Miller Moss seizes his moment as USC upsets Louisville in Holiday Bowl

SAN DIEGO — Miller Moss just did not care for your narratives.

He did not care about the notion of seizing the baton from Caleb Williams, who stood watching him on the sidelines of the Holiday Bowl on Wednesday night like a proud father. He did not care about the notion of seizing the chance to start a game, a chance he has waited for either for three years or 21, depending on your view of cosmic fate and his mother Emily Kovner Moss teaching at USC’s School of Architecture while pregnant with him. And he most certainly did not care about the notion of staking his claim to USC’s post-Williams quarterback job.

This was nothing more, he expressed last week, than what it was. He had a job to do, against Louisville. And that was that.

“My biggest focus isn’t (being) worried about, like, who’s saying what on Twitter or whatever it is,” Moss said last week. “My biggest focus is, handling my business within these walls, leading my team and going to get a win.”

It’s the attitude – completely unfazed and loyal to USC after three years sitting behind other quarterbacks – that has fostered a burning faith in Moss around USC’s war room. A guy who linemen “love to block for,” as center Justin Dedich said.

And Moss rose, gloriously, from the ashes of USC’s disappointing 2023 season in the Holiday Bowl on a cool Wednesday night in San Diego, a stoic phoenix thoroughly unconcerned with the larger implications of the show he put forth at Petco Park. He played without a hint of fear in his eyes, without a flinch in his right arm, bombing throws into narrow windows without hesitation in a 42-28 victory over Louisville (10-4).

“When you get your opportunity, you gotta shine,” center Justin Dedich said postgame. “And Miller’s the definition of that.”

The moxie meant something, here, to a holiday crowd at Petco Park that roared like lions when a buzzing roster headed for the locker room at halftime. Moss threw four touchdowns in the first half, hitting Tahj Washington and Kyron Hudson and Ja’Kobi Lane to escalating decibel levels, tying the single-game Holiday Bowl record for passing touchdowns in just two quarters.

Riley’s plans at quarterback, for 2024, are unknown. Maybe USC (8-5) brings in Kansas State’s Will Howard. Maybe they pull some other magic from the portal. But Moss made it clear last week that he intends to compete for the job during spring practice, regardless – and as he slapped Riley’s chest after a fifth touchdown toss to Lane in the third quarter, it sure felt like USC had found its successor to Williams to lead the program into the Big Ten.

The kid waiting in the wings, all along.

“I mean, that’s — shoot, he might’ve scared off anybody that would wanna come here anyway,” Riley said postgame.

Riley’s offense turns quarterbacks into kings. It’s true. But the sheer guts in some of Moss’ decision-making couldn’t be ignored. He hit freshman Makai Lemon for two big gains in tight, deep windows over the middle of the field in the first half. He lasered a short slant to Hudson for a touchdown that whizzed over the outstretched arms of about three Louisville players. And with time ticking away in the first half, he escaped the pocket, rolled right, and with a pass-rusher diving at his feet lobbed up a go-get-it toss to freshman Lane for a 29-yard score.

“He knows who he is, and he knows what his strengths are,” said quarterback trainer Steve Clarkson, who worked with Moss for several years in his youth. “He’s not going to try to be something he’s not.”

He was helped out by a breakout performance from Lane, a lanky 6-foot-4 target whom Moss called a “freak,” snaring a pair of touchdowns. Senior Tahj Washington, in his final game at USC, crossed the 1,000-yard threshold with a triumphant second-quarter grab, a cornerstone of USC’s program delivering for one final night with seven catches for 99 yards and two touchdowns on a night – like Rice, Williams or Lloyd – he easily could have skipped.

After a season of frustrating inconsistency, a season when Riley repeatedly lamented it rarely felt like USC’s offense and defense played well together at the same time, everything magically coalesced in a first half when it would have been easy for the Trojans to fall limp. Their roster was razor-thin, a straggler’s crew of defensive veterans and untested youngsters after weeks of staff changes and transfer turmoil. But as Moss shined in the first half, USC’s pass coverage was sublime, cornerbacks Prophet Brown and Jacobe Covington making individual cases for a role in D’Anton Lynn’s 2024 secondary with some beautiful technique on pass breakups and tackles. Safety Jaylin Smith (12 tackles) was named the game’s Defensive MVP.

But this was Moss’ night. The moment was in his hands, finally, after three years of waiting. And after hanging in against pressure to deliver a third-down strike to Tahj Washington to extend USC’s subsequent drive, he pulled back a fake handoff and unleashed a 44-yard bomb to freshman Duce Robinson for his sixth touchdown pass of the game.

Sixth. A USC bowl game record. From a kid in his first start.

He tugged off his chinstraps in celebration, backpedaling slowly for a moment. Then he turned to Louisville’s sideline, as the game broadcast showed, and waved goodbye.

Goodbye, too, maybe, to his days of riding the pine.

“The way we view it,” mother Kovner Moss said of her son’s first start, “it’s the first of many.”