Trojans' finale features matchup with Horned Frogs

For the llth straight season and fourth time under coach Lincoln Riley, USC finished its season on the outside looking in at the College Football Playoff field.

- BY RYAN KARTJE

JAYDEN MAIAVA (14) and USC earned the school's first Alamo Bowl bid.

(GINA FERAZZI Los Angeles Times)

But it will get to finish this football season with a first.

USC will face Texas Christian in the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 30, a source not authorized to discuss the matchup publicly confirmed to The Times. The Trojans never have spent the bowl season in San Antonio, where the Alamo Bowl has been played since 1993.

Their opponent comes as somewhat of a surprise considering the Horned Frogs finished the regular season 8-4 in a tie for fifth in the Big 12. The Alamo Bowl gets first selection of Big 12 teams and could have chosen Brigham Young, which lost in the Big 12 title game and, like USC, finished within one win of the playoff field. But the bowl presumably passed on the Cougars because they took part in the game last season.

For Riley, the bowl should bring back plenty of memories. First off it comes against a coach he met as an 18-year old quarterback at Texas Tech, TCU’s Sonny Dykes.

“Lincoln and I go way back,” Dykes said. “He was one of those guys you could tell early on in his career that he was going to be really successful.”