LOS ANGELES — Nine plays in, this attempt at an offensive revolution at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum stood in danger of dying before it’d even begun, USC head coach Lincoln Riley resting his hand encouragingly on his young quarterback’s shoulder pad.
Perhaps, if Jayden Maiava were a different young man of a different young mind, USC’s attempt at a quarterback change would’ve ended right there. Nine plays into a momentous first start, yes, the UNLV transfer stood a sorry 2-of-7 passing and had ripped a couple deep balls that hit green grass. Nine plays into USC’s Saturday clash with Nebraska, he’d sailed a toss directly to former USC cornerback Ceyair Wright, the Cornhusker defensive back taking a sobering first-quarter pick 45 yards to the house.
A world had been placed on his young shoulders, with USC entering Saturday’s game 4-5. Veteran incumbent Miller Moss, whom this USC team had formed its entire identity around, was benched at the start of a bye week. Maiava was tossed into fire, and he raked his own program over the coals early.
But the kid has been a playmaker, the most common word used by teammates and coaches around him, from his earliest days on O’ahu to his earliest days this winter stepping into USC’s program. And after that early interception, Maiava trotted back out onto Coliseum turf with a complete absence of fear, operating with the kind of dual control and chaos to lead USC to a 28-20 win and wholly validate Riley’s trust in turning to him.
Maiava finished 25 of 35 for 259 yards, accounting for four touchdowns against a couple turnovers. Dominant back Woody Marks had his best game of a stellar season, finishing with 146 yards on 19 carries and six catches for 36 yards. And USC’s defense stepped up at every opportunity behind coordinator D’Anton Lynn, sealing a win on a last-gasp Nebraska heave with an end-zone pick by Greedy Vance Jr.
Before he was a quarterback, the 6-foot-4 Maiava was a receiver on fields across O’ahu, playing in a youth-league on the island coached by Tua Tagovailoa’s father Galu. And the same traits in him today, the former youth coach said, have been present since Maiava was running free across the ocean in middle school.
“No matter how bad the play is, and when things are broken – when it’s broken down with routes – just, you see Jayden trying to make something happen,” Galu Tagovailoa said. “And that’s just how that kid has been.”
It’s how he was Saturday, wholly unafraid in the midst of chaos. He missed a number of first-half throws, including an easy third-down drag to Zachariah Branch in a tie game late in the second half. He threw the early pick-six, yes. But not three offensive plays after Wright freewheeled into USC’s end zone, Maiava stepped up on a third-and-seven and delivered an 18-yard strike to senior Kyle Ford, reaching out over the fingertips of a Nebraska defender.
Four plays later, he rolled right as the Cornhuskers blitzed and a play broke, flinging a bomb over his right shoulder as he careened out of bounds. Somehow, in a play reminiscent of a certain recent Heisman winner, the football drifted 28 yards into the waiting arms of sophomore Duce Robinson.
Maiava hit Zachariah Branch for a touchdown on a short toss a play later, kissing his hands and raising them to the sky for the first passing TD of his USC career. And the redshirt sophomore quarterback threw for another score in the second and third quarters, hitting Kyron Hudson on a bobbled-and-caught end-zone grab at the start of the second, bombing a 48-yarder to a wide-open Robinson in the middle of the third.
The penchant to “playmake” naturally came with a large margin of error. Up 21-17 in the third, after evading one oncoming Nebraska rusher, Maiava tried to make something from completely nothing and was strip-sacked, a costly mistake that could’ve changed the tide. USC’s defense, though, picked up the slack whenever needed – first with a beautiful second-quarter pick by stalwart corner Jaylin Smith when USC’s offense stalled, then with a third-down stop in the red zone by linebacker Mason Cobb after the field flipped on Maiava’s fumble.
The same baffling late-game execution that’s plagued USC all season seemed poised to play out again. Early in the fourth quarter, USC was set up for a field goal that would’ve given them a four point-lead – only to see Wright block Michael Lantz’s kick.
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But another third-down defensive stop by safety Kamari Ramsey set up a subsequent drive with the kind of late-game offensive execution USC has rarely seen this season. The Trojans chewed over seven minutes of clock across 13 plays, Riley earning a shining moment by dialing up a fake-jet-sweep-pitch to Woody Marks for a 34-yard gain on a crucial fourth-and-one.
And with three minutes left and the ball at the 2-yard line, Maiava took a keeper and darted past a Nebraska defender, a born playmaker seizing his moment for the score that finally closed a game for USC.