Jayden Maiava passed for 222 yards and a touchdown, freshman Trent Mosley scored on a 69-yard catch on the second play of the game, and Southern California stunned No. 2 Ohio State 30-18 on Saturday night, October 31, 2026, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, delivering the biggest win of Lincoln Riley's tenure and throwing the College Football Playoff race into fresh chaos. The Trojans, unranked after a seven-point loss to Wisconsin the previous week, beat a top-five opponent at the Coliseum for the first time since 2015, and fans stormed the field as the final seconds ticked away on a rainy Halloween night.

USC scored more points than Ohio State's vaunted defence had allowed since 2024, and the Buckeyes did not reach the end zone until the final 2:12, when freshman quarterback Luke Fahey found Jeremiah Smith for a one-yard touchdown. By then the upset was already complete. USC improved to 7-2 overall and 4-2 in the Big Ten, while Ohio State fell to 6-2 and 4-1, suffering its second loss this early in a season for the first time since 2011, the year before Urban Meyer arrived in Columbus.

Key Points

• USC beat No. 2 Ohio State 30-18 on Saturday, October 31, 2026, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Halloween night.
• Freshman Trent Mosley scored on a 69-yard touchdown on the second play from scrimmage and finished with five catches for 101 yards.
• Jayden Maiava threw for 222 yards and a touchdown, while King Miller and Waymond Jordan rushed for scores for the Trojans.
• Ohio State, playing without injured starter Julian Sayin, did not score a touchdown until 2:12 remained, with Luke Fahey making his first career start.
• The win was Lincoln Riley's first top-five victory at USC and keeps the Trojans in the College Football Playoff conversation.

What Happened

The tone was set in 39 seconds. On the second play from scrimmage, Maiava hit Mosley on a short pass, and the freshman turned it into a 69-yard touchdown, untouched, sending the Coliseum crowd into a frenzy. USC was not finished. Waymond Jordan added a nine-yard rushing touchdown, and the Trojans led 14-3 after the first quarter, having piled up 128 of their 146 first-quarter all-purpose yards on just two explosive plays from Mosley.

Ohio State's defence, which entered the night allowing just 13.4 points per game, the fourth-best mark in the country, had no answer for USC's big plays. The Trojans averaged nearly seven yards per play, and Maiava carved up the Buckeyes for more than 10 yards per attempt. Tight end Mark Bowman supplied the night's other defining highlight midway through the third quarter, hurdling safety Jaylen McClain while turning a 17-yard pass into a 70-yard catch-and-run to the Ohio State three-yard line. Two plays later, King Miller ran it in, and USC led 27-9.

USC's defence was just as decisive. The Trojans held Ohio State without a touchdown for the first 57 minutes, sacking Fahey twice and recording seven tackles for loss. The Buckeyes' only scores for most of the night were field goals, and a late push produced a field goal and Smith's touchdown in the fourth quarter, but the two-point conversion attempt after Smith's score failed, USC recovered the onside kick, and the Trojans added a third field goal with 1:46 left to seal a 30-18 final.

Fahey, a true freshman making his first career start in place of Sayin, completed 21 of 38 passes for 260 yards, with one touchdown and no interceptions in most accounts, though one report credited him with an interception on a fumbled exchange. He had finished Ohio State's 19-15 win over Indiana after replacing Sayin, but this was a different assignment entirely: a road start, in the rain, against a desperate team, with the Buckeyes' playoff margin already thin.

Background and Context

The context made the result so startling. USC entered the week unranked, coming off a loss to Wisconsin in which the Trojans managed just seven points, and Riley spent the week defending his job status after five seasons in Los Angeles without a signature victory. He had not beaten a top-five team since his first season at Oklahoma in 2017, also against Ohio State, and he had not beaten a top-12 team at USC at all. On Halloween night, with light, steady rain falling throughout, that history was rewritten.

Ohio State, meanwhile, arrived as a 6.5-point favourite despite Sayin's absence. The former Heisman Trophy finalist has been sidelined indefinitely with an injury to his right throwing arm suffered against Indiana on October 17, and the Buckeyes had already lost once this season, in the early days of the campaign against Texas. A second loss, and the manner of it, leaves Ohio State with very little margin for error: the Buckeyes still face Oregon, Northwestern, Nebraska and Michigan, and will likely need to win out in November to reach the College Football Playoff and the Big Ten championship game.

The result also continued a remarkable pattern at the top of the polls. It was the fourth straight week in which a top-two team in the Associated Press poll lost to an unranked opponent, a run of chaos that has reshaped the playoff picture week after week. Ohio State had not surrendered 30 points in a game since its 32-31 loss to Oregon in 2024, and had not lost at the Coliseum to USC since 1946, a streak that now stretches to five straight home wins for the Trojans in the series.

USC Ohio State Upset: How the Trojans Broke the Buckeyes

The upset was built on explosiveness, not trickery. USC's first two touchdowns came on plays that turned short throws into long gains, and Bowman's hurdle-and-run in the third quarter turned a routine completion into the play that broke Ohio State's resistance. In all, 173 of Maiava's 222 passing yards came after the catch, a sign of how often USC's receivers turned modest throws into damage against a defence that had rarely been stretched this season.

The Trojans also won the physical battle that was supposed to favour Ohio State. USC's defence hounded Fahey all night, limited the Buckeyes to one touchdown, and forced the mistakes that kept drives from building rhythm. When Ohio State did threaten late, USC answered: the failed two-point conversion, the onside-kick recovery and the closing field goal were the work of a team that refused to let a late scare become a collapse.

For Riley, the night answered the question that had followed him all season: could he win the game that mattered most? Against a top-five opponent, at home, with his job the subject of open debate, his team played its most complete game of the year. The win does not erase the Wisconsin loss or the questions about consistency, but it changes the shape of USC's season entirely.

Reactions and Quotes

Riley's players celebrated as if a weight had lifted, and the field-storming that followed the final whistle told its own story. For five years, USC fans had waited for a night like this at the Coliseum, and the sight of thousands pouring onto the field in the rain, after a win over a top-five opponent, was the image of the weekend in college football.

The national reaction centred on what the result means for the playoff race. Analysts noted that USC, at 7-2, is back in the conversation, with a bye week followed by a trip to Indiana on November 14, a game that now looks like a season-defining test rather than a footnote. Ohio State, by contrast, heads into next Saturday's home game against Oregon with serious questions about its offence without Sayin, and about a defence that gave up its most points in two years.

Smith's late touchdown, his 40th touchdown catch as a Buckeye, broke Braylon Edwards' record for the most touchdown catches in Big Ten history, a milestone that will be remembered even in defeat. It was a small consolation on a night when almost nothing else went Ohio State's way, and it underlined the talent still on the Buckeyes' roster even as their playoff path narrowed sharply.

Why It Matters

This result matters because it rearranges the playoff race at exactly the moment when the first College Football Playoff rankings are about to be revealed on Tuesday, November 3. Ohio State's second loss does not eliminate the Buckeyes, but it removes their cushion: one more slip, against Oregon or Michigan, and the conversation turns from seeding to survival. USC, meanwhile, has gone from unranked and written off to a team that controls its own story again, with Indiana looming as the next measuring stick.

It also matters for Riley and for USC's programme. A coach who had spent the week defending his record now owns the win his tenure had lacked, and a programme that had been defined by near-misses against elite opponents finally has a landmark victory to point to. Recruiting, morale and the final month of the season all look different this morning than they did on Saturday afternoon.

More broadly, the upset is the latest proof that this season has no safe favourite. Four straight weeks of top-two teams falling to unranked opponents is not a coincidence; it is a sign of a sport in which depth, injuries and one explosive night can overturn months of assumptions. The playoff committee will have to weigh all of it on Tuesday, and Ohio State's loss will be at the centre of that debate.

What Happens Next

USC has a bye week to savour the win and prepare for its trip to Indiana on November 14, a game that could decide whether the Trojans are genuine playoff contenders or simply the authors of one great upset. Ohio State hosts Oregon next Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET, a game that now carries the weight of a season: win, and the Buckeyes stay alive; lose, and the playoff dream is effectively over.

The rankings will tell the next part of the story. The Associated Press poll and the first College Football Playoff rankings, due Tuesday, will show how far Ohio State falls and how far USC climbs, and whether the committee rewards a head-to-head upset or leans on season-long resumes. Either way, Halloween night at the Coliseum has already changed the argument, and the final month of the season will be played in its shadow.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was the final score of USC vs Ohio State?

USC beat No. 2 Ohio State 30-18 on Saturday, October 31, 2026, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Who scored the first touchdown for USC?

Freshman Trent Mosley scored on a 69-yard touchdown catch on the second play from scrimmage, finishing with five catches for 101 yards.

Why was Ohio State's starting quarterback out?

Julian Sayin has been sidelined indefinitely with an injury to his right throwing arm suffered against Indiana on October 17, so true freshman Luke Fahey made his first career start.

What does the loss mean for Ohio State's playoff hopes?

Ohio State fell to 6-2 and now has very little margin for error, likely needing to win out against Oregon, Northwestern, Nebraska and Michigan to reach the playoff.

What is next for USC?

USC has a bye week, then travels to face Indiana on November 14, with the Trojans back in the College Football Playoff conversation at 7-2.

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