The 1938 USC Trojans football team represented the University of Southern California (USC) in the 1938 college football season. In their 14th year under head coach Howard Jones, the Trojans compiled a 9–2 record (6–1 against conference opponents), finished in a tie for the Pacific Coast Conference championship, defeated Duke in the 1939 Rose Bowl, and outscored their opponents by a combined total of 172 to 65.^[1]

Schedule

Date	Opponent	Rank	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
September 24	Alabama*		Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA	L 7–19	70,000	[2]
October 1	Oregon State		Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA	W 7–0	35,000
October 8	at Ohio State*		Ohio Stadium Columbus, OH	W 14–7	62,778	[3]
October 15	Washington State		Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA	W 19–6	35,000
October 22	at Stanford		Stanford Stadium Stanford, CA (rivalry)	W 13–2	35,000
October 29	at Oregon	No. 19	Multnomah Stadium Portland, OR	W 31–7	18,000
November 5	No. 3 California	No. 13	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA	W 13–7	95,000
November 12	at Washington	No. 9	Husky Stadium Seattle, WA	L 6–7	18,939
November 24	UCLA	No. 14	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA (Victory Bell)	W 42–7	65,000
December 3	No. 1 Notre Dame*	No. 8	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA (rivalry)	W 13–0	97,146
January 2, 1939	vs. No. 3 Duke*	No. 7	Rose Bowl Pasadena, CA (Rose Bowl)	W 7–3	89,452
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game