2026 USC-UCLA football game will be a clash of style and philosophy

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USC football and UCLA football took different approaches to building their 2026 rosters. Whereas USC is banking on returning players and incoming freshmen recruited from high school, UCLA has dipped substantially into the transfer portal. ESPN's Bill Connelly ranked UCLA's transfer portal class No. 7:

"When UCLA hired James Madison's Bob Chesney, it also signed up for the inevitable JMU Influx. Knight, West and Barksdale were some of the Dukes' most high-upside players — and JMU was much better than UCLA last season — and Chesney also brought with him a pair of all-conference offensive linemen (guards Riley Robell and Carter Sweazie) and a couple of other disruptive defenders (DE Aiden Gobaira, LB Drew Spinogatti).

"In addition to a few smaller-school stars — OL Derek Osman (Harvard), DE Dallin Havea (Utah Tech), CB Jhase McMillan (Montana State) — Chesney complemented that with a number of less-tested recent blue-chippers. If the likes of WR Aidan Mizell (Florida), DT Maxwell Roy (Ohio State), Anthony Sacca (Notre Dame) and safety Malik Hartford (Ohio State) start to develop too, then Chesney might have pulled off a double upgrade."

It's true that UCLA has had a ready-made James Madison transfer portal pipeline, akin to Lincoln Riley having an Oklahoma pipeline in 2022, his first season at USC. However, it remains that USC didn't lean into the portal, creating this rich contrast with UCLA. This clash adds intrigue to this year's Trojan-Bruin game. It will create a lot of discussion before the game and into the 2027 offseason.

This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: USC football vs UCLA is a 2026 clash of roster construction models

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