USC football ended an up-and-down 2023 season with its first bowl victory since 2016 on Wednesday, topping Louisville 42-28 in the Holiday Bowl. The Trojans were led by redshirt sophomore quarterback Miller Moss who shined in his first college start in place of former Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams.
Moss threw for a Holiday Bowl-record six passing touchdowns and added 372 yards in the air. After taking its first lead midway through the second quarter, USC football never let it go and cruised to a two-score victory.
USC head coach Lincoln Riley was impressed by Moss' play and raved about the longtime Trojan backup.
“I'm not a bit surprised at how he played,” Riley said, via Bryan Fischer of Fox Sports. “He did what he did in practice.”
Moss bided his time and once USC's season went down the drain, or at least their hopes at a national championship, Williams' future grew bleak. With the bright lights of the NFL awaiting Williams, a surefire top-three pick in next April's draft, he decided to end his career with the Trojans.
In stepped Miller Moss, who put on a show and perhaps made life a little more difficult for his head coach for the next eight months.
USC's QB in 2024
With Caleb Williams on his way to the NFL, USC football will have a new starting quarterback in 2024. The expectation is they bring in someone new, but that doesn’t mean Moss won’t have a shot at winning the starting job.
Riley will be the last one to rule Moss out and although the USC coach has been grinding away trying to figure out his QB future, he may just end up sticking with a guy who was under his thumb all along.
USC is digging deep into the college football transfer portal to find a new quarterback. The Trojans will likely bring in a new arm from the portal, with Kansas State's Will Howard a name to watch.
“Shoot, he may have scared off anybody that would want to come here anyway,” Riley said. “In this day and age with all the movement, when you have guys like that, it's even more of an advantage than it was maybe even five or 10 years ago because it's becoming a little bit harder to find.”
Riley knows that a portal move is no guarantee. Even though USC has a pretty solid pitch to any recruit or current player looking for a new home, the portal can be cruel and unfair in many ways.
That makes the value of having a QB you can trust already on the roster that much more important. USC has that with Miller Moss and could make him the guy in 2024.
“Miller's had a passion for this university and this program for a long time,” Riley said. “He's stayed here, he's gotten better and that's why a night like tonight happened.”
Lincoln Riley won't just hand the job to Miller Moss, but there's no reason to believe he won’t be the favorite to be USC football's starting quarterback in 2024. Regardless if they bring in a transfer, Moss proved in short order that he can thrive in Riley's offense and keep the Trojans soaring.
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