LOS ANGELES — The roars reverberated around a weary Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, a salute to a program that was flawed and fragile but always fearless, the spirit of USC’s faithful roaring to life in the fourth quarter Saturday afternoon in a moment of sheer Southern California pride unlike anything before in 2024.
“Let’s go, Tro-jans! Let’s go, Tro-jans! Let’s go, Tro-jans!”
They had no business, really, being in this spot. The Trojans’ backs had been against the wall, on their home turf, from kickoff against Notre Dame. Heroic running back Woody Marks was sidelined, and Lincoln Riley’s play-calling well had dried up. Notre Dame’s offensive line and ground game had bludgeoned USC’s defensive front into the Southern California turf. Trojans quarterback Jayden Maiava seemingly was using up every drop of juice available in his right arm. And yet the ballgame still hung in the balance, USC down just a score against the fifth-ranked team in the nation and moving with four minutes left, a timeout setting off an avalanche of appreciation.
They’d fought, for one more day. For one final series. For one more play.
And in the span of a blink, their comeback bid collapsed, sealing an 49-35 loss to Notre Dame that ended a season of true Greek tragedy in sheer Greek tragedy.
With a first-and-10 on Notre Dame’s 21-yard-line, quarterback Jayden Maiava pulled back a play-action, fearless as ever in testing one of the toughest secondaries in the country. Star running back Marks had exited in the first quarter, and USC’s offense had become wholly reliant on Maiava’s ability to find his receivers deep. For much of the night, he’d been up to the challenge, finishing 27 of 49 for 360 yards and accounting for five touchdowns.
Down 35-28 with less than four minutes to play, with Kyron Hudson streaking deep, Maiava opted for a back-shoulder toss instead of the bread-basket dimes he’d been dropping all day. Hudson stumbled, unable to come back to the ball. And Notre Dame’s Christian Gray intercepted Maiava’s toss, then streaked down the left sideline with nobody in cardinal-and-gold in his way, shutting down USC’s comeback bid in one fell swoop with a 99-yard touchdown return.
Maiava stumbled to the sideline in sheer despair, offensive lineman Amos Talalele offering a steadying arm of support around the quarterback’s waist. But not two minutes later, a last-gasp heave from the 13-yard line was picked off again, this one returned for a 100-yard touchdown by Notre Dame’s Xavier Watts for an improbably gut-wrenching sequence to bury USC’s rivalry hopes.
The Trojans did not break for three quarters, as the Fighting Irish punched D’Anton Lynn’s front in the mouth from the opening kickoff; literally, as Notre Dame’s Rylie Mills took a fist directly to USC left guard Emmanuel Pregnon’s helmet on one first-half goal-line play.
Instead, Lynn’s defense congealed for a half, and Riley’s offense hummed against a truly elite Notre Dame unit. Needing a spark after a brutal first quarter, Trojans cornerback Jacobe Covington came in heat-seeking on the first play of the second quarter and popped the ball free with his helmet on a catch from Notre Dame’s Jayden Thomas. Joyner, in a gutsy performance stepping up for Marks, one-handed a pretty 13-yard screen drawn up by Riley to set up a short touchdown keeper by Maiava.
And on an afternoon where USC paraded around Chicago Bears quarterback and former Trojans star Caleb Williams in reconfirming his jersey retirement, Maiava authored his own spiritual succession to Williams’ 2022 Heisman-making moment against Notre Dame. The UNLV transfer has been born to sling, with an unshakeable faith in his right arm that at times veered into dangerous territory in his first two starts against Nebraska and UCLA. The goal, as Riley made clear a couple weeks back, was not to change Maiava. It was to refine him.
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The redshirt sophomore played with a veteran’s gall Saturday, in a standing ovation of an audition for Riley’s QB1 job in 2025. With USC down 14-7 and just a minute remaining in the first half, Maiava let it rip without a shred of fear: three deep balls in the span of five plays resulted in an incompletion, a 35-yard hit to Makai Lemon and a pass interference call on Notre Dame for blanketing Ja’Kobi Lane, setting up a touchdown slant from Maiava to Lane. He ran for another score on a Superman-like leap in the third quarter, his second 1-yard touchdown on the day. He led USC back downfield, against all odds, late in that fourth quarter, down 35-28.
But he was forced to fight all too often from behind, the Fighting Irish steamrolling Lynn’s defense on the ground all afternoon to the tune of 260 yards and three scores on 37 carries. USC was often too thin up front against Notre Dame’s offensive line.
And a final touchdown from Maiava to Lane with 13 seconds left – Lane’s third of the day – came too late, as these Trojans finally fell.