First and 10 : USC at Purdue

As we start the week, 10 items of interest as the Boilermakers play host to USC (3:30 p.m. ET, CBS) on Saturday:

1 – Here come the Trojans! This will be USC’s first trip to West Lafayette since September 25, 1976, when first-year coach John Robinson led the No. 19 Men of Troy to town and left with a 31-13 win. Ricky Bell rushed for 177 yards and one touchdown and Vince Evans passed for 168 yards and another score. Bell went on to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 1977 NFL draft (Buccaneers). He passed away in 1984 at 29 due to a heart issue.

2 – Purdue is 2-0 for the first time since 2021, when Jeff Brohm‘s Boilermakers opened with triumphs vs. Oregon State and at UConn. Purdue lost at Notre Dame the next week. Purdue’s last 3-0 start was in 2007, when it opened 5-0 with wins at Toledo, vs. Eastern Illinois, vs. Central Michigan, at Minnesota and vs. Notre Dame. Alas, Purdue lost five of its last seven regular-season games before beating CMU in the Motor City Bowl to finish 8-5.

3 – Purdue has only five penalties through two games, the third fewest by a Boilermaker team since 2000. Purdue had three through two games in 2002, four in 2016. Purdue averaged 5.5 penalties in 2024 and 6.0 in 2023.

4 – Barry Odom became the first Purdue coach to start his career 2-0 since Cleo McDonnell in 1916. Now, Odom will try to become the first to start his career 3-0 since Albert Hernstein in 1905, who started 4-0 with wins over Wendell Phillips High, Beloit, Wabash and Illinois.

5 – In their first season in the Big Ten, the four West Coast teams (USC, UCLA, Washington and Oregon) had a combined 2-7 record straight up and 3-6 against the spread in games played in the Eastern or Central time zones. Oregon was the only team to have a winning record in those games (4-3), while USC, UCLA and Washington had losing records–each going 2-5.

6 – The last time Purdue won its Big Ten opener was 2021 vs. Illinois, taking a 13-9 decision on Sept. 25.

7 – The last time USC and Purdue met was in the 1998 Pigskin Classic, a season-opening game in the LA Coliseum played in triple-digit heat on August 30. The game marked the first career start for Boilermaker sophomore quarterback Drew Brees, who threw for 148 yards and had Purdue in the lead at halftime, 17-10. Alas, he and the Boilers would fall, 27-17, to a USC squad led by its own iconic QB in Carson Palmer, who debuted by coming off the bench on this day and rallying the Trojans to victory. He would go on to be the No. 1 pick in the 2003 draft (Bengals) after winning the Heisman in 2002.

8 – RB Devin Mockobee leads the Big Ten with 46 rushes through two games.

9 – USC QB Jayden Maiava will pose issues for Purdue’s defense. He is No. 1 in the Big Ten in total offense (360.5 ypg). And he averages a league-high 353.5 passing yards. Maiava played for Barry Odom at UNLV in 2023 before transferring to USC in 2024. As a redshirt freshman in 2023, the 6-4, 230-pound Maiava led UNLV to its most wins since 1984 and a first-ever appearance in the Mountain West title game. He completed 224-of-353 passes (63.5 percent) for 3,085 yards and 17 TDs with 10 INTs, plus he rushed for 277 yards on 73 carries (3.8 avg.).

10 – Purdue lost the last time a team from California invaded Ross-Ade, as Fresno State took a 39-35 triumph in Ryan Walters‘ debut in 2023. The last time the Boilermakers beat a team from the Golden State in West Lafayette was in 1992, when Jim Colletto and Purdue shocked No. 17 Cal, 41-14.