LOS ANGELES – It was just another Tuesday practice in the middle of Red Mountain’s season, and wide receivers coach Diego Hernandez had no possibility to prepare for the show Ja’Kobi Lane unfolded before his very eyes.

He ran a simple out route, Hernandez remembered, his spindly limbs arriving to his destination before his quarterback could deliver. The ball arrived late, as Lane was already creeping towards the sidelines. So the kid threw his hands behind his back, toe-tapped to stay inbounds, and pinned the toss in his mitts.

“I was like, ‘Dude, that’s – human beings shouldn’t be allowed to do that kind of stuff,’” Hernandez remembered.

They have seen it coming, from Lane’s earliest days in Mesa, Arizona, a community waiting for the greatness to bloom within his towering frame and beating heart. He was the center of attention, at all times, because there was no way to ignore a 6-foot-4 kid who’d walk around campus bumping music from his headphones and dancing with cheerleaders and asking teachers for candy. And his coaches, throughout time, have tried to figure out how to steer Lane straight, a special talent coming with a complex package.

And for two years at USC, flashes of greatness have come interspersed with growing pains, the program curating a delicate ecosystem for Lane to both feel prioritized and challenged in his maturity.

“He’s the next Megatron,” Lane’s high school coach Kyle Enders told the Southern California News Group earlier in the fall, comparing Lane to NFL star Calvin Johnson, “if he wants to be.”

He made that leap Saturday in USC’s win over Wisconsin, preparation and personality and potential fusing together in an emphatic explosion. In another concerningly slow start for USC’s offense, as seemingly everything that could go wrong did in every facet of the game, Lane strapped up his behemoth of a right-arm brace and went to work in a star-making third-quarter drive.

Down 21-10, with some momentum deep in Wisconsin territory after a muffed punt recovered by long snapper Hank Pepper, quarterback Miller Moss – who’s become both an off-field friend and on-field mentor – found Lane for a first down on a third-and-7. A few plays later, on a third-and-15, Moss rolled right and Lane drifted with him to the sideline, waving an outstretched left hand.

Moss fired, and with incredible mind-body awareness, Lane planted both his feet in a deep lunge inbounds before catching and toppling out-of-bounds with a first down.

“He stepped up,” head coach Lincoln Riley said postgame, “and made some big-time plays.”

He simply looked unguardable, stretching himself both horizontally and vertically, going up high for a go-get-it fade ball in the end zone on that same drive. He played with toughness, when USC desperately needed it, hauling in one second-quarter ball over the middle and immediately thumped so hard his helmet flew off.

Immediately, Lane pointed in a signal for a first-down, beaming from ear-to-ear.

“These things are always, there’s a little bit of a grind to it, obviously,” Riley said, earlier in the fall. “A lot of time, all that, involved. When you got people that are high-energy people that everybody enjoys being around, they affect the mood of the group, the energy level of the group so much.”

He gave USC a jolt, on each of his 10 catches Saturday, racking up the first 100-yard game of the season by any Trojan receiver. And even as a host of issues have plagued USC’s young receiving corps this season, and continued on Saturday – drops, missed blocks, poor clock awareness – they followed in Lane’s wake in much-needed second-half playmaking.

Fellow vertical target Duce Robinson caught just two of his five targets, but made them count, with a 32-yard grab late in the third quarter followed by a touchdown snag three plays later. Burner Zachariah Branch struggled mightily to start, muffing a punt and taking a poor route on a one-on-one ball that was intercepted, but made a couple big second-half plays in the flat and finished with 44 yards.

“We’ve made strides in being mature, becoming more football smart,” Lane said postgame. “Knowing where to be, when, why we’re in these spots.”

And USC, now, may have found it top target in a crowded room, their next Megatron finding his breakout moment when his program desperately needed it.

Originally Published: September 29, 2024 at 2:03 p.m.

LOS ANGELES — Members of Wisconsin’s football team walked off the LA Memorial Coliseum field at halftime with a brief sense of satisfaction. For two quarters, they had played as well as could be hoped to establish an 11-point lead that surprised a heavily favored USC crew and offered a glimmer of needed optimism for the program.

It was the team Wisconsin aspires to be under Luke Fickell — one that was aggressive, opportunistic and executing at a high level. Until it wasn’t.

The Badgers went from looking like they were ready to turn a corner to one that couldn’t fight their way out when backed into one. No. 13 USC hammered Wisconsin with four unanswered second-half touchdowns to secure a 38-21 victory on Saturday.

In the process, the Badgers looked like the team they have too often been — erratic and mediocre. And for as much potential positivity as the first half offered, it was hard not to come away feeling like this was a lot of the same old, same old.

“We play every game like we played that first half, we’ll be really good,” Wisconsin safety Hunter Wohler said. “And we have it in us. We showed it today. We have it in us. We just have to find a way to play four quarters.”

Achieving that ambition has proven problematic for an offense and defense that haven’t answered key questions about how to consistently raise the bar. Wisconsin trailed Western Michigan by a point in the fourth quarter of its season opener before escaping with a victory, led FCS South Dakota by just four points late in the third quarter and lost by 32 points at home to Alabama two weeks ago. Now this.

In his first start of the season, Wisconsin QB Braedyn Locke completed 50 percent of his passes for 180 yards, one touchdown and one interception. (Kirby Lee / Imagn Images)

Wisconsin is 9-8 since the start of last season and 5-5 in Big Ten games under Fickell. The Badgers are 2-2 this season and 0-1 in league play. And with a schedule that still includes ranked foes Penn State and Oregon, as well as undefeated Rutgers, a one-loss Iowa on the road and a pesky Nebraska team, there’s no telling where they might end up. Fickell continues to stress the importance of ensuring everybody is motivated and on the same page.

“I told them in the locker room, they chose to come here,” Fickell said. “We all chose to put ourselves in this situation, knowing that the Big Ten is something that’s completely different now. So this is what we wanted. This is what we asked for and now we got it. Sometimes you’ve got to be a man and you’ve got to stand up. We’re all going to find out how we can handle adversity and how we can handle ourselves and what we can do to grow.”

Wisconsin deserves credit for its first-half performance against USC. Quarterback Braedyn Locke, who took over against Alabama after Tyler Van Dyke suffered a season-ending ACL tear in his right knee, delivered a pair of impressive deep balls to set an early tone. He threw a 63-yard touchdown pass to receiver Vinny Anthony II and a 35-yard pass to receiver Bryson Green to set up another score. But the explosive plays stopped there.

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Locke has an uncanny ability to complete 50 percent of his passes, which he has done for the entirety of his Wisconsin career. He completed 13 of 26 passes for a second consecutive game. And a quarterback who completes only half his passes figures to struggle to consistently win games in this league — particularly in an offense under coordinator Phil Longo that strives for run-pass balance. Wisconsin closed the game with four punts, a turnover on downs and a Locke pass that was intercepted by USC linebacker Mason Cobb and returned 55 yards for a touchdown.

The run game didn’t give Locke much relief. The biggest backbreaker occurred during the third quarter with Wisconsin leading 21-17 and facing a fourth-and-half-a-yard at the USC 33-yard line. The Badgers lined up in a shotgun and didn’t block the back side of the play, which allowed safety Kamari Ramsey to stuff Walker for no gain and a turnover on downs. USC scored on the next possession to take a 24-21 lead it wouldn’t relinquish.

It marked the second straight game in which Wisconsin failed to convert a fourth-and-1 running play from the shotgun. Fickell has taken heat from former players about the decision to use a shotgun in short-yardage situations, as Wisconsin’s entire offense has moved away from the under-center system established under previous staffs. He said it didn’t matter whether the play was called from the shotgun or under center because Wisconsin’s inability to block was more important.

“I’ve got to get it,” Walker said. “It’s fourth-and-1. It doesn’t matter how many people are in that box. I’ve got to get it.”

Wisconsin’s defense was equally uneven. Safety Preston Zachman made a diving interception of USC quarterback Miller Moss across midfield during the first half. And safety Austin Brown came off the edge to sack Moss and force a fumble that defensive lineman Ben Barten recovered. Then, the defense played in a manner that Zachman said was “the complete opposite in the second half.” It simply could not earn stops at critical junctures, as USC’s playmaking receivers devastated Wisconsin. The Badgers finished with three second-half first downs to the Trojans’ 13.

Moss converted passes on third-and-7 and third-and-15 before throwing a 6-yard touchdown to receiver Ja’Kobi Lane on third-and-goal to take the lead. USC finished 11-of-17 on third downs. It didn’t help that Wisconsin punt returner Tyrell Henry muffed a punt that led to a USC touchdown, returning the favor from a Trojans first-half muff that the Badgers converted into a score.

“We’ve got to find a way to be able to get the momentum back when things are going against us,” Fickell said. “That’s probably as big of an issue right now as there is. When it comes down to it, it’s not some magical thing you can say. It’s not like call timeout and call them all together and give them some speech. It’s like, ‘OK, men. Somebody’s got to step up. Somebody’s got to make a play. They’re not going to hand it to us.’”

How much is one half of good football worth when it comes on the road against a top-15 opponent? Wisconsin’s players attempted to find a silver lining in addressing that question afterward. Wohler said that while back-to-back losses look bad, he believed the Badgers were “trending upwards.” Anthony said, “We have plenty of film to show that we can hang with anybody,” while Zachman insisted “We’re right there.”

Sure, Wisconsin showed flashes of its potential Saturday. But it will take a heck of a lot more than that for the Badgers to become the team they want to be. Whether they can actually get over that hump is anybody’s guess.

(Top photo: Kirby Lee / Imagn Images)

As the No. 13 USC Trojans came back to defeat the unranked Wisconsin Badgers, 2026 four-star cornerback prospect Richard Sermons was in attendance in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. USC coach Lincoln Riley and his team secured their first Big Ten victory, and the results seem to translate into recruiting.

Four-star cornerback Richard Sermons plays for Rancho Cucamonga High School, making the Trojans his hometown team. Even further, Sermons ‘ father Rodney Sermons played his college football at USC in the mid-90’s.

On3’s Steve Wiltfong reported that Sermons and his father enjoyed their visit to the Coliseum, staying around the team and staff for an hour after the game ended.

“USC was great,” Sermons said to Wiltfong after the game. “It’s always a good family environment. What excites me about my opportunity with the Trojans is the development aspect with the great defensive coaching staff.”

After the game, Wiltfong placed a prediction for Sermons to commit to USC, joining the Trojans’ 2026 recruiting class.

One of the most coveted defensive recruits in the 2026 class, the Trojans will have plenty of competition while recruiting the Rancho Cucamonga star. Prior to visiting USC for the Wisconsin game in week five, Sermons visited the Oregon Ducks in Eugene for their week two matchup against the Boise State Broncos.

Earlier in August, On3’s Chad Simmons caught up with RJ Sermons about his recruitment.

“I like everything that’s new that they’re bringing in and everything that they’ve been building,” Sermons said to Simmons. “I really want to see how it comes together this year with the new defensive staff. I like coach Lincoln Riley and everything that he’s been doing to build the program up to be a winning team. I want to see how all that pays off this year during the season.”

Despite a heartbreaking loss to No. 12 Michigan, the USC Trojans hold a lot of positive momentum on the field. Trojans defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn has already made major improvements to the USC defense, and recruits on Lynn’s side of the ball seem to notice the energy that he has brought to the program.

In the 2026 recruiting class, the Trojans currently hold six commitments. While still early, the majority of USC’s 2026 class is made up of defensive recruits. Should Sermons commit to the Trojans, he would join four-star cornerback commit Brandon Lockhart in the defensive backfield.

In addition to USC and Oregon, Sermons holds offers from schools such as Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Penn State, Utah, UCLA, and others.

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