Miller Moss Embraces His Moment and Sends USC to Biggest Win in Lincoln Riley Era

The fourth-year loyalist guided the Trojans to a 75-yard touchdown drive in the final minutes, sending Brian Kelly to 0–3 in LSU season openers.

USC Trojans quarterback Miller Moss throws a pass against the LSU Tigers. / Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

LAS VEGAS—Miller Moss took a knee, then took off.

Game won, he flung the football into the sky and ran toward the USC Trojans fans in Allegiant Stadium. He’d earned the right to have that celebration in a cardinal-and-gold uniform, a fourth-year loyalist in a transfer-portal world who bided his time to get this opportunity. 

The improbable successor to No. 1 NFL draft pick Caleb Williams took the Trojans to their biggest win of the three-season Lincoln Riley era, engineering clutch drives in a 27–20 thriller over the LSU Tigers. And he left Tigers coach Brian Kelly pounding a table in anger afterward.

Moss was a four-star prospect committed to the hometown school in June 2020, deep in the pandemic. The coach was Clay Helton. He was recruited over by Riley, who first brought in Williams from the Oklahoma Sooners and then signed five-star prospect Malachi Nelson in ’23. Even after Moss dazzled as the Holiday Bowl starter last season when Williams opted out, the Trojans landed UNLV Rebels transfer Jayden Maiava as competition.

Moss stuck it out, kept the job and, Sunday night, had his moment. There might be a lot more moments to come.

In a battle of Heisman Trophy–replacement quarterbacks, matching up with LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier, Moss led two late touchdown drives. He dropped a 28-yard dime of a touchdown pass to Ja’Kobi Lane on an automatic check off an LSU offsides. Then he led a winning 75-yard touchdown march in the final two minutes.

Trojans running back Woody Marks breaks the tackle of Tigers safety Dashawn Spears to score the winning touchdown. / Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

Moss completed five out of six passes on the last drive, the most important one coming on a second-and-15 sideline shot with 18 seconds left that he dropped in between defensive backs to Kyron Hudson.

Hudson made the catch and held on through a wicked shot from safety Jardin Gilbert that was ruled targeting. That moved the ball to the 13-yard line, and running back Woody Marks burst in on the next play for the winning points with eight seconds left.

It was the second huge catch of the game for Hudson, another fourth-year Trojan who had been caught up in a crowd of talented players at his position. His soaring, one-handed snare in the first half might be the Catch of the Year after one full week of college football, and it could hold up all season.

🤯 @kyron___hudson

📺 ABC
📱 https://t.co/M1RwFNxzJl https://t.co/5ySYK8Zr6b pic.twitter.com/nizA58GypA

— USC Football ✌️ (@uscfb) September 2, 2024

Moss finished the game 27 of 36 for 378 yards and a touchdown, with no interceptions—meeting, if not exceeding, the expectations and demands of the moment. Tears filled his eyes when it was over. He stuffed the emotion inside when it was time to meet the media, but it was clear what the game meant to him.

“It was excitement for our team,” Moss said. “We worked really hard throughout the offseason to build an identity of a tough team that really cared about each other. I think our identity really shone through in the latter part of that game.”

This was certainly a different identity than the Trojans had shown in Riley’s first two seasons—particularly an 8–5 disappointment last season. A program with a glass jaw showed it could take a punch. An atrocious defensive team showed it could stop an opponent when it mattered. USC had been a soft program, but there was nothing soft about what the Trojans did against LSU.

“We were a tough, gritty, physical team that got it done in the end,” said Riley, who was hired as a surprise savior and became a pinata after last season was a dud. “I don’t coach for the media. I don’t coach for the headlines. We try to stay incredibly committed to it, regardless of what anybody says on the outside. Whether they agree with us is honestly irrelevant. I have a decent idea of what pretty good looks like, and I know we’re making progress.”

The progress defensively was startling Sunday night. A unit that gave up 34.4 points last season held LSU to 20. Most importantly, the Trojans were able to clog the middle against the run, make stops in the red zone and get off the field on third down—all problem areas in 2023.

In the first game, Riley’s Trojans look to have solved some of their problem areas from last season. / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

With a pair of potential high draft picks at offensive tackle, the expectation was for LSU to dominate the line of scrimmage. While Will Campbell and Emory Jones were difficult to beat in pass protection, the Tigers rushed for only 117 yards—the fewest USC had allowed since Sept. 23, 2023.

“They had a right to be confident, but so did we,” Riley said. “We just chose not to say it in the media.”

Riley’s biggest coaching move was to fire defensive coordinator Alex Grinch and replace him with 34-year-old D’Anton Lynn, who was an instant-impact coach at the rival UCLA Bruins in 2023. Lynn plugged six ’24 transfers in the starting lineup against LSU.

Lynn brought safety Kamari Ramsey with him across town, and the sophomore produced a team-high nine tackles. Oregon State Beavers transfers Easton Mascarenas-Arnold and Akili Arnold combined for 11 tackles. Cornerback Greedy Vance Jr., who arrived from the Florida State Seminoles, had four tackles.

“Massive changes defensively,” Riley said.

The game was more than a matchup of Heisman-replacement QBs. It also pitted third-year coaches who stunned the sport by making big-dollar, high-stakes coaching changes—Brian Kelly from Notre Dame to LSU and Riley from Oklahoma to USC.

After two seasons, Riley needed this game more than Kelly did. But that doesn’t mean the demanding LSU fan base will shrug off the loss—it’s now how they’re wired.

Kelly is now 0–3 in season openers at LSU. They’ve all been high-profile matchups, twice playing Florida State and now USC, so kudos for having some scheduling gumption. This wasn’t as bad as being blown out last season by the Seminoles, but after one game this doesn’t look like another Year 3 breakthrough team for Kelly.

His third Central Michigan Chippewas team went 9–4, which landed Kelly the job with the Cincinnati Bearcats. His third team there went 12–0 and earned a berth in the Sugar Bowl, which landed him the Notre Dame Fighting Irish job. And his third team in South Bend went 12–1, losing the BCS championship game to the Alabama Crimson Tide.

It doesn’t stand to reason that LSU will be better offensively this season after losing Jayden Daniels to the NFL, but the defensive improvement is non-negotiable. And for the most part LSU got that Sunday night, generating some big stops and particularly playing better in the secondary. But the bottom line is this: The Tigers led 17–13 in the last half of the fourth quarter and gave up consecutive touchdown drives to lose the game.

“We had some guys who played their butts off tonight, and we’re sitting here again”—Kelly paused to slam the table—“we’re sitting here again talking about the same things. About not finishing when you have an opponent in a position to put them away.

“What we’re doing on the sideline is feeling like the game is over. And I am so angry about it. I’ve got to do something about it. I’m not doing a good enough job as a coach.”

"I'm not doing a good enough job as a coach ... it's unacceptable for us not to have found a way to win this football game."

Brian Kelly says he's "angry" with his team after the loss to USC. pic.twitter.com/vloYGyKDh2

— ESPN (@espn) September 2, 2024

This was a return of Angry Brian, who had periodically been replaced in recent years by Zen Yoga Brian. Perhaps Kelly is more effective when his face turns purple and his temper twitches. But as urgent as he sounded Sunday night, the 12-team playoff gives him and his team time to reboot and get better.

For USC, this is an excellent springboard into an adventurous inaugural Big Ten schedule. There are three trips to the Midwest or East in a five-week span, starting with the Michigan Wolverines on Sept. 21. And as usual, Notre Dame looms at the end.

When Moss committed to USC in 2020, nobody could imagine the Trojans would be playing a Big Ten schedule. And as recently as nine months ago, nobody could imagine Moss would be USC’s starting quarterback on this journey into the unknown. But his loyalty and patience have paid off, and he’s earned the full confidence of his coach going forward.