USC Cleans Up Attendance Story and Fourth-Quarter Letdown Ahead of Fresno State

No. 14 USC beat San Jose State 42-26 on Aug. 29 to open the 2026 season. The Trojans led 35-3 heading into the fourth quarter. Then the backups came in and the Spartans scored 23 points in the final 15 minutes, according to both the New York Post and USA Today, turning a rout into a game that covered the spread and left head coach Lincoln Riley unhappy.

"A lot of really good football out there," Riley said, according to USA Today. "Fourth quarter, not up to our standards."

Quarterback Jayden Maiava completed 25 of 29 passes for 286 yards and two touchdowns and ran for a third score. The New York Post reported his 86.2% completion rate was the best by a USC quarterback in a single game since at least 1995, among passers with a minimum of 25 attempts. Even so, Maiava said afterward there was plenty to fix, including a fourth-and-goal snap where he scrambled short of the end zone instead of throwing to an open receiver in the flat. "You can't play the position hesitant," he said.

On the offensive line, Pro Football Focus credited the unit with allowing just one sack and three total pressures, and four Trojans linemen made PFF's team of the week, per Sports Illustrated. Redshirt-junior Elijah Paige still wasn't satisfied. "I think there's a lot of things to clean up," he told Sports Illustrated. Running backs coach Anthony Jones Jr. was harsher about ball security and a lack of explosive runs, with running back Waymond Jordan telling reporters any grade below 90% is "basically an F" to his position coach.

The Attendance Fight

The bigger storyline out of Week 0 wasn't the fourth quarter. It was the crowd. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum seats 77,500. USC announced 51,144 tickets sold, its lowest figure since 2018 excluding the fan-free 2020 COVID season, according to Fox Sports. Television cameras showed large sections of empty seats, and the visual circulated nationally.

USC responded with a statement to USA Today Sports acknowledging "the factors that impacted Saturday's attendance" and promising better crowds ahead. ESPN's Paul Finebaum tore into that statement on First Take, according to The Big Lead. "There is no way a human being at Southern Cal put out that pile of garbage," Finebaum said. "That had to be AI generated." He also disputed the official count, saying the crowd looked closer to 25,000 than the announced 51,144, and called the situation "a downright disgrace."

Riley pushed back directly at his Tuesday press conference. "I don't buy into the false narrative," he said, according to Fox Sports, adding that attendance has risen every year of his tenure and that the Coliseum hosted "epic atmospheres" during USC's 2025 home slate. Fox Sports notes USC averaged 67,783 fans per game last season, ninth-best in the Big Ten. Riley also pointed to legitimate factors behind the Week 0 dip: a 94-degree kickoff temperature with a reported real-feel of 104 degrees, a noon start time, and an opponent in San Jose State that isn't a marquee draw.

Both things can be true at once. USC's own official attendance figure and Riley's year-over-year numbers are documented facts. Finebaum's visual head-count estimate is his opinion, not a verified figure, and no independent count has been published to confirm it. The heat and kickoff-time explanations are real conditions that day, not spin invented after the fact. Whether that fully explains a crowd Finebaum says looked half the size of the announced number remains a matter of dispute between the school and its critics.

What's Next

USC (1-0) hosts Fresno State (0-0) Friday evening at the Coliseum in a game televised on Fox. The Bulldogs are coached by Matt Entz, USC's former linebackers coach. Trojans Wire's Micah Huff projected via Yahoo Sports that USC's run game, led by Jordan and King Miller, and a healthier pass rush under defensive coordinator Gary Patterson would carry the Trojans to a cleaner win this time.

The fourth-quarter letdown against San Jose State wasn't unique to USC. In North Carolina's season-opening 15-10 win over TCU in Dublin, Ireland, quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. used nearly identical language after his team's sloppy but successful debut. "We got a lot of stuff to clean up, but at least we can do it in the victory column," Edwards said, according to the New York Times. Messy openers appear to be a broader theme of the season's first weekend, not a USC-specific crisis.

Friday night's crowd count will be the real test. If the Coliseum fills up against a Fresno State team many consider a step up from San Jose State, Riley's case gets stronger. If it doesn't, Finebaum's criticism will only get louder heading into USC's marquee home dates against Oregon and Ohio State later this season.