With its first season in the Big Ten slipping away, USC is making a change at quarterback.
Sophomore Jayden Maiava will get his first start when the Trojans return from their bye to host Nebraska on Nov. 16.
The move relegates Miller Moss to a reserve role after nine uneven starts this season. Since a strong debut in which Moss led USC to a season-opening win over Louisiana State in Las Vegas, the redshirt junior’s effectiveness had notably regressed, marked by costly mistakes, including critical interceptions in recent weeks as USC dropped four of its last five games, all by a single possession.
USC coach Lincoln Riley said he settled on making a change at quarterback upon further review of the Trojans’ most recent loss to Washington, during which Moss committed three interceptions. But the move, as he explained it, was “not a reflection of anything more than we have another good player in the room, and we feel like he gives us a good opportunity.” Nor, he said, was it a decision made with the future in mind.
“When we went back and looked at it we felt like it was in the best interest of the team to give Jayden a chance here,” Riley said. “It’s that simple.”
What that means for Moss’ future at USC moving forward remains to be seen. But with three games remaining in its season — and with bowl eligibility still within reach — USC now turns to Maiava, hoping that his dual-threat ability will help spark an offense that has struggled to deliver when it mattered most this season.
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Moss, a former four-star prospect, patiently waited for his time at USC over the previous two seasons as a backup to Caleb Williams. He finally got his chance last December at the Holiday Bowl, where he threw for six touchdowns, securing his place as the presumptive starter this season. Riley, who said he would seek a quarterback in the transfer portal, joked at the time that Moss’ performance “may have scared off anybody that would want to come here anyway.”
Moss delivered again on that promise in his first start this season as he threw for 378 yards and completed 75% of his passes in the win over LSU. But since the start of the Big Ten slate, Moss has struggled to find his stride.
He’s still thrown for 2,555 yards, third most among quarterbacks in the Big Ten, and 18 touchdowns, which ranks fourth. That relative success, while not enough for Moss to retain the job, only made delivering the news of the quarterback’s demotion more difficult for Riley, who said it was his duty as coach to “take the emotion out of” the decision.
“Miller Moss has done a really good job for us,” Riley said. “Like, we, you could literally not change one thing that Miller’s done and we could be sitting here with a really, really good record right now. Miller has done a very good job. He’s been a really good leader for this team. He’s been loyal to this program.”
But Moss has turned the ball over in critical moments, altering the complexion in each of USC’s five losses. Those struggles culminated Saturday in rainy Seattle, where the last of his three interceptions sparked a go-ahead, fourth-quarter scoring drive for the Huskies.
Yet the coach remained steadfast in his support of Moss in spite of those mistakes. After the loss to Washington, Riley was asked if he was tempted to give Maiava a chance at quarterback during the final three games of the season. At the time, Riley said that he “wouldn’t say that.”
“For us right now,” Riley said, “what we’re looking at is what’s the best lineup, the best people to help us win every week, and we’re going to keep our focus there.”
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The three days since then apparently convinced the coach to focus on a new direction. Though, Riley disagreed with that characterization.
He went on to downplay the gravity of the decision, calling it “a pretty normal exercise.” Riley said he expects that Moss would “be ready for his next opportunity, no matter where it is.”
With Maiava at the helm, Riley will add another element to USC’s offense, one that’s more in line with the dual-threat quarterbacks Riley has coached to major success in the past. As a freshman at Nevada Las Vegas, Maiava rushed for 277 yards and three touchdowns, while Moss has nine rushing yards in his career.
Nonetheless, Riley said he didn’t expect many changes to USC’s offense.
“Their skill sets are not all that different,” Riley said, “and so I don’t anticipate us changing a lot offensively. It’s not like we’re going to all of a sudden come out there and break out some new offense.”
Maiava would take a much more circuitous route to becoming USC’s starting quarterback than Moss, who’d grown up a die-hard Trojans fan and been schooled in the intricacies of the position since he was a young boy. Maiava bounced between three high schools in two states and didn’t start seeing a private quarterback coach until last summer.
That coach, Ryan Porter, had previously worked with Heisman-winning quarterback Jayden Daniels. Porter told The Times in August that it was only a matter of time before Maiava took off as the Trojans quarterback.
“When Jayden Maiava finally steps foot on that field,” Porter said then, “he ain’t coming off. That I truly believe. He’s gonna be a good one.”
While he’s only received limited snaps so far at USC this season, Maiava is no stranger to leading a college offense. He started 14 games last year as quarterback at UNLV, but left an assured starting role to enter the transfer portal after the season. He first committed to Georgia in January, before flipping to USC just two weeks after Moss’ breakout bowl performance.
What seemed like a runaway competition between the two quarterbacks through fall camp ended up being “neck and neck,” according to Riley. Teammates and coaches alike praised Maiava for making a “major, major jump.”
“He’s got a bright future here,” Riley said. “No doubt about that.”
That future is now starting earlier than the USC coach planned, with the Trojans desperate for any spark that might stop their disappointing season from snowballing any further.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
