On Saturday, the USC football program picked up a big win over the Iowa Hawkeyes by a score of 26-21 in front of their home fans. The win pushed the Trojans' record on the 2025 college football season to 8-2 and kept their outside hopes at the college football playoff this year alive ahead of next week's game vs Oregon.

After the game, head coach Lincoln Riley had a big response on how the win was emblematic of the culture he has helped create at USC.

“A culture win right there, if there ever was one,” Riley said, per Kendell Hollowell of Sports Illustrated. “We didn't play very good football in the first half. Our team's resilience, the response at halftime. We brought the guys up right away when we came in at half, which we don't typically do. And you can tell from the look in their eye that they knew we didn't play our best and we could make a run at this thing.”

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Riley went on to elaborate on just how impressed he was with the mental toughness his team showed in the win.

“This team's resilience, whether it's a tough stretch of plays, whether it's losing some players here or there throughout the year and obviously having some in this game,” Riley said. “We just keep coming and we have all year. That's a big-time team win. All three sides were really good in the second half and to come back and get that done was a really cool feeling. Just a great moment during the Coliseum for the whole program.”

Up next for USC is a tough road game against Oregon next week at 3:30 PM ET.