Are the USC and UCLA football programs heading opposite directions?

The UCLA Bruins and the USC Trojans play in the same city, they play in the same conference but the comparisons just about end there for the two Big Ten schools as they enter the 2026 season.

The pressure is on for USC, landing several terrific recruiting classes, but those recruiting classes have yet to lead to too much success under head coach Lincoln Riley. The time is now for the Trojans but they’re tasked with a challenging Big Ten schedule, making their first-ever College Football Playoff appearance far from a sure thing.

Things are quite the opposite in Westwood. The Bruins are fresh off of being a national laughingstock for their 3-9 season which featured losses to UNLV and New Mexico. Enter in new head coach Bob Chesney and suddenly spirits are quite high for UCLA.

Yahoo Sports writer Dan Wolken covered the juxtaposition between the two programs entering the 2026 season.

“Against significant odds given what’s happened the last two seasons, UCLA has managed to blow it out of Westwood. It’s largely thanks to new coach Bob Chesney, the relentlessly positive and perfectly coiffed 49-year-old who won at a bunch of small schools in the Northeast you’ve never heard of before taking James Madison to the College Football Playoff last season. Before even coaching a game, he has managed to convince UCLA’s administration, its boosters and most importantly its players that he can do the exact same thing on the West Coast,” Wolken wrote. “It’s not quite the same vibe across town, where the patina of endless possibility has eroded over the past 4 1/2 years into a new and urgent reality for Lincoln Riley.”

Even without a ton of momentum heading into the season, USC figures to be one of the stronger teams in the Big Ten while UCLA remains unproven since joining the Big Ten in 2024.