans (3-2, 1-2) to the Big Ten — in markedly less delightful fashion. 

Graduate quarterback Max Brosmer and the Gopher offense ran the ball all over USC Defensive Coordinator D’Anton Lynn’s shiny new defense in its 24-17 victory, carrying the ball 40 times for 193 yards and three touchdowns — all punched in by Minnesota’s signal caller himself.

---

Daily headlines, sent straight to your inbox.

Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with the latest at and around USC.

---

Brosmer was near-perfect on the night, completing 15 of 19 passes for 169 yards in addition to the three scores on the ground. To anyone familiar with his story, Brosmer’s composure in the face of adversity was no surprise. The Gophers may have been significant underdogs on the night, but Brosmer has been counted out before — by essentially every single college football program in the country.

Coming out of high school, Brosmer had just one offer to play Division I college football, and none to do so at the highest level. The only school to come calling was the University of New Hampshire, a NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) program.

247Sports, a leading recruiting outlet, didn’t even assign Brosmer a rating or ranking as a prospect within its database. For reference, the website ranked 263 quarterbacks in Brosmer’s recruiting class — only a small handful of whom have names that would be recognizable to even the most devoted fans of the sport.

Brosmer spent five years at UNH, only playing in one game between 2019 and 2022 due to two lost seasons — one to the coronavirus pandemic and one to a noncontact torn ACL injury. After a breakout year in 2023, Brosmer entered the transfer portal and committed to Head Coach P.J. Fleck and the Gophers, eventually winning the starting job this summer. 

As thousands of Gopher fans stormed the field after Minnesota’s stunning upset victory, Brosmer walked up the tunnel beneath Huntington Bank Stadium with his father, Colin, as Kool & the Gang’s “Celebration” rang through the hall, the two clearly emotional after the biggest night of the 23-year old’s life.

The mood in the visiting locker room was a little bit different. Head Coach Lincoln Riley and his team seemed shellshocked after falling to 0-2 on the road in Big Ten play — not the glamorous start in the new conference they were hoping for. It was evident from their demeanor that it wasn’t just the AP Poll voters or college football media that thought the Trojans were really good; they did too.

Riley, in particular, seemed intent on pointing blame in other directions, making it clear that he thought his team played a very good game and perhaps deserves to be in a different position right now. 

“We’re two plays away from probably being 5-0, but those plays happened and we’ve had opportunities to win those games,” Riley said. “So we’ve put ourselves in those positions, which is hard to do on the road against quality teams.”

In the postgame press conference, Riley recalled a moment where Minnesota was awarded an extra timeout, noting the decision was the referee’s to make — but had a big impact on the game’s outcome. 

He also lashed out at a reporter for asking redshirt senior defensive end Jamil Muhammad if, from his vantage point on the field, it looked like Brosmer broke the plane and scored on what became the game-winning touchdown. The decisive play was initially ruled a turnover on downs before a replay review, and it was challenging to see what was going on between the tackles, where Muhammad was. 

“Don’t ask him that. Next question,” Riley said. “Who cares what he says on that? A player’s opinion? Let’s ask a more professional question.”

The Trojans’ night had many shades of their defeat a few weeks ago in Ann Arbor, particularly in the form of their failure to make a last-minute goal line stand — and to put up any resistance against the run in general. 

Minnesota sophomore running back Darius Taylor carried the ball 25 times, amassing 200 scrimmage yards as he found gaping holes in the Trojan defense over and over again. Before Saturday, when USC made Taylor look like the second coming of Walter Payton, the Gophers actually struggled mightily to run the ball in Big Ten play. 

Against Iowa (3-2, 1-1) and No. 24 Michigan (4-2, 2-1), Taylor had a combined 23 rushes for 70 yards — just 3.0 yards per carry. 

Against the Wolverines, when the Trojans allowed 290 yards on the ground, there was an excuse. USC was up against a well-oiled machine: a Michigan offensive line and rushing attack that, despite losing key pieces, carried the team to a national championship last season. 

Now, the reality is clear. While Lynn’s unit is an improvement on last year’s calamity, it is not a good defense and it is not Big Ten-ready.

“We played a pretty good game, but there were definitely some plays that we could have been better on,” Muhammad said. “Especially defensively, we need to be better with presnap mistakes, and talking about that last drive, we just needed to be more locked in.”

While it is difficult to imagine how, at this level, a defense could be anything but completely dialed in on a late-fourth-quarter drive in a tie game, it was clear that the Trojans seemed more concerned with late-game wobbles than slow starts — and they are correct to be. 

A lot of attention will be directed at USC’s slow starts, but the Trojans had a second-half lead against a team they are supposed to be better than, and good teams don’t let those slip away. 

“Yeah, we want to get off to a good start, but at the end of the day, we’ve got to keep playing. Every time we’ve gotten off to a slow start, we’ve come back to take the lead late in the game, every single time,” Riley said. “We’re still putting ourselves in positions to win these games, and we just need to make the one more play to push ourselves over the hump.”

Late in the game Saturday, when USC did have a chance to even the score, it was difficult to find reason to believe that redshirt junior quarterback Miller Moss would be able to meet the moment. And meet the moment, he did not. 

The only reason the Trojans even threatened to score on their final drive was a mental error from Gophers senior defensive back Justin Walley — a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for “simulating brandishing a weapon,” as amusingly described by referee Ron Snodgrass.

Walley’s untimely artillery reveal gave USC life, but 35 seconds later, Moss fired a pass into triple coverage and was picked off by Minnesota star true freshman safety Koi Perich. As Perich played hometown hero, Moss was forced to soberly exit the field, which was moments away from being overrun by the Gopher faithful.

As the Trojans head home, Riley and his team, left unranked in Sunday’s new AP Poll, have a lot to think about and not much time to do it. The coaching staff needs to find some answers or at least, some interest in trying to. 

“I don’t know,” Riley said postgame when asked if he considered making protection adjustments with Moss under constant pressure throughout the game. 

It will not get any easier from here for the Trojans, who are back home at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for a tough test Saturday against No. 4 Penn State at 12:30 p.m.