LOS ANGELES — They are no strangers, first growing together from the late Mike Leach’s expansive Texas Tech tree, their roots splintering off in careening directions only to weave back together.
Eight years after Dana Holgorsen first left Texas Tech, he went toe-to-toe with former disciple Lincoln Riley in 2015, Holgorsen’s West Virginia Mountaineers ran roughshod on Oklahoma, 44-24, in Riley’s first year calling plays in Norman. For years to come, they clashed in annual shootouts, Holgorsen never able to outscore Riley’s humming Sooner offenses. Even when Holgorsen left for Houston in 2019, Riley beat him again, 49-31, in a season opener at Oklahoma, the last time to date the two Air Raid mechanics faced off.
Until now.
They are no strangers, yes. But they’ve never quite met like this. Holgorsen was away from collegiate football for the better part of a year, after being fired at Houston in 2023, only for Nebraska’s Matt Rhule to ring him up in the midst of the Cornhuskers’ offensive struggles and get him on a flight to Lincoln for a consult.
A few days later, Rhule announced Holgorsen was taking over – midseason – as Nebraska’s play-caller, and Riley suddenly had an old friend to scheme against.
“I was surprised, honestly,” Riley grinned, reflecting Tuesday on his reaction to Holgorsen’s hire. “I’d heard he’d gone there, but I didn’t have any idea whether that would happen or not.”
“I mean, Coach Rhule obviously has a lot of trust in him, and I understand why,” Riley continued, a few words later. “If you’re going to do it, you’ve got to do it with somebody that has the experience and success level that Dana’s had.”
Suddenly, USC and Nebraska’s matchup Saturday has become a beautiful mystery, two programs bringing in help from the wings to buoy offenses that have treaded water for weeks. In comes Holgorsen as Nebraska’s offensive coordinator, an orchestrator of consistently potent attacks at West Virginia. In comes quarterback Jayden Maiava in place of Miller Moss for USC, Riley turning to the redshirt sophomore transfer from UNLV after evaluating film of a 21-point effort against Washington in which Moss threw another back-breaking second-half interception.
The fascinating question: Amid the sudden turnover, just how much will Riley and Holgorsen’s schemes – founded, similarly, on a spread-out passing attack and utilizing the run-game as a counter – change in the span of a couple of weeks?
“I mean, your first thought is obviously, I don’t think it’s going to be a radically new system,” Riley said Tuesday. “I’m sure there’s going to be some things different, or why make the change to begin with?”
It’s created some late nights for USC defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn across the past week, suddenly tasked with reviewing film of Holgorsen’s attacks at Houston and evaluating any staples he could bring to Nebraska’s offense. Holgorsen’s offenses at Houston ranked in the top 20 in the country in both 2021 and 2022, with a heavy dosage of peppering from then-Cougars quarterback Clayton Tune.
And the Cornhuskers, certainly, need a spark, freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola unable to generate much traction across a three-game losing streak. In particular, Nebraska has struggled heavily in finishing drives, ranked close to the bottom of the country in red-zone efficiency this season.
“Is there anything that he did that’s different, that we think that they could incorporate in the span of two weeks?” Lynn said Wednesday when asked about Holgorsen. “You can’t change too much, but you can definitely change some stuff over a bye.”
Equally as curious, meanwhile, is how Riley will restructure USC’s attack behind Maiava, a 6-foot-4 dual-threat athlete whom sophomore receiver Duce Robinson lauded as “naturally gifted.” For two weeks, USC’s head coach has largely resisted any notion that Maiava could help unlock a sputtering deep attack, but the lanky sophomore has shown a more natural ability than Moss to make plays off run-pass option looks in his spot snaps in 2024.
“We’ve been able to see him with a lot of reps now, and have, I think, a pretty decent feel of where his confidence is on certain things that we do,” Riley said, asked Tuesday how much he was collaborating with Maiava on USC’s offensive game plan, “and things that he really feels he can go out there and execute at a high level.”
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The Trojans certainly wouldn’t come out and break out “some new offense,” Riley remarked a couple of weeks ago, tucking his cards close against his vest. Nebraska won’t, either, in all likelihood, Holgorsen publicly installed as the Cornhuskers’ play-caller for all of five days.
But Saturday afternoon, at the Coliseum, could prove the most fascinating chapter of a longstanding duel.
USC VS. NEBRASKA
When: Saturday, 1 p.m.
Where: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
TV/radio: FOX (Ch. 11)/710 AM