College Football Playoff, Bowl Game Projections: USC Trojans Continue Bowl Streak?

Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach of ESPN released their College Football Playoff and bowl game projections. While neither have the USC Trojans making the playoff, they do have them making a bowl game for the fourth consecutive season. 

Bonagura has USC making the Holiday Bowl and facing the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. USC and Georgia Tech have played four times before, with each team winning two times. The Yellow Jackets won the most recent meeting in 2012. The Holiday Bowl is a familiar place for Lincoln Riley and USC. In 2023, they beat the Louisville Cardinals in the Holiday Bowl by a final score of 42-28.

Schlabach projects the Trojans to make the Alamo Bowl and face the Kansas State Wildcats. USC and Kansas State have matched up two times in their programs’ history, with the Wildcats getting the better of the Trojans both times. Their most recent game against each other was in 2002. Kansas State won this game 19-6. 

College Football Playoff, National Championship Game Predictions

Bonagura and Schlabach also made their own College Football Playoff projections. Both picked three of the same four teams teams to make the semifinals; the Georgia Bulldogs, Texas Longhorns, and Penn State Nittany Lions. 

The only difference in their final four picks was Bonagura selecting the Ohio State Buckeyes and Schlabach rolling with the Clemson Tigers. Their national championship game projections are Texas vs. Penn State and Texas vs. Clemson. 

USC Trojans Going With Jayden Maiava in 2025

2025 will be Lincoln Riley’s fourth season as coach in Los Angeles. Since winning 11 games in his first season, USC has regressed in each of the past two seasons from eight wins to seven wins. Will they get back on the upswing?

USC will turn to quarterback Jayden Maiava. Riley named Maiava the starting quarterback at Big Ten media day. Maiava started the final four games last season for the Trojans and had a record of 3-1. 

Jayden Maiava played his freshman season in 2023 with the UNLV Rebels. Following a productive year, he entered the portal and transferred to USC. Maiava sat most of the year behind quarterback Miller Moss before Riley benched Moss for the final month of the season, opening the door for Maiava.

The USC Trojans will kick off their 2025 season against the Missouri State Bears at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Saturday, Aug. 30.