As redshirt senior quarterback Jayden Maiava took a knee with 36 seconds to go, USC football did something it hadn’t accomplished in over 21 years: Beat the No. 2 team in the nation. Fans poured onto United Airlines Field on Saturday night at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, creating an atmosphere fans had not yet experienced during Lincoln Riley’s five years as head coach.
According to USC Athletics, there were over 70,810 screaming fans in attendance in the pouring rain, and thousands of them came running out onto the field to celebrate. Many walked down staircases onto the field. Others, including quite a few in the student section, jumped over barricades from the stands and ran onto the field, joining players and coaches alike.
One student who rushed the field was Kimia Shafiei, a first-year graduate student studying public relations and advertising.
“Everyone was jumping up and down [and] there were tons of emotions,” Shafiei said. “Everyone went right to the players, which was pretty cool. My favorite players on the team are Mark Bowman and Luke Wafle, [and] I saw them both. That was insane.”
The last time USC students rushed the field was Nov. 16, 2013, when then-unranked USC took down then-No. 5 Stanford 20-17 in a Pac-12 rivalry game thanks to a late field goal from Andre Heidari, according to USC Athletics.
On Saturday, the decision and process of rushing the field was decided well beforehand, with chants of “rush the field” and “you can’t stop us” coming from the crowd. The goalposts on the field were lowered by staff just as fans were starting to come onto the field. In 2013, the posts stayed up, but footage from the game showed security guarding them.
“There was one guy [and] he was telling us to rush the field,” Shafiei said. “He went up and down every [row] and was like, ‘you guys are rushing.’ We were like, ‘Okay, we will.’ So the minute the game ended, everyone ran. We had a beeline for the players.”
The addition of the rain on Saturday at the Coliseum made the atmosphere even more crazy, according to Shafiei, but also potentially dangerous for the fans.
Not only the rain, but the overall outcomes of previous field rushes have been a topic of concern regarding those around the country and at the Coliseum. According to NBC4’s coverage of the 2013 game, five fans were hurt during the game and another five fans were hurt during the field rush, with one even breaking their ankle.
On Saturday, a video posted on social media showed attendees jumping from the stands, with some falling and taking a hard landing. In the video, one fan appeared to limp following their fall.
Siena Oh, a junior public relations and advertising major, opted for a safer route and remained uninjured.
“I luckily went down the stairs,” Oh said. “There were security people there too, and I was like, ‘I wonder what they’re going to do.’ But they knew it was coming, so they let down the chains.”
According to Sports Illustrated, Big Ten universities like USC have a discretionary policy around field rushes. The Big Ten institutes a warning and reprimand system, with the first offense being a private reprimand. While Big Ten schools have been fined in the past for fans on the field, unless the conference makes a late decision, USC will likely avoid a fine.
Even if USC were to get fined, Tate Harahan, a junior studying journalism, believes that the university would happily pay for it.
“If this happened, they would have paid the fine every single time, without a doubt,” Harahan said. “This is a culture regenerator. I feel like with how much negative press [that] has been out there, this was crazy.”
Much of recent USC football discourse surrounds USC’s head coach, Lincoln Riley. Following the 24-7 loss on Oct. 24 to Wisconsin, people on social media were calling for Riley to be fired, as the team’s playoff hopes had seemingly shrunk to almost zero.
After the win over Ohio State, Riley addressed the media with a prepared written statement, saying, “I said before this game that I’m the right person for this job, and as long as all those people know that, that’s all I care about. … I’m going to continue to fight on because that’s what being a Trojan’s all about.”
While the major upset win over the Buckeyes still leaves some fans like Shafiei unconvinced, others like Oh are starting to see change in the Trojans.
“This was a big win, especially for Lincoln Riley to clap back at everyone saying that he get fired immediately,” Oh said. “He really proved what USC can be, and I think he just has to continue to prove himself throughout the season.”
USC will head into its second bye week this weekend before taking on No. 6 Indiana in Bloomington on Nov. 14.
Edited by Natalie Cerna, Scott Hills and Katherine Contreras Hernandez