The Trojans have a new signal caller.
Head coach Lincoln Riley has decided to bench redshirt junior quarterback Miller Moss and give the keys of the offense to redshirt sophomore Jayden Maiava.
Riley confirmed the change at Tuesday’s practice, but the first reports of the decision had been rolling out since late Monday night following USC’s 26-21 loss to Washington in Seattle. The Trojans, who have lost four of their last five games, have three matchups remaining in the season and currently sit at 4-5.
“We felt like it was in the best interest of the team to give Jayden a chance here, and it’s that simple,” Riley said after practice.
Maiava takes over for Moss, who started the season strong and helped USC upset LSU in Las Vegas to open the season, throwing for 378 yards and a touchdown. This caused the redshirt junior to win Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week and following the win over the Tigers, he helped lead the Trojans to a 3-1 start to the season, and threw eight touchdown passes to two interceptions.
Since beating Wisconsin to move to 3-1, Moss — who does not possess the same dual-threat ability as Maiava — has struggled in his most recent five games, seeing his completion percentage fall dramatically. While he has thrown 10 touchdown passes, he has also been picked off seven times since the victory over the Badgers. Against Washington, Moss threw for 293 yards and 2 touchdowns, but was picked off three times in the loss to the Huskies in a showing where he completed 30 of the 50 passes he threw.
Despite Moss’ recent struggles, Riley praised the way Moss has played through the first nine games of the season, and insisted that it was not a reflection of Moss’ performance in recent weeks.
“Miller Moss has done a really good job for us. 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,” Riley said in defense of the redshirt junior. “This is not a reflection of anything more than we have another good player in the room, and we feel like it gives us a good opportunity and we felt like this was the best thing for the team.”
Maiava competed “neck and neck,” as Riley put it, with Moss for the starting quarterback job throughout spring practices and deep into the summer before assuming the backup role. He has seen playing time in the late minutes of blowouts, where he has thrown for 66 yards, while putting up 27 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown in the three games he’s seen the field.
Maiava, who transferred to USC after two seasons at UNLV, will look to utilize his mobility to help give USC a new spark on offense, something that helped him solidify the starting job with the Rebels last season. In 2023, Maiava threw for 3,085 yards, 17 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions. He also rushed for 277 yards and scored three touchdowns on the ground with a 34-yard high rush.
Even though this is Maiava’s first start wearing cardinal and gold, his work ethic, improvement and level of play have not gone unnoticed by Riley and the assistant coaches.
“He improved in camp, and he’s continued to improve,” Riley said of Maiava. “It’s not easy to be the backup and I feel like he’s handled that well, he’s improved every single week. I think he’s learned a lot from having a guy like Miller in the room that is smart and understands our offense as good as Miller does, and he’s put together some really good practices.”
With three games left on the schedule, Maiava will look to help USC win its final three games against Nebraska, UCLA and Notre Dame. Because USC has a bye this weekend, Riley’s decision to make a change now comes as a shock to some fans who argue that this allows Nebraska more time to prepare for Maiava’s different play style. The flip side of that argument, however, is that it allows Maiava to have confidence in his abilities and time to prepare.
The Trojans will look to turn around their season and make a bowl game with Maiava now under center when USC takes the field against Nebraska on November 16 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.