The Trojans will end it where they started.
USC football opened its season at Allegiant Stadium, taking down LSU 27-20 to catapult fan expectations. Those expectations were clearly misplaced, with the Trojans going 5-6 the rest of the way to close out the regular season.
Head coach Lincoln Riley and his squad now return to Sin City to take on a different SEC team and seek redemption, facing off against the Texas A&M Aggies in the Las Vegas Bowl. As is the case across college football due to the transfer portal, the Trojans will have to piece together important pieces of their starting lineup, most notably the offensive line.
Junior Kilian O’Connor will start at center in place of graduating redshirt senior Jonah Monheim, while redshirt freshman Tobias Raymond gets the nod at right tackle with redshirt junior Mason Murphy already transferring out.
While USC will most certainly be playing for the win, the Trojans will also hope to set their program up for success next year and see the holes in their roster. This happened for USC last season in the Holiday Bowl when redshirt junior quarterback Miller Moss secured his starting role with his six-touchdown, 372-yard performance.
Moss did not hit any such performance this campaign, notching a season high of three touchdowns while the Trojan offense only eclipsed 42 points this year after hitting that total nine times in 2023.
After the offense’s struggles, Riley benched Moss and handed the reins to redshirt sophomore quarterback Jayden Maiava. Trojan fans are right to be worried that a strong performance from Maiava in this bowl game might be a fluke, but the UNLV transfer does have a stronger track record than Moss already.
The Holiday Bowl was Moss’ first-career start, while the Las Vegas Bowl will be Maiava’s 15th career start between the Trojans and Runnin’ Rebels. People generally know what to expect from Maiava, but the bowl game is still a great opportunity for the redshirt sophomore to show he’s fully grasped Riley’s system and is ready to be the starter next season, putting up 906 passing yards, seven touchdowns and three interceptions thus far this year.
Maiava will have to prove it against a stiff Aggies defense, which only gave up 19.8 points per game this past season. While its scoring defense was in the top half of the SEC, Texas A&M only notched 24 sacks during the regular season, good for 12th in the conference.
With their plug-and-play offensive line, the Trojans will be glad to see a below-average SEC pass rush, but an SEC defense nonetheless. Similar to USC, Texas A&M will also be missing impact players, with top sacker, junior defensive lineman Nic Scourton, declaring for the NFL Draft and opting out of the bowl.
Overall, the Aggies will not have four players who recorded 10.5 of their 24 sacks this season. Along with Scourton, Texas A&M does not have senior defensive tackle Shemar Turner or junior defensive end Shemar Stewart because they also declared for the NFL Draft. Junior defensive end Malick Sylla rounds out the missing production for the Aggies after he entered the transfer portal.
Neither of these teams will be at full strength for the Las Vegas Bowl, but the losses for both squads complement each other.
Where the Trojans have issues on their offensive line, the Aggies have lost similar pieces across their defensive front. Similarly, neither USC or Texas A&M are starting their opening-day signal callers. Maiava is now at the helm for the Trojans and redshirt freshman quarterback Marcel Reed is getting the start for the Aggies, replacing redshirt sophomore Connor Weigman earlier this season.
Even though the Aggies put up a better record this year, sitting at 8-4, Texas A&M and USC are in similar spots heading into the bowl: Departures have hurt them and both want to give their signal callers one last chance to prove they are the quarterback of the future.
The one unit where the Trojans have held up pretty well is the defense in terms of departures. Most recently, redshirt senior linebacker Mason Cobb declared for the NFL Draft, but did say via his personal X account that he would play in the bowl.
USC has one last game before a long offseason, likely full of many changes after yet another disappointing season.
The Trojans will have the chance to end the season on a high note, kicking off against the Aggies at 7:30.