Woefully inadequate. He should get at least a 1 game suspension for the hit alone.

Plus, about an addition 4+ game suspension for his sickening behavior after the hit.

This is something.

Remember under the new targeting rules for the first infraction a player sits out the rest of the game (regardless of when it happens) and then is good to go in the next game.

USC was backed into a corner over the behavior that they needed to get out ahead of this with a suspension. It's too little too late in many regards.

If that sort of thing happened on this Oregon team I would hope Lanning would just kick that player to the locker room immediately for that kind of behavior.

Riley let him hang out on the sideline. Remember targeting does not lead to ejection anymore as well.

This was the least they could do to save face.... Or at least start to clean their face.

Yes, too little, too late. But at least it is some form of punishment.

The player and coach should issue a public apolgy, along with all the players who high fived, hand slapped and celebrated an injury to an opposing player.

It smells all up and down the I-5 Corridor.

The Trojan AD and administation should step up and add more suspension for the celebration antics. Riley should be suspended 1 game, too. They won't because they are too busy talking to donors/boosters trying to raise the money to buy Riley out of his contract.

They are more concerned about losing the game than an injured player

Usuck Trojans continue to prove they are classless.

A public apology has been issued by Stephens ......it was a disgusting display of the worst in people.

No one can tell me that the SC coaches didn't know what was going on with all the snickers and high-fives and love pats going on over on the bench with Stephens enjoying his sudden celebrity status. That's as good an example of a team's culture as anything I've seen televised and it isn't pretty. If I were the AD I'd have some serious penalties waiting for people, coaches and players, called into my office.

I'd like to think that the Ducks would never allow that to happen. And I will bet serious money that Dan and the rest of the staff are using that disgusting display as a teaching moment.

30 minutes ago, fred flintstone said:

A public apology has been issued by Stephens ......it was a disgusting display of the worst in people.

I'd guess the conversation from USC to Stephens went something like this:

"Here's you apology statement that you're going to read exactly as written."

26 minutes ago, tee duke said:

I'd like to think that the Ducks would never allow that to happen.

I've been thinking today about how I would feel had it been OBD on the wrong side of that scene.

I definitely would have been embarrassed and disgusted, and I would have expected serious repercussions afterward. I probably wouldn't have turned the game off...

I imagine many USC fans felt similarly - a bit of cognitive dissonance.

The one-game suspension works to counter that a bit in the fanbase. It's inadequate IMO, but had it been OBD i probably see that and think to myself that Dan has it handled. It helps us internally justify our continued Fandom. "See, we're not the bad guys..."

Meanwhile, I doubt the culture in their program changes. I truly hope and tend to believe that the current culture at OBD is better than that.

Edited 6 hours ago6 hr by bbmichaels

54 minutes ago, Desert Duck said:

I'd guess the conversation from USC to Stephens went something like this:

"Here's you apology statement that you're going to read exactly as written."

You are assuming an SC Trojan can read.

58 minutes ago, Desert Duck said:

I'd guess the conversation from USC to Stephens went something like this:

"Here's you apology statement that you're going to read exactly as written."

Pretty much. Riley also issued a statement of apology.....I bet the AD wrote it.

This whole issue really jerks my jowls. For me, this targeting is the one issue that should mandate heavier penalties due to the amount of risk and potential permanent injury. So far, in my opinion the punishment does not fit the crime. The rules need to consider at least three things; intent, the act, and taunting/celebration. Once again, in my opinion, in addition to personal foul and ejection from the game, the smallest/shortest penalty for the perpetrator should be at least missing as many games as the injured player. For yesterday's debacle, the USC player should have been denied re-entry to the sideline AND suspended for the rest of the year or invountarily placed in the transfer portal.

P.S. - this is not the first time my hat band and underwear have been too tight! simultaneously .......

This feels like the absolute bare minimum from USC. 😡

One game for a hit like that, followed by the celebrating and smiling while Dante Moore was being treated and taken away by ambulance, is a soft response.

And then, right on cue, we get the same rubber-stamped apologies from the player and the program about how this “isn’t who we are” and how everybody will “learn from it.”

What a bunch of...

Accountability is more than putting out a polished statement after the backlash starts. It’s what a program does in the moment and what consequences it imposes afterward.

USC let him remain on the sideline after the ejection, and now the punishment is a single game. That doesn’t exactly scream accountability to me.

At some point, apologies stop meaning much when they feel like they came straight out of a PR template. Actions matter more.

I saw Riley today say that he didn't see the hit. Are you kidding me you arrogant bass-turd? Your the coach and you weren't watching the game? I didn't know it was possible to like SUC any less.

And the number of their "fans" online trying to justify the hit. "Well he should've got down sooner..."

11 minutes ago, BroncoSas said:

I saw Riley today say that he didn't see the hit. Are you kidding me you arrogant bass-turd? Your the coach and you weren't watching the game? I didn't know it was possible to like SUC any less.

And the number of their "fans" online trying to justify the hit. "Well he should've got down sooner..."

Their fans apparently think he should’ve started his slide from what, five yards away? Ten? Hell, why bother trying to gain yardage at all? By their logic, he should’ve just taken a knee and spared the defender the inconvenience of having to tackle him.

🤡s...

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by Krsmqn

Simms offers apology

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by Krsmqn

I think Stephens has elevated himself to our top So Cal recruiter.

Even Trojans Wire wants him off the team.

https://trojanswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/trojans/football/2026/09/26/desman-stephens-attitude-shows-lincoln-riley-failed-usc/91969272007/

Riley is pathetic.

I read several USC Football blogs today and the general consensus is that Desman Stephens should have been booted off the team and Lincoln Riley needs to go.

I don't think he needs to be kicked off the team. It was the culture that he was brought into.

But more than 1 game is not sufficient.

I always thought when you put someone out of commission, then the suspension should be as long as the victim is out.

Having 24 hours to ponder this whole situation, I feel I am struggling with my biases, and I can't shake the thought of not attributing to malice that which can be attributed to incompetence.

It is possible Stephens, being a USC tackler is too slow mentally to realize that getting a lick in on the QB who likely is trying to give himself up isn't wise and will get him ejected. More didn't slide way too late, but he didn't slide early either. You could tell he didn't see the LB untill later than he should have, then began the process of giving himself up 4-5 yards away from the defender.

I watched Stephens initial taunting and he never looked back at Moore once until he left the field completely, certainly not knowing the severity of his hit. Yes he dabbed it up with his teammates, still possibly not understanding the gravity of what he had done.

Later sitting on the bench seeing the ambulance, but smiling and fist bumps could easily have been self soothing at that point, trying to get his teammates reassurance, and smiling trying to hide his true feelings. My son does that sometimes, and I've seen other players.

Actions have consequences, he's going to pay for this socially worse than he will the game and a half he'll miss.

I do believe Riley when he seems completely clueless as to the hit and celebrations and not even reading the room in his press conference, he's a dweeb of the highest order.

I'm upset with NBC's halftime break immediately teeing up Simns to run interference for USC. It was no accident by NBC yet seeing Simns apologize online it's obvious it was again not reading the room properly blaming the victim who left in an ambulance minutes earlier.

Lots of people online are saying the sliding rule needs to go, but I think the real fix is stiffer penalties such that defenders get trained to recognize signs of a slide and think more than twice before laying the wood, and QBs faking a slide should be a 15 yard penalty from the original line of scrimmage.

Why go head first into ANY player that is already down?

If we still lived in a society of manners this guy would be off the team. Just like I would have kicked Holden off the Oregon team for spitting if I was dictator of Oregon sports. Then again I would make the first down point by a player a 5 yard penalty and replay the down.