On the heels of offensive outbursts in its first two games, USC football is set to kick off its 2025 Big Ten slate on the road against the also undefeated Purdue on Saturday. The Trojans finished their first season in the Big Ten with an underwhelming 4-5 conference record, including four road losses, so this test versus the Boilermakers is a chance to set a different tone. 

Purdue (2-0) was picked to finish dead last in ESPN’s preseason Big Ten power rankings, but after starting the season with two lower-tier opponents to begin the season, they have won both games with a comfortable 24-point average margin of victory. The Boilermakers came into 2025 with an almost entirely new roster after a disastrous 2024 season in which the team went 1-11 and failed to win a single conference game. 

The two teams have not faced each other in 27 years, with the most recent matchup being a 27-17 win in the 1998 Pigskin Classic to open the season. USC is 3-1 all-time against Purdue.

The Trojans have enjoyed a dominant start to the 2025 season that included a 73-13 opening week victory over Missouri State University (1-1) and a 59-20 win against Georgia Southern University (0-2) on Saturday. The offense, led by redshirt junior quarterback Jayden Maiava, produced 755 yards from scrimmage against Georgia Southern, the most in a game for USC since at least 1972.

Despite still being left off the AP Top 25, USC is ranked 5th in the country according to ESPN’s College Football Power Index, a metric that evaluates a team’s true strength on a net points scale, taking into account expected point margin versus an average opponent on a neutral field. The Trojans also currently have a 60.7% chance of making the College Football Playoffs per ESPN’s projections. 

Despite football’s commanding start to the season, Head Coach Lincoln Riley stressed that the team must focus on cleaning up penalties on the defense after surrendering eight penalties for 93 yards Saturday.

“There were a few aggressive [penalties] throughout the game that are going to happen when guys are competing at a high level,” Riley said. “We don’t get too down on guys because of those. The ones that really matter are the ones where you did something on a noncompetitive play, and you just handed them an explosive play and 15 yards on either side of the ball.”

Trojans look to reverse road woes

The Trojans haven’t won a road game outside of Los Angeles since 2023, with their only conference road win of 2024 coming against crosstown rival UCLA at the Rose Bowl. The game against Purdue will be USC’s first of five road matchups this season. 

USC’s last road win outside L.A. came in October 2023 against UC Berkeley, a game in which then-Heisman quarterback Caleb Williams threw for 369 yards and two touchdowns. The Trojans have won three neutral-site games since then, including bowl game wins over Louisville in 2023 and Texas A&M in 2024. Since 2014, USC has won 53.6% of its total road games, going 30-26 over that span.

To prepare the team with better tools to succeed on the road in 2025, USC’s coaches have developed a new sleep and training regimen to account for the jet lag into a new time zone. Changes in the schedule include practicing Sunday nights after games instead of Mondays, a new team jet with increased leg room and an emphasis on sleep scheduling. 

”The biggest emphasis coming into the season was getting a lot of sleep,” Maiava said in a post-practice news conference Tuesday. “Just trusting in the coaching staff, they have put us in the best position every single day to go out there and play our best ball.” 

Receivers Lemon, Lane lead the charge

Junior wide receivers Makai Lemon and Ja’Kobi Lane have been a focal point of USC’s offensive surge to begin the season. Lemon found the end zone twice against the Eagles on Saturday, and his 158 receiving yards were a single-game career high and the most by a Trojan receiver since Brenden Rice went for 174 yards in January 2023. 

Lemon has the highest yards per route run in the Big Ten with 7.52 and has the Big Ten’s highest Pro Football Focus receiving grade, a metric that isolates the targeted receiver’s role on every pass attempt, with 89.9.

“I’m just blessed to be given this opportunity,” Lemon said about being a Trojan in a post-practice news conference Tuesday. “The coaches trust me that much, so when the ball comes my way, I just gotta capitalize. Everytime I step onto this campus, I just gotta do my best and leave such a great legacy behind.”

Opposite of Lemon on Saturday, Lane snagged an unbelievable one-handed 12-yard TD reception on the second offensive series of the game versus Georgia Southern. The catch made ESPN’s College Football Recap No. 1 play of the weekend. His leaping grab over the opposing corner marked Lane’s 15th touchdown of his Trojan career, which began in 2023.

“The pictures really did it for me,” Maiava said of the catch on Tuesday after saying he hadn’t seen it well live after Saturday’s game. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

In addition to USC’s two superstars out wide, sophomore tight end Walker Lyons showed his versatility in the receiving game Sunday and looks to become a go-to target for Maiava. His first touchdown of the season came on Saturday against Georgia Southern on a 26-yard reception. 

Through two games, Lyons has hauled in three catches for 47 yards and is playing a major role in the blocking game as well. This marks a stark change from previous seasons under Lincoln Riley, as while USC tight ends had zero receiving touchdowns in 2024, three different tight ends have already found the end zone through two games in 2025.

Lyons has paired with senior tight end Lake McRee, who has four catches for 106 yards on the season, including an impressive 62-yard touchdown catch against Missouri State. Additionally, redshirt junior tight end Carson Tabaracci caught his first ever touchdown in the same game.

“When teams come and play us, they have to be afraid that we have two tight ends who are going to come down and block them and be physical in the run game but then also catch the ball and be a threat after the catch in the passing game,” Lyons said. “It’s been cool to see [through] two games now we’ve had three different tight ends score.”

USC will head to West Lafayette to face Purdue at Ross-Ade Stadium on Saturday at 12:30 p.m.