Questions have arisen since Saturday, amid bitter frustration after the third defeat in a row, and have been flooded on social media. The decision to close media access on Monday added more fuel to the fire, as fans wondered if big change might be afoot at USC.
But when Lincoln Riley was finally asked Monday night if Miller Moss would still be the Trojans’ starting quarterback, the coach left no room for interpretation. In fact, he seemed confused by the question.
“Of course,” Riley said without hesitation. “One hundred percent.”
With USC’s season on the verge of disaster and Rutgers starting a shortened week Friday, not everyone outside the Trojan walls expressed the same confidence in USC’s quarterback situation. The calls to erase the backup, and move dual threat Jayden Maiava, are getting louder and louder among the vocal and frustrated fan base.
But even with the Trojans at 3-4, Riley made it abundantly clear he doesn’t relish that idea. Not yet, at least.
“He still executes his business at a very high level,” Riley said of Moss. “He makes a lot of plays, a lot of really good decisions. There’s always going to be some mistakes, and the mistakes he made definitely won’t kill us. He had a few players that definitely should have been better, but he made a lot of plays, put our guys in a lot of Centers for making plays.
“Of course, I expect him to improve, and he does too, but he’s also the guy who put us in a position to win all seven titles.”
Moss isn’t the only one who needs to improve on USC’s offense, which scored 11 fewer points per game than last season. The offensive line has struggled to protect him, while USC’s young receivers have been inconsistent.
However, the Trojans remained extraordinarily reliant on their passing attack — even as their play exceeded expectations. Last week against Maryland, Moss threw the ball 50 times, and Riley admitted that’s more than he’d like. Three games ago, Moss threw 51 times, the second-highest total by a Riley-coached quarterback, in a loss in Ann Arbor.
No quarterback in the Big Ten has thrown the ball as much as Moss, who ranks second nationally in attempts. And among those 284 throws, a number were delivered into impossibly tight windows, exactly the kind of precise passes Riley expects. Moss started off particularly strong in the opener against Louisiana State, throwing for 378 yards and leading the game-winning drive.
But in recent weeks, as the Big Ten has taken off, that balance has eroded late in the game, while mistakes have piled up. In all four losses, Moss threw a crucial interception in the second half that changed the momentum of the game.
On Saturday against Maryland, he struck out late in the third quarter, when a USC score could have forced the game to be postponed. With the pressure on, Moss attempted to force a pass to Zachariah Branch, only to watch Maryland’s LaVein Scruggs surge forward, running for a 51-yard touchdown with an interception before being caught.
The previous week against Penn State, Moss sent a fourth-quarter pass to Dos Robinson with USC driving toward a potential game-winning field goal. The pass was picked off, and the Trojans lost in overtime.
Through eight starts, Moss has given up four times after taking a lead in the fourth quarter. Granted, these losses don’t just fall on the quarterback’s shoulders, but Moss has endured plenty of criticism. He insists that it did not bother him.
“I have a small circle of people whose opinions I care about,” Moss said. “Everybody, you know, says what they want.”
“At the end of the day, none of that stuff really matters,” Moss said. “What matters is who you are, what your process is, who you trust and believe in every day. So, I mean, it’s part of the job, but it also doesn’t mean anything.
Riley said he thought the quarterback was “in a good place” mentally on Monday. His teammates echoed that sentiment.
“Miller is a tough guy, really tough mentally,” tight end Lake McCrary said. “No one has to deal with more than what a quarterback does. Being close to him, seeing him on and off the field, I’m really proud of him and how he carries himself. He’s a really good leader, through thick and thin.”
Moss began the season as an inspiring story of perseverance. But after the latest loss, he sat back in his chair, staring blankly at the crowd of reporters who were asking questions about where the season had gone off the rails.
“We said at the beginning of the year that we are committed to each other no matter what happens and no matter the outcome,” Moss said. “I think that’s right. It doesn’t depend on the result.”
However, the results were not close to what USC had hoped for. By Monday, after a day of speculation about his first job, Moss had taken a more defiant tone.
He said the last five matches have taught him a lot about his identity.
“We all face a choice when we face difficult times, and I think who you are when you make that choice says a lot about who you are,” the midfielder said. “The essence of this is not, whatever the narrative is, whatever people want to say is the essence. The strength, the integrity, all those things, that come to people who are able to get through the tough stuff, to keep getting back out there, to keep putting their work out there in front of the world.” “And not the people who exist and continue to destroy them no matter what.”
For these people in particular, Moss has a message.
“Obviously people, you know, are looking for a lot of negativity around our team, and that’s what it is,” he said. “I hope they keep the same energy going forward.”
