After a change at quarterback following the 26-21 loss at Washington on November 2 and a bye last weekend, USC football (4-5, 2-5) returns home to face the Nebraska Cornhuskers (5-4, 2-4) on Saturday. Like the Trojans, the Cornhuskers did not play last weekend, and have also struggled on the gridiron over the past month.
The Trojans have lost four of the last five, and have failed to win a true road game this season. As a result, with three games left, USC head coach Lincoln Riley elected to bench redshirt junior quarterback Miller Moss in favor of redshirt sophomore Jayden Maiava, who transferred from UNLV in January. Maiava, who is bigger and arguably more versatile than Moss, should provide the Trojans’ offense with a new spark and more play-calling options as the team tries to win out and secure a bowl berth.
Maiava, who said that he has valued the time he has gotten since being named the starter, feels ready for the opportunity to lead the Trojans on Saturday.
“I think I’ve made huge strides,” Maiava said on Tuesday after practice. “I ask a lot of questions. Coach Riley and [quarterbacks] Coach [Luke] Huard in the room obviously do such a great job coaching on their part, and it’s just really up to me to go execute their plan.”
The Cornhuskers, meanwhile, started the season 5-1, but have since lost three in a row, most recently against UCLA in Lincoln on November 2. In the last three games, freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola has thrown only one touchdown to five interceptions.
Because of the offensive struggles over this three-game skid, Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule promoted former West Virginia and Houston head coach Dana Holgorsen, who had been hired as an offensive consultant on November 5, to offensive coordinator on Monday for the remainder of the season. Holgorsen’s promotion resulted in former offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield being demoted to exclusively coaching the tight ends.
Riley, who worked with Holgorsen at Texas Tech under legendary head coach Mike Leach, expressed surprise at the news of Holgorsen’s addition and promotion at Nebraska and said that he did not want to speculate on how different the Husker offense will look with a new play-caller on the other sideline.
“I don’t think it’s gonna be a radically new system,” Riley said on Tuesday. “I’m sure there’s gonna be some things different, or why make the change to begin with? It’s obviously a unique change in timing with somebody that wasn’t on the staff there before.”
While the Husker offense has struggled in recent weeks, Nebraska’s defense, known as the Blackshirts, has continued to impress, currently ranking 16th in the country in yards per game under defensive coordinator Tony White. The Trojans’ offense will need to take advantage of Maiava’s dual-threat ability to maximize the move away from Moss.
Even with the challenge the Blackshirts pose to Maiava and the offense, Riley praised the redshirt sophomore and how he has handled his opportunity to solidify the starting quarterback job.
“I think he’s been steady, he’s a pretty steady kid,” Riley said of Maiava on Thursday during his weekly press conference on Zoom. “I know he’s excited, I think he’s tried to put his energy into his teammates and into the work and the preparation. I think he’s certainly getting more comfortable with it as we go along and as he continues to get a decent share of the reps. I think it’s been good, solid progress.”
The Trojans look to get back in the win column when they face the Cornhuskers at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum at 1 p.m. on Fox.