Iowa
USC survived a dogfight vs. Iowa — now the biggest test of Lincoln Riley’s tenure awaits
LOS ANGELES — As Lincoln Riley walked toward the Coliseum tunnel following USC’s gritty, 26-21 comeback win against 21st-ranked Iowa, he shared an animated embrace with Trojans offensive coordinator Luke Huard.
Riley was more fired up than usual, and understandably so. The Trojans’ physicality and toughness have been questioned ever since he took the job four years ago.
And after USC fell behind by 14 points in the first half — tied for its largest deficit of the season — it demonstrated the sort of toughness and resilience it’s often lacked during Riley’s tenure. The Trojans got off the mat after the Hawkeyes knocked them down in the first half and scored the game’s final 19 points.
fire us up coach 😤‼️ pic.twitter.com/qtLnYt8oyk
— USC Football ✌️ (@uscfb) November 16, 2025
“Culture win right there, man, if there ever was one,” Riley said.
Now that USC (8-2, 6-1 Big Ten) survived that dogfight, all that awaits is one of the biggest games of Riley’s tenure when USC travels to eighth-ranked Oregon next week. Win and a trip to the College Football Playoff seems likely — in the 80 percent range, according to Austin Mock’s model. Lose, and the season could still be viewed as a positive step forward, if USC finishes 9-3, but that would be four years under Riley without a Playoff appearance.
On Saturday, USC narrowly defeated the same Iowa team that Oregon barely beat the week before. But the Trojans will likely enter next week’s matchup in Eugene — a place where they haven’t won since 2011 — as a considerable underdog.
On Saturday afternoon, the concerns were all on display in the first half. They resided where they usually do under Riley: on defense.
Even though rain was falling throughout the afternoon in the Coliseum, Iowa still felt confident enough to attack USC’s secondary down the field, and it had success early on. That’s with an offense that ranked 133rd nationally in passing yards per game.
Iowa had a good amount of success on the ground, too, finishing with 183 rushing yards and on a 5.5-yard average.
A team like Oregon, balanced on offense, figures to stress USC’s defense in much more significant fashion next weekend.
But give credit to the defense and coordinator D’Anton Lynn for the second-half play. The Trojans shut out Iowa over the final two quarters and have given up just six second-half points over the past three weeks.
It also did that without safeties Kamari Ramsey and Bishop Fitzgerald, who were banged up during the game.
“We just keep coming and we have all year,” Riley said. “That was a big, big time win. Team win. To come back and get that done was a really cool feeling.”
While the defense did its part, the Trojans won this game largely because they have two of the best wide receivers in the country in Makai Lemon and Ja’Kobi Lane, a pair that applies a ton of pressure on opposing defenses. It’s also the reason this team has a puncher’s chance in every game it plays.
Iowa’s defense is great and entered the game ranked sixth nationally in scoring (13.7 ppg) and seventh in yards per play allowed (4.3). That’s impressive, but Lemon and Lane rendered those stats meaningless.
Lemon had receptions of 12, 24, 26 and 35 yards in the second half and caught a third-quarter touchdown. Lane had receptions of 10, 12 and 14 yards in the third quarter and drew a 15-yard pass interference penalty in the fourth.
Iowa’s defense didn’t even play that poorly. The Hawkeyes defensive backs were in good position a majority of the time. Lane and Lemon were just better, and that’s what spearheaded the comeback.
Makai Lemon isn’t the biggest dude. Catch radius is pretty small. But if it’s in the radius, it’s his. That matters, too
Kid’s a stud pic.twitter.com/DsxO3IDwgw
— Trevor Sikkema (@TampaBayTre) November 15, 2025
Lemon finished with 10 receptions (on 11 targets) for 153 yards and a touchdown. Lane had seven for 65 yards. Quarterback Jayden Maiava completed 23 of 32 pass attempts for 254 yards and one touchdown. Most importantly, he protected the football, which will be key against Oregon. USC has committed costly turnovers in its two losses (at Illinois and at Notre Dame) this season.
Running back King Miller added 83 yards on the ground. And there was some good news on the injury front. Waymond Jordan, the team’s No. 1 back, didn’t play but was listed as questionable — a sign of progress after he missed the previous three games with an ankle injury sustained against Michigan.
The status of left tackle Elijah Paige, who left the game in the first half with an undisclosed injury, will be worth monitoring this week. USC’s offensive line was fine in his absence, but Oregon’s defensive front will pose a very difficult challenge.
Next week will be the biggest game USC has played since the 2022 Pac-12 title game in Riley’s first season. That was a Trojan team that overachieved after a 4-8 season the year before. Even though USC lost to Utah in Las Vegas that night, it felt as though the program would have more chances to reach the Playoff in the coming years.
Two massively underwhelming seasons followed and showed just how difficult it might be for USC to get over that hump.
The stakes next week couldn’t be higher. It’s a chance for Riley to make a statement after losing some of his shine the past few years.
Linebacker Eric Gentry is one of the few holdovers from that 2022 team that fell just short of a Playoff trip.
“It’s a one-week season,” Gentry said after beating Iowa. “So it’s win or go home right now, and there (isn’t) a go home. We’ve got to win. I think the whole team is understanding of what the culture is. Just fight to the last second, not in denial or feel like something bad is going to happen. Coach (Riley) said: ‘Don’t hope for (anything). Make it happen.’”
The odds will be against USC next week in Autzen Stadium. But these are the games Riley was brought to Los Angeles to win. Now it’s up to him and the Trojans to finally make it happen.
Iowa State WBB coach Bill Fennelly on future timeline
Iowa State women’s basketball coach Bill Fennelly on end of career timeline, thoughts on possible retirement?
The Iowa State women’s basketball team will face a trio of its old Big 8 opponents at home and on the road next season during conference play.
The Cyclones’ home-and-home league partners for the 2026-27 campaign are Kansas, Kansas State and Oklahoma State, the Big 12 announced June 11.
Iowa State’s home-only opponents are BYU, Colorado, Houston, TCU, Texas Tech and Utah. The Cyclones get Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, UCF, Cincinnati and West Virginia on the road only.
The unbalanced schedule — with just three home-and-home opponents — has been in place since the league expanded to 16 teams.
It will be a pivotal season for the Cyclone program after losing nine players to the transfer portal, including stars Audi Crooks, Addy Brown and Jada Williams.
Dates, times and broadcast information will be released later this summer.
Iowa State columnist Travis Hines has covered the Cyclones for the Des Moines Register and Ames Tribune since 2012. Contact him at thines@amestrib.com or (515) 284-8000. Follow him on X at @TravisHines21.
Hear Rob Sand as he details his ‘Accountability for All’ plan
Iowa Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand talks through his ‘Accountability for All’ plan at a press conference on April 2, 2026.
State Auditor Rob Sand said pharmacy benefit managers who work with Iowa’s Medicaid program appear to be overcharging taxpayers by using prohibited pricing techniques.
But Sand said he wasn’t able to get a full picture of the financial impact to the state’s Medicaid program because the three pharmacy benefit managers that work with Iowa Medicaid did not provide certain financial records and other information his office requested.
“We believe that Iowans deserve to know how their tax dollars are being spent and that PBMs shouldn’t be allowed to rip off taxpayers by hiding behind what they say is proprietary information,” he said at a news conference Wednesday, June 10.
At issue is the use of what is known as effective rate pricing, which Sand said allows PBMs to claw back payments previously made to pharmacies at the end of the year. That results in “spread pricing,” which the audit says occurs when the PBM receives a larger reimbursement payment from the Medicaid managed care organization it works with than the PBM pays to the pharmacy.
Sand said spread pricing is prohibited under Iowa Medicaid.
“It can inflate costs for taxpayers, reduce the quality of care and create financial hardships for pharmacies,” he said. “That’s especially true for the independent pharmacies in smaller communities.”
Sand’s office released a report Wednesday covering transactions from 2019 to 2021. While incomplete, he said it showed the effective rate reconciliations for one of the three PBMs that works with the state totaled $100 million over that time period.
“That’s $100 million that Iowa taxpayers may have been overcharged,” Sand said. “We believe it to be even more than that because despite the fact that we made repeated requests and negotiated, the PBMs still at the end of the day withheld critical financial information.”
Sand said his office hired a firm called 3Axis Advisors that has performed similar work in other states to assist with the audit, at a cost of about $30,000.
Sand’s report recommends banning year-end reconciliations and requiring PBMs, managed care organizations and other state contractors to provide unrestricted access to information for the auditor’s office.
The report says there should be additional regulations on PBMs to separate Medicaid payments from non-Medicaid payments and to remove pricing variability from PBM contracts.
Sand, a Democrat who is the party’s nominee for governor, earlier this year released a health care platform pledging to crack down on pharmacy benefit managers.
Last year, Iowa lawmakers passed legislation placing several new regulations on PBMs, including requiring them to pay higher reimbursement rates to pharmacies.
A federal judge partially blocked portions of the law last summer while a lawsuit is pending from a coalition of business groups. It is awaiting an appeal.
Sand praised the law as “very good” but said “I think there’s a lot more that could be done.”
“The regulations that were contained in it would prevent some abuses,” he said. “But again, I think it’s very important to emphasize that auditors need to have access to this information to make sure that taxpayers are being protected, and they’re not being ripped off.”
Heather Nahas, a spokesperson for Gov. Kim Reynolds, said Iowa has recovered hundreds of thousands of dollars in improper fees charged to pharmacies.
“For the last several years, Gov. Reynolds and Iowa lawmakers have been leading the fight against abusive PBM practices, advancing reforms, strengthening oversight and defending those efforts against repeated challenges,” she said in a statement.
Nahas called Sand’s report “irrelevant and outdated,” saying the data he looked at does not reflect current practices at Iowa’s Department of Insurance and Financial Services or Medicaid pharmacy oversight.
Nahas said the report includes recommendations that Iowa Medicaid implemented more than three years ago.
“The auditor may be late to the game, but he’s finally arrived at the same conclusion that Iowans, the Republican legislature, and the Reynolds administration have known for years: PBM practices demand scrutiny, transparency and reform,” she said. “The difference is we’re doing something about it.”
Sand said his efforts to gather data were delayed by resistance from the PBMs and by a Republican-passed law, Senate File 478, that blocks the auditor from going to court against other state entities to force them to turn over documents.
“It took absolutely forever to get all of this data, to go back and forth with the PBMs, to evaluate legal claims about trade secrets or about SF 478,” he said. “And so as usual with this industry everything is much murkier and slower moving than any reasonable person would expect.”
Stephen Gruber-Miller is the Capitol bureau chief for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com, by phone at 515-284-8169 or on X at @sgrubermiller.
Kevin T. Mason, author of “Retracing the Dragoon Trail in Iowa,” came to the Ames Public Library on Wednesday. Mason went to ISU as a student and now teaches at the University of Northern Iowa. He is a rural and environmental historian of the American Midwest. Mason talked about his book covering the old Dragoon Trail, which runs across Iowa. Many have probably seen the signs all over Iowa marking the Dragoon Trail.
This all started in 1835, when the Dragoons went on an expedition across Iowa to survey the land for future Americans. Dragoons were military foot soldiers who rode horses and explored the land. When the Dragoons first encountered Iowa and explored it, the Iowa they saw was very different from the Iowa we see today.
The Dragoons are said to have hated Iowa. It was all marsh, full of mosquitoes, and it became unbearable in the winter. They were also said to have seen the largest herd of buffalo ever, with around 5,000 individuals. Iowa was also chock-full of prairies; however, today we have lost 99.8% of them.
Stephen Watts Kearny, one of the Dragoons, escorted settlers and projected military dominance; he took New Mexico and California in 1846. Albert Miller Lea dealt with the reconnaissance and mapping of the Dragoon Trail and published notes on the Wisconsin territory also. Nathan Boone led Dragoon patrols, stretched survey changes and charted the arterial paths of settlement; he is memorialized in Boone County, which is named after him, and he is honored as the son who set the stage for American settlement.
“The Dragoons are looking for a place to build a new fort,” Mason said. “They cover 1,000 miles. They’re actually going to leave, and they are going to follow the ridge between the Skunk River and the Des Moines River on their outward journey. Conveniently, we built Highway 163 right on top of it.”
The Dragoons cover in their writings, the prospect of coal, soil profiles and about the people and animals that lived here. They thought Iowa was going to become rich because of its coal, and it was going to be a great commodity.
Mason walked the entire Dragoon Trail. It was 371 miles long. It took him 21 days to walk up the river. There was some help along the way from his wife, who followed along in her car.
“In each of these chapters, I’m trying to pull a strand from at least the Dragoons all the way forward to 2021 to tell small histories of Iowa in a hyper-connected way, which took six drafts, and I still don’t know that I did it,” Mason said.
Mason also offered an interesting snippet from his book that told the tale of Boneyard Hollow:
“Just off the river’s west bay, tucked unassumingly along the winding main road of Dolliver Memorial State Park, lies a place with a name alluding to a gristly past. Boneyard Hollow, the shallow sandstone gorge slices through the park’s northern edge, shaded by oaks and maples, often quiet, save for bird song. An ancient buffalo jump, Boneyard Hollow, is only one of Iowa’s rare surviving testament to a way of life long predicting clouds and durian tiles packing miles… Shaggy mountains. Some move, and faster than man. Bison could kill with a horn or hoof. Still, human hunger demanded hunting…”
Mason says that his book is a mile wide and an inch deep. One student of Mason’s said that it was a “gateway drug into Iowa history.”
To learn more about Mason’s book, please visit his webpage.
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