LOS ANGELES — USC was missing two of its top-performing offensive players for Saturday’s game against Washington: receiver Trent Mosley and tight end Mark Bowman.
Read more How Lakers’ Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves make practice ‘so hard’
Both freshman standouts were wearing a jersey, sweatpants and no shoes during warm-ups.
Mosley has now missed three straight games due to a knee injury, but is still the team’s second-leading receiver with 255 yards and four touchdowns on 13 receptions. Bowman has the third-most receiving yards on the team with 204 on 21 catches and has also scored two touchdowns.
Zacharyus Williams led the team in the first half, hauling in three passes for 55 yards, including a 40-yarder.
Safety Alex Graham and defensive tackles Alex VanSumeren and Jahkeem Stewart each played after being listed as “questionable” on the Big Ten availability report earlier in the week.
Graham and VanSumeren, as well as Bowman, were listed as “game time decisions” on the game day availability report.
The defense was down an important linebacker in Desman Stephens II, who was serving a one-game suspension issued by USC due to a late hit on Oregon quarterback Dante Moore and his celebration afterward.
Ta’mere Robinson started alongside Deven Bryant on Saturday and quickly made the most of his opportunity by sacking Washington quarterback Demond Williams for a loss of five yards late in the first quarter.
Card stunts return
The USC Trojan Knights brought back the card stunt tradition on Saturday for the first time since the 2000s.
Read more Football roundup: Cypress, Segerstrom, Aliso Niguel get big wins in Week 6
All seats in Sections 123A, 123B, 124A and 124B in the student section had a reversible card with red and yellow sides, and fans raised the cards during halftime to create four different patterns: the SoCal logo, “USC,” “fight on” and the SC interlacing logo. All card stunts were chosen by the Trojan Knights.
USC began doing card stunts in the 1920s, and the Trojans teamed up with Kivett Productions, which also does giant American flag presentations at the Coliseum, to bring them back for the homecoming game.
“I think it’s fun for the audience to do this,” Joe Kivett of Kivett Productions said. “We’ve done several Super Bowl halftime shows and if you look at the pictures from those, it’s like 99% participation. Deep down, everybody wants to be part of the show.”
Kivett spent the game on the sidelines, where he communicated with the Trojan Knights through a radio headset to coordinate timing for giant cards with instructions for the crowd.
Tunnel captain
Super Bowl champion and USC alumnus Terrell Thomas was the Trojans’ tunnel captain for Saturday’s game against Washington.
Thomas was drafted in the second round as the 63rd overall pick in the 2008 NFL Draft by the New York Giants, and spent all four seasons of his NFL career with the team. His best season was in 2010, when he collected 101 tackles, five interceptions and 21 pass breakups.
He was with the Giants for their Super Bowl run in the 2011 season, though he missed the year due to a knee injury.
At USC, he hauled in a team-best four interceptions that were returned for 44 yards and also logged 45 tackles and 4.5 tackles for loss.
Read more Chargers’ Khalil Mack ‘extremely frustrated’ by 0-3 start