LAS VEGAS — Four months ago, they rode into Las Vegas imbued with vigor and a refreshed culture, set for a landmark game in Lincoln Riley’s tenure at USC. Four months later, they rode into the same city depleted in numbers and spirit, slumping for 2½ quarters on the same desert turf where they had so gloriously knocked off LSU.
USC had fought, for grueling week upon grueling week, and lost. The Trojans lost a slew of fourth-quarter leads. They lost three big-time receivers, and two former five-star recruits, to the transfer portal. They returned to Allegiant Stadium rudderless on Friday night, aiming to muster any sort of magic they could from the less-experienced players on their roster, more questions than answers floating around Riley’s program entering 2025.
But they had Makai Lemon and Ja’Kobi Lane. And that, on this night, was plenty enough.
The two sophomore receivers had stayed, as others had left, the last remaining members from a corps ransacked by the transfer portal. And the two playmakers – Lemon the quick-twitch, competitive speedster, Lane the 6-foot-4 matchup nightmare – made nearly every play down the stretch of a thrilling 35-31 comeback victory over Texas A&M in the Las Vegas Bowl before Jayden Maiava found Kyle Ford with the game-winning 7-yard touchdown pass with eight seconds left on Friday night at Allegiant Stadium.
The Trojans fought with their backs against the wall, for quarters on end, down 24-7 at one third-quarter juncture and down 31-28 with less than two minutes left. On the Trojans’ subsequent drive, though, Lemon reached back across his body to haul in a 13-yard pass. A minute later, facing third-and-13 desperation, Lane caught a pass from quarterback Jayden Maiava and raced for 33 yards, pointing his finger for a first down in glee. Then, with just eight seconds left, Maiava connected with Ford on a slant in the end zone, the embattled signal-caller pointing his hands to the sky as jubilation erupted around him.
Lane authored the best performance of his young USC career, finishing with seven catches, 127 yards and three touchdowns. Lemon added six grabs for 99 yards, while Ford had six for 59 and the decisive TD. And Maiava, who had struggled for much of the night before hanging tough, finished 22-of-39 for 295 yards, four touchdowns and three interceptions.
Lane and Lemon, in blurs of stardom on Friday, minted themselves as true program cornerstones for 2025. Maiava’s performance, the Riley-entrusted quarterback who took over for Miller Moss at midseason, left more questions. Friday night seemed set for both a homecoming and a coronation, Maiava playing in the Vegas Bowl a few miles north of the high school where he began his prep career and a few miles south of the UNLV campus where he first broke out.
For much of the first half, though, the quarterback who had made his mark playing fearless played conservatively. Throws drifted, casually, off his back foot. Multiple third-down passes were swatted away by Aggies defensive linemen at the line of scrimmage. Maiava was 6-of-14 in the first half, USC’s passing game slumping as the transfer portal had claimed three of his top receivers in the past month, firing off one particularly gruesome second-quarter interception.
With the score knotted at 7-7 and USC’s ground game developed some momentum, behind a two-headed freshman tandem of A’Marion Peterson and Bryan Jackson at running back. Then Maiava dropped back as receiver Makai Lemon streaked down a seam. Lemon kept running straight. Maiava floated a back-shoulder throw. And the ball fluttered calmly into the hands of Texas A&M defensive back BJ Maynes.
After knocking Maynes to the turf, Lane, who had nabbed an earlier 30-yard catch-and-run touchdown, flung his hands to the heavens. Maiava raised his own. Confusion abounded. Exasperation prevailed.
They entered the break still tied at 7-7 with the Aggies, and yet it felt as if little went right in the first half for USC. Left tackle Elijah Paige was carted off in the first quarter, a massive blow to an already-thin offensive line. Two big interceptions, by Kamari Ramsey and Akili Arnold, were mitigated by sputtering offensive execution. And with a minute left and USC driving at the Aggies’ 24-yard-line, with a prime opportunity to take a lead into the break, head coach Lincoln Riley opted for sheer conservationism and simply let the clock wind down to set up a 39-yard field goal attempt for Michael Lantz.
This scene had played out before, when Riley opted to tuck away his offense in a crucial spot in favor of Lantz’s right leg. It bit USC badly, in a midseason loss at Maryland. Still, he entrusted the Georgia Southern transfer, pulling his offense off the field on a fourth-and-1.
Lantz missed. Invisible bells of irony tolled in Vegas.
Calamity snowballed in the second half, as Texas A&M came out of the break and broke down USC’s defensive line like a battering ram against soggy wood. Four straight plays of 10-plus yards set up an end-zone fade from Aggies quarterback Marcel Reed to Noah Thomas; a few minutes later, a Maiava third-down pass was tipped again and picked off by the Aggies’ Cashius Howell, setting up another Reed touchdown pass.
When Maiava slouched back to the sidelines after Howell’s pick, though, Riley laid a hand on his chest in encouragement. USC had no other option; Moss was long gone and backup Jake Jensen was a backup more in spirit, already entered into the transfer portal. And Maiava orchestrated two subsequent touchdown drives as the Trojans’ defense held firm, first finding Lane for his second touchdown in the third quarter, then watching Jackson punch in a 1-yard handoff to cut the Aggies’ lead to 24-21 at the start of the fourth quarter.
Another fourth-quarter touchdown from Lane later, a final two-minute drive to finish, and USC walked away from Las Vegas with a truly miraculous season-ender.
More to come on this story.