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Game is schedule to start in about 20 minutes! Ryan and I are here to update you guys throughout the game and get the postgame interviews!

Fuk this team, fuk the admin, and fuk u lincoln riley. The team should be forced to wear their practice jerseys. They dont deserve to wear the uniform.

to know how much influence Coach Entz (two time FCS Champion) has during a game. Or, coming up with a game plan beforehand. I know he coaches LB’s; however, he has a lot of head coaching experience and I am sure he has his thoughts during the game. I would like to know what they are. RUN, run, run the damn ball. Establish the run against the worst run D in the B1G. If you look at how the OL was dominating in the second half, this could have been a game we blow them out. Not impossible with the better decision making by coach LR. My .02

Our Week 9 winner is @Clay Helton with a score of 2! Next best were @JetLaggMatt , @Bigtrojan78, @SC55OU19, and @usc7137 with a score of 13.

Here are the updates standings through nine weeks. Remember, after Week 4 we drop each person’s two worst scores from the average provided they have participated all four weeks (or drop one score if a week has been missed). The bold scores are the scores that have been dropped.

Lincoln Riley, Jonah Monheim and Gavin Meyer, who really didn’t speak. No other players.

Uploading and Riley clips coming.

Offensive snap counts (81 total plays):

QB Miller Moss 81, LT Elijah Paige 81, LG Emmanuel Pregnon 81, C Jonah Monheim 81, RG Alani Noa 81, RT Mason Murphy 81, RB Woody Marks 69, WR Zachariah Branch 62, TE Lake McRee 61, WR Kyron Hudson 55, WR Ja'Kobi Lane 39, WR Makai Lemon 39, WR Duce Robinson 27, WR Kyle Ford 27, TE Walker Lyons 12, RB Quinten Joyner 11, TE Kade Eldridge 3.

Top-graded offensive players:

1. WR Zachariah Branch 71.1
2. RB Woody Marks 66.9
3. C Jonah Monheim 66.9
4. LT Elijah Paige 65.6
5. WR Makai Lemon 65.4
6. RB Quinten Joyner 65.1
7. WR Ja'Kobi Lane 64.2
8. LG Emmanuel Pregnon 63.3
9. TE Walker Lyons 60.3
10. RG Alani Noa 57.1

Offensive stats and analytics:

-Miller Moss was 30 of 50 for 293 yards, 2 TDs and a career-worst 3 INTs. Yes, one of those was a no-risk end-of-half heave and one went off Kyle Ford's fingers (but was off the mark). That said, he also could have had 4 INTs if the Washington defensive linemen held onto the ball thrown at his chest. Here's what Lincoln Riley said about Moss' performance:

"I thought he played pretty well in the first half, honestly. I know he ended up with two interceptions -- one's on a Hail Mary play and another is on a perfectly-thrown ball that gets just, you know, volleyball-tipped up in the air. So I thought he was pretty good in the first half," Riley said. "I thought he had a couple of loose decisions in the second half -- the third down one was the big one obviously that hurt us. I thought he made a lot of plays with his feet, some really nice escape, scramble plays in the pocket. I thought he played good. Obviously, the quarterback position is defined by making big plays, which he made a lot of 'em. I thought he gave our guys chances to make a few more plays that we need to make. But obviously we can't turn the ball over, and that was the biggest thing."

-Moss was again not very successful throwing downfield as he finished just 2 of 6 for 58 yards, 1 TD (the fourth down dart to Makai Lemon) and 1 INT. Of his 50 passing attempts, 24 came within 10 yards or behind the line of scrimmage. He had an average depth of target of 9.4 yards.

-USC's only allowed 7 pressures and 0 sacks -- a strong performance overall. Give Josh Henson credit for the improvement of that unit over the course of the season. Elijah Paige had 2 pressures, Emmanuel Pregnon had 2 and the other starters gave up 1 each. Mason Murphy was flagged for 4 penalties, though.

-Zachariah Branch had a career-high 102 receiving yards on 6 catches (previous career-high was 98 yards on 6 catches at Michigan).

-Makai Lemon was the most-targeted wideout with 9 targets (8 receptions for 70 yards). Branch hauled in 6 of his 8 targets, Woody Marks caught all 7 of his targets for 26 yards, Kyron Hudson caught 1 of his 5 targets for 19 yards (but it was a helluva grab), Duce Robinson caught 1 of his 5 targets for 5 yards, Ja'Kobi Lane caught 3 of his 5 targets for 47 yards, Lake McRee caught 3 of his 4 targets for 15 yards and Kyle Ford caught 1 of 2 targets for a 9-yard TD.

-Lemon leads USC with 448 receiving yards (33 catches, 3 TDs) and Branch is close behind with 404 yards (35 catches, 0 TDs) followed by Lane (32-368-5) and Hudson (27-322-2).

-Again, Robinson was minimally involved. He was only on the field for 10 passing plays.

-Woody Marks rushed a season-high 22 times for 123 yards and 1 TD and he's up to 878 rushing yards (5.7 YPC) and 9 TDs while averaging 97.6 rushing yards per game. He had 47 yards after contact Saturday. Quinten Joyner had 24 yards after contact on just 6 carries (for 38 yards).

Getting out ahead of this since the game will tip off at 9 a.m. PT, here's my preview of the USC women's basketball season as the Trojans open up the year as the first game for either the men or women when they face No. 20 Ole Miss tomorrow morning in Paris. It'll put an international spotlight on JuJu Watkins and Co., and I have a comprehensive preview of the season for you here.

Apparently Riley is quoted on the other site as saying “It’s not like we are getting our ass kicked.” If this was in fact said, Riley needs to be tarmaced asap. What coach would actually say something this stupid.

Just some quick thoughts -- will have a more formal story or column ...

1. I truly don't think Lincoln Riley sees what everybody else sees in terms of his inability -- perhaps subconscious! -- to commit to the run game. The fact that when asked about it multiple times, his response was to it was ...

-"We called some stuff in the first half that we felt was there, but we didn't really execute it well."

-"Yeah, I mean, we did try. We just, we didn't run it great. That's always easy to say when you're not running it very good and you feel obviously the need to run the ball. But, yeah, we needed to do it better, I needed to do a better job -- I mean, none of it was good enough in the first half."

But ... they DIDN'T try. Not really. They ran the ball two times in the entire first quarter (out of 10 plays). They gave it to the RBs (well, only Woody Marks) 8 times in the first half and threw it 29 times! That's not "trying" to establish the run and it just not working. I mean, it didn't work, but 29 to 8 is a very clear message of what they wanted to do.

Finally, I was the third person to ask about it and said -- essentially suggested -- that shouldn't the run game be the identity of the offense moving forward, given that whenever they do commit to it, for whatever stretches, it works?

"Yeah, it's exciting to see. I think that's something that's grown as the year's gone on, and so we've got to continue to be able to do it. It's really, really important. Yeah, we all want to do a better job of it," Riley said. "I've got to continue to stick with it more. It's obviously the way that you can control and win games, and we've got to be able to do it more consistently. We've had moments this year, but it's got to be a four quarter thing for us."

There was some self-acknowledgement there that he's playing a role in the run game not consistently helping this team, but I still don't believe if he truly sees it. I saw this tweet and couldn't agree more:

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It's just the truth!

Take the second half tonight, for the latest example.

Riley finally commits to leaning on a ground attack that ranks 20th nationally in yards per carry (5.3 coming into the night) but 82nd in total rushing (consider that). In a span of five plays on USC's first second-half drive, Marks rushes it for 4, 15, 14 and 13 yards. Eventually, Miller Moss throws a 37-yard touchdown pass to Makai Lemon on fourth down after back-to-back incompletions before it.

The next USC drive, Marks gets it going with a 16-yard run and the pass game starts to open up -- a 42-yard completion to Zachariah Branch and eventually a 9-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Ford. Just like that, USC has the lead.

So what do the Trojans do on their next possession? Continue to feed a run game that is rolling?

Well, Marks starts with a 5-yard rush and then ... Moss incompletion and Moss interception and just like that UW goes back on top moments later.

The reality is this USC passing game has too many ways things go wrong -- either a bad read or throw by Moss, like in this case, or a protection breakdown and sack. The less they have to ask of Moss and the passing game, the better! Marks has been ripping off long runs. It's second-and-5 -- why not keep feeding him? I could be way oversimplifying this, without going back and looking at the defensive alignment and what look USC was getting. But it's honestly not about this one example -- it's about the trend.

Even if USC punted there instead of the interception, it could be an entirely different outcome. OR, Marks keeps moving the chains like he'd do on the next series when, hey now, they give it to him on third-and-4 and he rumbles for 19 yards. And then they give it to him on third-and-6 and he runs for 9 and another first down. And then they give it to him on another third-and-4 and he rushes for 6. In fact, they keep running it with Quinten Joyner and Marks -- running on 10 of 11 plays in this stretch -- all the way down to the 1 before Marks got stuffed on fourth down due to a blown assignment.

Washington is the 15th-ranked rush defense in the Big Ten and had gotten run over four straight games entering this one. This game plan should have been crystal clear. THAT should have been the game plan from the start, and then let the pass game play off of it.

I don't have any confidence that much will change in this regard next game, though.

2. I'm starting to get curious about the Jayden Maiava situation ...

Look, I've been as consistent a defender of Miller Moss as anyone this season and to this point I absolutely believed they needed to stick with him. But now they're 4-5 and at best fighting for a bottom-tiered bowl game (plus the two rivalry games ahead). It's time to see what they have in Maiava -- at least in some capacity. Give him one series a half next game, and evaluate from that if he deserves more.

But Riley shut down that notion when I asked him tonight.

"I wouldn't say that right now, no," he said. "For us right now, what we're looking at, is what is the best lineup, the best people to help us win each and every week and we're going to keep our focus there."

I don't know what to make of it. Either he believes Maiava would be very limited in what he could handle playbook-wise, or he feels major pressure to win out and thinks it's more of a gamble to go with the unknown (even for the sake of the future) rather than the status quo. I don't know what it is.

I wasn't even suggesting a full QB switch -- just wondered if it might be tempting to see what they have with Maiava in some meaningful game action. He redshirted his first year at UNLV, so there is no redshirt to protect. And given that Moss just played his worst game and has been shaky in three of the last four, what's the harm in giving the other guy a few offensive series?

I'm now very curious about the whole thing.

3. I don't actually have a problem with Riley reiterating that they've had a chance to win every game, because that is something most teams can't actually say -- it is. But I do push back on this ...

"I've told you guys this before, it's like, all right yeah, how many weeks we gotta say this? I understand. But you go change five, six plays this season, and then everybody's like 'Oh my God, they're fricking unbelievable.' And the other 99.9 percent of the plays that we've played would all be exactly the same," Riley said. "So, you gotta, you still gotta win at the end of the day and it's about winning, and trust me, I get that as good as anybody. But I've also got to pay attention to the other 99.9 percent too. I can't ignore that as well. And within that, I see massive progress that will pay dividends for this program and will pay dividends soon."

But it's not JUST THOSE FIVE OR SIX PLAYS!

Yes, those are the ones that ultimately sealed the outcome. Yes, if they don't give up the long run to Kalel Mullings, if they get the goal line stop at Minnesota, if they don't give up one of the fourth-and-long conversions to Penn State or Moss doesn't miss Duce Robinson over the middle or they don't miss the field goal in overtime that game, and if they don't have the FG blocked at Maryland, and if they score on one of their final red zone trips tonight ... sure, those plays would have changed the outcome.

But that does not mean the other 99.9 percent of the plays SHOULD have been the same regardless. There is so much in there that would have been prevented it from coming down to those plays. Like the aforementioned refusal to accept that this should be a ground-heavy offense. And so much else.

I know Riley is going to get raked over the coals every time he says how close they've been to winning, but I don't have a problem with that. I do take issue if he truly believes that all that needed to change in those games was one play each time. Because there were ways not to have it come down to that play to begin with ...

Rant over.

...is a Lincoln Riley special, throwing the ball to a slow tight end moving horizontally along the line of scrimmage.

Let’s get it going …

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Let’s get it started! No more cute finesse teams! We need a coach who’s a dog! Let’s go get Washington or Oregon coach!

Let's fire it up!

vs USC…..
33 points, 400 yds passing, the unstoppable Tyler Warren 17 catches for 224 yards.

vs Ohio St, after 3 quarters…….
6 points, 115 yds passing, the unstoppable Tyler Warren 3 catches for 16 yards.

And to think, we had to RUN OUT OUR OWN CLOCK with the ball in a tied game to keep the ball away from this lethal offensive force……

Beat the Huskies!

They’ve got tons of talent at every position, except maybe QB. But even he is solid. They have so much talent everywhere that it almost doesn’t matter. We’d be completely overmatched. We’ve got a LONG way to go recruiting wise to catch up to them.

Are you guys breaking this game down with predictions?

A roster update on OL Gino Quinones, who is out for the season -- again. Quinones, who is already in his sixth year at USC, is expected back next season and could apply for an EIGHTH year potentially too, Lincoln Riley said.

Quinones hasn't been able to practice, but we see him out there when he's not getting work inside with the trainers.

"My understanding is he’s going to try to. He’s got a year left either way. He’s working to try to determine if that’s one or two. So we’ll see obviously how that unfolds. The second group, we’ve definitely been aided by Killian getting back. Losing him early in the season definitely factored into some things. We stayed pretty healthy with the first unit, so we haven’t had a ton of moving parts there. We’ve been fortunate that way. But you know, Killian has taken a lot of reps. Justin Taunauu has taken a lot of reps – we’ve been really pleased with his progress. Tobias Raymond has taken a lot of reps – also very pleased with his progress as well. I think he’s one of the more improved players on our entire roster. Amos has continued taking a lot of reps, and one of the guys that’s really stepped up is Kaleb Miller. We’ve been really proud of his development. He’s got a real chance here as time goes on, does some really good things. Banuelos has been out for a while, but had a chance to get him, Makai Saina, to get those guys out on the practice field in the last week to 10 days which has kind of bolstered the second unit some and certainly our scout teams as well. Honestly our depth there right now is probably as good as its been. Lolo is back off of injury as well. It’s probably the best it’s been since even before training camp. So in a good place there."

Tajwar and I just recorded the podcast. I have some other things to write today, so it'll be up first thing in the morning before I fly to Seattle. But it's not a pod that has to be listened to before the game Saturday at all. The bulk of the discussion was Tajwar and I each making our list of 10 players were most confident in to be impact guys for 2025, and from there, kind of sizing up the roster as it stands for next season. So listen anytime to that.

Here's our table-setter for today: