USC Trojan mascot botches sword plant ahead of LSU showdown

USC is playing its season opener Sunday night against LSU, which means it is the first time of the season for the pre-game sword plant from the Trojan mascot! There’s just one problem.

The playing surface inside Allegiant Stadium did not cooperate.

USC plays its home games inside the LA Memorial Coliseum, a venue with a Bermuda grass playing surface. Allegiant Stadium also has a Bermuda playing surface that can be rolled inside and outside of the stadium, but that is mainly used for NFL games played by the Las Vegas Raiders.

UNLV utilizes an artificial turf surface when playing home games at Allegiant, and that’s the same kind of surface Sunday’s game is being played on. Unfortunately, the Trojan did not realize it ahead of time.

He tried to plant the sword in the turf and managed to get it briefly stuck in the artificial surface. It caused the mascot to briefly stumble before dislodging the sword and pulling up a portion of the playing surface in the process.

Trojan off to a great start… pic.twitter.com/Z16e7SJDvD

— Cole Cubelic (@colecubelic) September 1, 2024

Hopefully, that’s just a pre-game mishap and is not a harbinger of what’s to come during the game.

Paul Harvey

Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.