LOS ANGELES -- With a chance to take a three-score lead into halftime against Ohio State, USC running back King Miller coughed up the football. The Buckeyes recovered, took over and marched down to the Trojan one-yard line. What happened next became one of the defining sequences in their 30-18 upset: a run stuffed at the line, a false start, two incompletions and a field goal. USC went into the locker room up 20-9 instead of surrendering the momentum.
Miller knew whose mistake it was. What he remembers is how quickly his teammates and coaches moved past it.
"I know myself, I'm better than that," he said. "But I think the guys around me, you just got to reset. They believe in me a lot, so they just put me right back out there."
Defensive end Luke Wafle, who was on the field for the stand, described it as bigger than a single goal-line stop. Two weeks after a loss at Wisconsin in which several players said teammates hadn't picked each other up properly, the sequence gave the defense the proof it was looking for.
"I feel like that was a statement for us as a defense," he said. "Just not giving up a blade of grass. You just never give up."
Wafle tied it directly to the trust the group has talked about all season.
"You're back on your heels...how are you going to respond, and how are you going to show up for your teammate? Everybody showed up. It's all about trust."
The defense earned another gift in the third quarter when linebacker Desman Stephens II punched out a fumble that eventually landed in the arms of defensive tackle Floyd Boucard. On the next play, Mark Bowman hurdled his way to a 70-yard catch. Boucard, a sophomore, credited timing and faith over skill.
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"It was really right place at the right time. I feel like God put me in the right predicament to make a play," he said. "I made a play for me and my team, and I'm really happy about that one."
What stuck out to him was a sideline embrace with coach Trumain Carroll, who told him he was growing as a leader.
"He just told me that I'm improving as a leader," he said. "I'm improving my body language and holding the team to the standard."
That standard, Boucard and safety Christian Pierce said, has been elevated by the freshmen. Pierce said the "standard week" label for the second bye was something the team came up with this week, with help from Lincoln Riley and the leadership group, after what the Trojans learned from the first one.
"Coming from our past off week, we just felt like this is how we should go about it," he said.
Pierce also said the freshman class has pushed the culture in a direction that the veterans wanted.
"It's impacted it a lot. Our floor had to be raised, and I feel like the guys that we brought in, they raised it on their own."
Boucard said that's why even the youngest players are heard in the building, singling out Wafle and fellow freshman offensive lineman Breck Kolojay as two of the loudest voices.
"Your voice is definitely going to be heard, and we don't have ego," Boucard said. "All that ego stuff is out the door."
The trust runs across the roster, too. Miller said he's been running behind freshman left guard Kannon Smith since he arrived at USC, which made it easy to believe in him throughout his first start against the Buckeyes.
"Whoever gets thrown out there, they got the confidence in them to go out there and do their job at a high level."
That trust will get tested yet again on the road at Indiana on Nov. 14. The Hoosiers are 8-1, coming off back-to-back overtime wins and are weighing whether to go with the banged-up Josh Hoover or backup Grant Wilson at quarterback. Boucard claims the crowd noise piped into practice has the defense feeling ready.
"We know what the atmosphere is going to be like when we get there," he said. "Basically, we don't really hear the crowd noise. We just feed off our own energy as a team."
Kickoff is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. PT on CBS.