USC Football Schedule: Three Future Contests With Fresno State Announced

USC football will face off with Fresno State in 2019, 2022, 2025 at the Coliseum, the Trojans announced Friday.

Three future matchups between Fresno State and USC football were announced Friday, including season openers in 2019 and 2025 and a mid-September contest in 2022.

The 2019 game with Fresno State, which is schedule for Aug. 31, is particularly notable, as it will be the first game played at the renovated Coliseum. The opener for that season was original planned to be against UNLV. Now the Rebels will come to the Coliseum for the opener in 2018.

The 2022 contest is a set for Sept. 17 while the 2025 game will open the season on Aug. 30.

With the announcement, USC’s future schedules are now set until 2020. The Trojans play host to New Mexico on September 19th and Notre Dame on November 28th in 2020, but do not have a season-opening game scheduled.

The Trojans’ most likely scenario in 2020 is another neutral site game against a Power 5 team.

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USC could schedule a two-game home and home series, but with BYU and Notre Dame locked up in 2021, it’s more likely a Group of 5 team will be scheduled to open the season.

Fresno State’s willingness to come to Los Angeles three times without a return leg at Bulldog Stadium is an interesting one, given that Wisconsin, Nebraska and Oregon have all traveled there in recent years. However, as with everything tied to Los Angeles, recruiting is always an incentive.

USC and Fresno State have met three times this century with memorable results. In 2005 Reggie Bush may have clinched the Heisman Trophy with a spectacular performance in a 50-42 Trojan victory at the Coliseum.

The two teams played again in 2013 at the Las Vegas Bowl resulting in another USC victory, 45-20. Current Trojan head coach Clay Helton served as the interim head coach in that game.

The next year in 2014, USC kicked off the season with a second consecutive victory over the Bulldogs, 52-13.

Fresno State’s only win over USC in four tries was in the 1992 Freedom Bowl, which ended 24-7.