Lincoln Riley and the No. 18 USC Trojans had an afternoon they’ll want to erase from memory in Bloomington on Saturday, falling 27–13 to No. 9 Indiana in a physical Big Ten showdown that effectively knocked USC out of the College Football Playoff race. As if losing a massive top-20 road game wasn’t painful enough, the Trojans got completely humiliated during a television timeout when a regular Indiana fan jogged onto the turf and casually drilled a longer field goal than the one USC’s scholarship kicker had just missed seconds earlier.

The whole viral disaster went down early in the fourth quarter at Memorial Stadium with USC trailing 20–13 and desperate for momentum. Riley’s offense had put together a promising drive all the way down into the red zone with a golden chance to cut Indiana’s lead to four points, only for the possession to stall out near the goal line.

USC sent out sophomore kicker Caden Chittenden for what should have been an automatic, chip-shot 27-yard field goal, literally shorter than an NFL extra point, and he pushed it wide, leaving Riley and his Trojan fans dumbfounded!

To add pure salt to the wound, FOX went straight to a commercial break immediately following the miss, and Indiana’s game-day crew brought a random fan onto the field for a promotional kicking contest.

Wearing everyday street clothes and regular sneakers with zero warm-up, the Hoosiers fan stepped up to the tee from 35 yards out, 8 full yards farther back than the chip shot Chittenden had just shanked, and effortlessly booted the ball straight through the uprights with plenty of distance to spare.

Memorial Stadium instantly erupted into wild cheers and laughter as FOX’s broadcast cameras caught the entire sequence in crystal-clear detail. FOX College Football wasted zero time posting the clip on X with the caption “Tough scenes in Bloomington for USC,” and within minutes, the video was blowing up across social media with college football fans and analysts mercilessly roasting USC’s special teams and joking that Riley needed to offer the fan a scholarship before the team plane left Indiana.

Honestly, that missed 27-yarder summed up the entire frustrating afternoon for Lincoln Riley’s squad. Looking purely at the yardage, Indiana outgained USC 451 yards to 409, but the Trojans moved the ball pretty effectively between the 20s, yet completely self-destructed every single time they got close to scoring. They finished the afternoon an abysmal 1-for-5 in the red zone.

Chittenden’s fourth-quarter shank wasn’t even his only costly miss of the day, as he had also clanked a 51-yard field goal attempt off the upright back in the first quarter.

When you combine six left-on-the-board kicking points with Trojans quarterback Jayden Maiava throwing two backbreaking fourth-quarter interceptions, including a late pick by Indiana safety Amare Ferrell right after USC’s defense got a huge stop on downs, you get the exact recipe for watching a winnable ranked game slip right through your fingers.

Meanwhile, Curt Cignetti’s No. 9 Hoosiers took full advantage of every single USC mistake. Quarterback Grant Wilson threw two touchdown passes and running back Khobie Martin piled up 82 rushing yards and a score to help seal the 27–13 win, moving Indiana to 9–1 on the season and keeping their Big Ten Championship and playoff dreams alive.

For USC, dropping to 7–3 means another frustrating finish under Lincoln Riley, where little details and special teams blunders cost them big time. Getting outplayed by Indiana was already a tough pill to swallow, but getting shown up by a random guy in street clothes from 35 yards out is the kind of viral lowlight that’s going to sting in Los Angeles for a long time.